ACC men’s basketball power rankings for January 17th

As we move deeper into January we’re starting to see teams beginning to find their stride. The Syracuse Orange Let’s get to the list....

1) Miami Hurricanes: (13-4, 5-1 Last week: 1st)

Miami lost a close one on the road at Florida State and while they might not be the best team they still have the win at Duke, which is the best win in the conference so far. We’re keeping the Canes here until they drop another one.

2) Duke Blue Devils- (14-2, 4-1 Last week: 2nd)

Duke got a win with Jon Scheyer leading the way. No one can match the Blue Devils’ talent, it’s just a question of them playing up to their potential the rest of the way.

3) North Carolina Tar Heels: (12-4, 4-1 Last week: 4th)

Don’t look now but the ACC regular season might come down to Duke and Carolina again.

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

4) Wake Forest Demon Deacons- (14-4, 4-3 Last week: 3rd)

Wake went 1-1 during the week and they are positioning themselves to be a NCAA Tournament team if they can maintain. Doing so should make Steve Forbes ACC Coach of the Year.

5) Florida State Seminoles (10-5, 4-2 Last week: 8th)

It might not have been pretty but after beating Miami and Syracuse, could we see the Florida State team we expected coming into the year?

6) Notre Dame Fighting Irish (10-6, 4-2 Last week: 9th)

Mike Brey is standing on cafeteria tables to get student support. We don’t think Jim Boeheim will follow suit when Syracuse students return next week.

7) Virginia Cavaliers (10-7, 4-3 Last week: 6th)

Losing at home to Wake isn’t normally a good sign, but this year it doesn’t cause the alarm it would have in the past. Virginia has fallen off the NCAA watch right now but you just feel like they aren’t done yet.

8) Virginia Tech Hokies (9-7, 1-4 Last week: 11th)

A close loss to Virginia was followed by a home win over Notre Dame. Is that going to be the game to get the Hokies back on track?

9)Louisville Cardinals (10-7, 4-3 Last week: 5th)

The Cardinals deserve to be further down this list but it’s hard to move them any further because of what happened with these other squads.

10) NC State Wolfpack (9-9, 2-5 Last week: 12th)

NC State blew out Louisville before losing at Duke. This could be one of the spoilers down the stretch with the way Dereon Seabron is playing.

11) Syracuse Orange (8-9, 2-4 Last week: 10th)

Syracuse split their home games last week but because the losses have been close they don’t drop any further. A win at Duke next weekend could lead to a big jump to the top of the glob.

12) Pittsburgh Panthers (7-10, 2-4 Last week: 13th)

Pitt got another win over Louisville and it’s enough to get them up one this week. John Hugley is a bright spot for this team and we’ll see if it’s enough to keep Jeff Capel around next year.

13) Boston College Eagles: (6-7 Last week: 15th)

BC rallied from 23 points down to stun Clemson. No one in Boston noticed because of the Patriots game but that’s the type of win this program has been lacking the last few years.

14) Clemson Tigers (10-7, 2-4 Last week: 7th)

That BC loss puts the final nail in Clemson’s NCAA hopes. You can’t blow a lead like that at home and we’ll see how they respond tomorrow at Syracuse. Can the Vice-Principal get his team to regroup?

15) Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets: (1-5, 7-9 Last week: 14th)

Not a fun year in Atlanta. We know Georgia Tech would take a step back after their NCAA Tournament appearance but dropping to the bottom of a down ACC is not a good sign at all.

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Where did we go wrong this week? Are we still thinking four NCAA bids for the ACC or is someone going to make a run?