The ACC is slowly climbing up the mountain, winning 77 percent of non conference games through November. They went 104-31 with three teams unbeaten, five with one loss, and five others with two. The ACC won seven of 16 games in the ACC/SEC men’s challenge.
The ACC had eight teams in the top 50 in NET rankings Dec. 1 and three (Duke, Louisville, UNC) in the Top 25 basketball poll. All 18 teams were .500 or better. It’s encouraging. an improvement over last season when the ACC was 2-14 against the SEC and put only four in the NCAA Tournament, compared to 14 from SEC.
It’s not all smiles and roses. For example, Ga. Tech was 5-3 and #195 of 365 in NET. ACC teams have suffered some “bad”—lopsided, ugly, surprising—losses along the way so far.
The ACC won six of nine games in the Challenge on day one, but only one of seven the next day. Cal and Stanford did not participate. The middle tier of ACC hoops teams continues to struggle.
But there’s a long road of games to be played before the NCAA field is announced in March.
Did Kansas join the ACC? No, but they’re playing lots of ACC clubs. They beat Louisville in an exhibition, lost to UNC and Duke, beat Notre Dame and Syracuse in Las Vegas and will play at NC State Dec.
J.B.