As we start with conference season, we ask the three biggest ACC basketball questions for this week.
Does Clemson become the ACC Frontrunner this week?
Clemson is NCAA lock barring a catastrophe. They are playing to win the ACC and NCAA seeding. This week we find out if the Tigers are the ACC favorite. They play at Miami and host North Carolina. That’s quite a week ahead. If the Tigers somehow pull off the sweep, they would have a leg up on two of their closer ACC contenders in addition to Duke. A split certainly wouldn’t hurt Clemson all that much, but get both and the Tigers will be the early odds-on favorite to win the ACC regular season and can start thinking about possibly 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Who cannot afford to lose a game this week?
Like last year, Louisville was a metric anchor in the ACC. They still are this year. They sit in the 250s in the NET and the low 300s in the RPI. Pittsburgh is already 0-2 in the ACC, and head to Louisville on January 6 without a Q1 or Q2 win. Oh boy, if Pittsburgh loses at Louisville, they will have a major uphill battle in the ACC and in trying to get into the NCAA tournament. Losing to Louisville and Notre Dame will be like losing twice this season. If you lose to Florida State, that’s almost as bad too. Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech need to beware of trips to FSU. The Noles will get one. NC State better not lose at Notre Dame this week.
Is Virginia in trouble?
Virginia had been kind of cruising along. They weren’t looking like the level of Clemson, Duke, or UNC, but having done enough to be a likely NCAA tournament going into conference play. Then they got blown out on the road against a terrible Notre Dame team. Getting blown at Memphis raised eyebrows, but is forgivable. Memphis is an NCAA Caliber team. The Irish are not. Virginia hosts Louisville and goes to NC State this week. Losing to Louisville would be devastating, and a game at NC State will be very tricky. Virginia isn’t in trouble just yet, but the Notre Dame loss was bad – real bad and could haunt them later in the year.
