ACC basketball rankings: Syracuse slides to seventh in the conference

The Syracuse Orange men’s basketball team had a rough go of it last Thursday and Friday, dropping back-to-back contests to UConn and Oregon. Nobody expected the Orange to be 2-2 at this point of the season and SU will assuredly fell out of the AP Top 25 yesterday.

With that, Syracuse slides from its spot as fourth in the conference rankings. Others in the conference are still undefeated while the bottom tier lost to some bad teams. See rankings below.

1. Duke (4-0), Last week: Wins over Eastern Michigan and San Diego State

Duke handled Rob Murphy and Eastern Michigan’s 2-3 zone with relative ease. The Blue Devils took down San Diego State and NBA prospect Jalen McDaniels in Maui last night.

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2. Virginia (3-0), Last week: Win over Coppin State

Virginia won by 57 (!) points last week, more points than it usually averages per game! Even a team manager scored in the win against Coppin State.

3. North Carolina (5-0), Last week: Wins over Stanford, Tennessee Tech and St. Francis

North Carolina returned from its two game road show and hasn’t been challenged at home since.

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4. Virginia Tech (4-0), Last week: Wins over Northeastern and Purdue

VT got a huge win over Purdue on Sunday night and was impressive closing the game out down the stretch. With Syracuse losing and VT’s wins over Northeastern and Purdue, the Hokies slide up to the four spot.

5. Florida State (3-0), Last week: Win over Canisius

After one week off, Florida State returned to action to beat Canisius and maintains its spot at fifth in the conference. While it beat Florida at home in the season opener, Virginia Tech gets the nod at four thanks to a neutral win over Purdue.

6. Clemson (4-0), Last week: Wins over Sam Houston State and Akron

Clemson slides up one spot after winning games agains Sam Houston State and the Akron Zips. Marcquise Reed is absolutely balling thus far.

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7. Syracuse (2-2), Last week: Losses to UConn and Oregon

The Orange went down to Madison Square Garden last week for the 2K Classic and laid an egg. The offense looked stagnant and defensively SU has work to do after allowing opponents to shoot well and offensive rebound.

8. NC State (4-0), Last week: Wins against UNC Asheville and Maine

The Wolfpack took care of business but hasn’t necessarily done anything impressive to supersede Syracuse just yet. Opportunity awaits with a road game at Wisconsin followed by Vandy at home after Thanksgiving.

9. Miami (3-0), Last week: Win over Bethune-Cookman

The Hurricanes survived somewhat of a test from Bethune-Cookman, but 21- and 20-point performances from Chris Lykes and DJ Vasiljevic were enough to get Miami over the hump.

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10: Louisville (3-0), Last week: Win over Vermont

A solid win for Louisville over the favorite in the American East. Vermont could very well be in the NCAA Tournament this year.

11: Pitt (5-0), Last week: Wins over Troy, Western Tennessee, Central Arkansas and North Alabama

Pitt!? Is that you!? Don’t look now, but Jeff Caple’s squad now sits at 5-0 after beating a bunch of directional school cupcakes last week, so much so that you didn’t even realize that I made up Western Tennessee. The Panthers’ best win is against Troy, ranked 185 in Ken Pom. But that’s how you do it in year one.

12. Georgia Tech (2-1), Last week, Loss to Tennessee, win over ECU

No shame in dropping to Tennessee, a top five team in the country. GT slides up as other conference foes take some bad losses.

13. Wake Forest (3-1), Last week: Loss to St. Joe’s, wins over Cal State Fullerton and Valpo

Wake holds down the thirteen spot with a pair of new basement dwellars below it. Valpo is a decent win against a top-150 Ken Pom opponent.

14. Notre Dame (3-1), Last week: Loss to Radford, win against William & Mary

Mike Brey’s squad lost a home game to Radford. Ouch. That can’t happen if Notre Dame wants to make it back to the tournament after missing out last March.

15. Boston College (3-1), Last week: Loss to IUPUI, win against Wyoming

BC took a bad loss at home to IUPUI. It’s all fun and games until Jon Rothstein has to tweet that you lost a buy game. Ouch.