Take a good, hard look. Because what you saw this weekend in the Atlantic Coast Conference is pretty much what you’re going to get this season: Ranked teams losing on the road; alleged bottom feeders pulling upsets that two weeks later may not be upsets at all; sparkling performances one night morphing into brutal basketball the next.
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In the ACC, we’re so used to the Big Two — North Carolina and Duke, of course — and three or four challengers. Some years it’s Maryland, Wake Forest and Clemson. Others, it might be Boston College, Florida State and Virginia Tech. This season the talent is spread all over the place. Miami was picked 10th in the preseason by ACC media and Virginia 11th. Yet each won on Saturday and the Hurricanes, at 15-1, have pushed their way into the national rankings at No. 23.
No. 20 Georgia Tech (12-3) upset No. 8 Duke at home Saturday and is hovering at the bottom of the Top 25 along with the Hurricanes, No. 24 Clemson (13-3) and No. 25 Florida State (13-3). Wake Forest (11-3) and Virginia Tech (12-2) both garnered votes and the Hokies actually outplayed North Carolina for 20 minutes on the road Sunday before faltering. Maryland (10-4) just beat Florida State at home and has almost everybody back from last year’s NCAA Tournament team. That’s 10 pretty good teams. Only once in the last dozen years has the league’s regular-season champion finished with fewer than 13 conference wins. This year? Eleven might do it.
