The holidays are over, and the college football season is down to three games (only one that’s meaningful), so it’s time to settle down to some ACC basketball business.
Conference play begins in earnest Saturday, and while the nation’s best team (Kentucky) is about to wreak havoc on the SEC, and the Big 12 is claiming rights as the top conference with six teams in the Associated Press Top 25, the ACC makes its own case for having the cream of the college crop.
The Big 12’s six ranked teams range from ninth (Iowa State) to 22nd (Baylor). The ACC has five teams ranked in the Top 25, but three — No. 2 Duke, No. 3 Virginia and No. 5 Louisville — are in the top five.
Duke (12-0) and Virginia (12-0) are two of the remaining six unbeaten teams in college basketball, along with Kentucky (13-0), Villanova (13-0), Colorado State (14-0), and TCU (13-0).
As always, the ACC schedule brings intrigue. Once again much of the early buildup centers on the matchup between one of the ACC’s traditional powerhouses and its newest member: Go ahead and circle Duke at Louisville on your calendar, Jan. 17 at noon on ESPN.
Think Duke-Syracuse a year ago. Their first meeting as conference opponents was an insta-classic. Duke lost by two, 91-89, in double overtime to the No. 2-ranked Orange in front of a record crowd at the Carrier Dome.
Syracuse (9-4) has dropped off some this season, after the early departures of Tyler Ennis and Jerami Grant, and is awaiting word from NCAA after an investigation into possible improper benefits and academic fraud, but Duke is better, much better.
The Blue Devils have made a distant memory of their first-round loss to Mercer in March by rolling off 12 consecutive wins to start the season, all by double-digits. If this pace continues for the next five games — starting Saturday at home against Boston College — Mike Krzyzewski will be going for career coaching win No. 1,000 against fellow Naismith Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino and ACC newcomer Louisville.
Krzyzewski is trying to join Pat Summitt (1,098 at Tennessee) as the only coaches in NCAA Division I basketball to win 1,000 games.
The Cardinals feature the most dominant defense this side of shot-swatting Kentucky, according to Ken Pomeroy of kenpom.com, who ranks the Cardinals second in defensive efficiency. Led by post player Montrezl Harrell, the Cardinals (12-1) have one loss this season, 58-50 at Kentucky.
The Blue Devils might have their most polished back-to-the-basket center in school history in Jahlil Okafor, a freshman, who figures to be the No. 1 pick in the next NBA draft. Okafor has averaged 18.8 points and has topped 20 points in five of his past seven games. That’s without attempting a single 3-point shot this season. The only place Okafor has shown much vulnerability is at the free-throw line, where he’s shooting only 50 percent.
His freshmen complement, point guard Tyus Jones, doesn’t have the flash, but he does have the steadiness, even in high-stake games. Jones scored a season-high 22 in a win at then-No. 2 Wisconsin. He’s second to Notre Dame senior Jerian Grant (4.58) in the ACC with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.67.
Still, Virginia might be better than Duke, and the Cavaliers get the Blue Devils at home Jan. 31. Pomeroy ranks the defending ACC champion Cavaliers ahead of Duke in his current national rankings, at No. 2 behind Kentucky.
The Cavaliers’ only ACC losses last season came on the road, at Duke and in overtime at Maryland, on their way to both regular-season and conference-tournament championships. And this Virginia team, which opens ACC play Saturday at Miami, might be better.
The Cavaliers are known for coach Tony Bennett’s patented pack-line defense, and they’re ranked third in defensive efficiency by Pomeroy, behind only Kentucky and Louisville. But Pomeroy also has the Cavaliers ranked fourth in offensive efficiency.
Gone are Joe Harris and Akil Mitchell, and about 30 percent of the Cavaliers’ scoring from a year ago. But the Cavaliers are a better-balanced team with three junior starters averaging in double-figures, Greater Atlanta Christian graduate Malcolm Brogdon (13.3 points), Justin Anderson (15 points) and Anthony Gill (13.2 points.)
The next-best contender in the conference probably is No. 19 North Carolina. The Tar Heels were picked to finish second in the ACC behind Duke in the preseason but found the early-going rough with losses to Butler, Iowa and Kentucky.
Coach Roy Williams has blown a few proverbial gaskets, but since he vowed to be “meaner” to his players, in an effort to get them to play tougher, the Tar Heels have won three in a row, including a win over then-No. 12 Ohio State. The Tar Heels open ACC play Saturday against Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Georgia Tech (9-3) wrapped up its toughest non-conference schedule in four years under coach Brian Gregory, and the start of ACC play isn’t exactly cake.
The Yellow Jackets play at No. 14 Notre Dame on Saturday and then Wednesday host Syracuse at McCamish Pavilion. The Orange come in with last season’s upset loss to Tech (67-62 on March 4) fresh on their minds. They, like all 16 ACC teams, will be focused on getting off to a good conference start.
As coach Jim Boeheim put it in his postgame news conference after Syracuse beat Cornell on New Year’s Eve: the difference in getting off to a good start in conference play and not? “It’s the difference between having money and not having money.”
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