The Louisville Cardinals sit atop the ACC Basketball standings at 10-1 in the driver’s seat with a ton of parity in the conference. While two teams remain tied in second at 8-2, after that, the standings get interesting with five teams having identical records of 5-6. There’s literally no room for error as the final stretch approaches for teams like the Virginia Cavaliers (6-4) and Syracuse Orange (6-5), who continue to remain above .500 in ACC play.
The Florida State Seminoles and Duke Blue Devils lurk in the shadows of the Cardinals. The Seminoles got a victory over the Tar Heels on Monday night while the Blue Devils are riding a three-game winning streak heading into a new week of play. Head coach Leonard Hamilton will need to work his magic in their next few games to keep pace with the top teams, so far so good after defeating North Carolina.
The Virginia Tech Hokies and NC State Wolfpack have both lost three ACC games in a row after sitting above .500 at 5-3. The North Carolina Tar Heels struggles continue after they snapped a five-game losing streak in conference play. Top draft pick Cole Anthony has returned from injury, but he wasn’t enough as they fell to Boston College on Saturday.
Unlike most years, the ACC is one of the shallowest power conferences in the nation this season. Only the three teams at the top of the standings are deemed viable national championship contenders. According to My Top Sportsbooks they are Duke (+1000), Louisville (+1000), and Florida State (+2800). After that trio, the best odds belong to reigning-champion Virginia (+4000), a team that hasn’t scored more than 65 points all year and ranks in the 21st percentile in the nation in offensive efficiency (277th out of 353 teams).
With roughly two weeks left in the conference schedule, it will be interesting to see how the results end up, especially with at-large bids on the line for the NCAA Tournament.
