Men’s basketball: ACC Power Rankings for the week of December 5th

Dec 5, 2022 - 4:00 PM

The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team is back in action and that means we’re bringing back our weekly ACC Power Rankings.

Don’t ask us to explain our ratings system- just be grateful that Fake Nunes Statistical Index staff has steady work after football season. When you look at the ACC standings and see eight teams with two losses or less, you might think the conference is off to a better start than last season, but it’s not. Sorry not sorry but this could be another rough one when we talk about building NCAA Tournament resumes

Now let’s get to this week’s rankings...

1) Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia is up to #3 in the polls but the big news is that they are averaging 74.9 points per game. Five Hoos are averaging in double-figures including 62-year old Kihei Clark.

2) Duke Blue Devils

Hey did you know Coach K retired? Don’t worry every Duke game will feature sound bites from Coach K’s podcast and blurbs from Coach K’s Substack that he writes from the office that doesn’t really connect to Duke’s basketball facilities.

3) Miami Hurricanes

All the talk this summer was about what Nigel Pack got in NIL money to come to Coral Gables, but Norchad Omier is leading the Canes in scoring and rebounding right now. Mario Cristobal might want to try him at QB next Fall.

4) Virginia Tech Hokies

Ummm..Hunter Cattoor is doing this now

5) North Carolina Tar Heels

The pre-season #1 has been disappointing- dropping four straight games. Armando Bacot being 3rd on the team in field goals attempted might be the reason for that.

6) Syracuse Orange

“Is Syracuse Good?” is not restricted to football these days. The schedule gets easy for the rest of December so it would be wise for the Orange to stack wins.

7) Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Do they still have annoyingly good white guys you ask? Yes. Yes they do. Without much of a bench, Notre Dame looks headed for an up and down season.

8) Clemson Tigers

A 20-point win over Wake opens some eyes. The Tigers’ two losses are by a combined five points so Vice-Principal Brownell might make some noise in the ACC.

Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK

9) Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Had a great road win at Wisconsin then came home and lost to Clemson. We might be thanking the Deacs for that win in Madison when March rolls around.

10) Pitt Panthers

They blew out NC State, who had been playing pretty well so this seems right for this week. Jeff Capel is likely coaching for his job so this team will be interesting to watch as the season goes on.

11) NC State Wolfpack

Casey Morsell is shooting 52% from 3 so far this season. NC State is going to be up and down but they have some scorers who could be a nuisance in conference play.

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12) Boston College Eagles

The Eagles might actually make it to the end of 2022 with an above .500 record. That’s good. Losing at home to Maine....well that’s not so good.

13) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Josh Pastner should send out some thank you cards to the two teams below him. Not sure he’s going to be around much longer in Atlanta.

14) Florida State Seminoles

We might have found something to age Leonard Hamilton. The Seminoles are missing a number of key pieces but 1-9? Yikes.

15) Louisville Cardinals

0-8 and with an exhibition loss to a D2 team. The NCAA cleared the Cardinals of major infractions to get those white suits pressed because Ricky P’s return is looking more possible by the day.

Now that we’ve reached the end of football season, we’ll do these each week. Maybe by the next one, UNC will have stopped their losing streak.