The sheer excitement and competitiveness in most of these games is incredible. The similarities mirror each other a lot. Both get the bets athletes. Both have a lot of competitive games. Both have great home atmospheres. Both have the best tradition and heritage. Also it's very hard to come out of these without a loss or two if you are the top team. Think about how many close games there have already been and most teams are barely 3 games into conference play. VT @ Wake, UNC @ Clemson, UNC @ GT, UMD @ UNC, Duke @ FSU, UMD @ VT, VT @ UVA, Miami @ State. I'm probably missing another close game or two.

1/20/2008 12:38:36 AM

except the acc isnt the best basketball conf. this year.

1/20/2008 12:43:09 AM

nobody really stnad sout as being the best this years.

1/20/2008 12:45:41 AM

drink much?

1/20/2008 1:02:10 AM

2 teams in the top 5.

1/20/2008 1:03:25 AM

I think it's a good analogy, especially considering depth of conference.

Even when the SEC doesn't have the very best teams at the top, the worst teams of the SEC will destroy the worst teams of the other conferences.

Same with the ACC. There are usually no cupcakes in ACC play, and even when the very top teams are in other conferences, our bottom feeders are better than the bottom feeders in the rest of the conferences.

See ACC-Big 10 challenge for details.

1/20/2008 1:08:08 AM

^^and crap mostly

[Edited on January 20, 2008 at 1:08 AM. Reason : k]

1/20/2008 1:08:16 AM

Quote :

"See ACC-Big 10 challenge exhibition for details."

Fixed it for ya.

1/20/2008 1:09:05 AM

All I know was today was definitely an exciting day of ACC basketball. Best sports weekend in awhile. And even though UNC or Duke will obviously win the title the conference seems wide open right now after that

[Edited on January 20, 2008 at 1:11 AM. Reason : .]

1/20/2008 1:10:50 AM

Like I said anywhere from 5th-last so here we go for the ride!

1/20/2008 1:37:28 AM

i dont see why we can't be third?

1/20/2008 1:59:54 AM

bttt for Wake @ Clemson going into OT.

1/22/2008 9:14:36 PM

ibtjaybee

1/22/2008 10:58:16 PM

damn 7th OT game this year in ACC play. GT and UVA are tied 76 all at the end of regulation.

1/27/2008 6:44:04 PM

I don't think it's near SEC quality this year but as far as parity... it's amazing how equal all the teams are after the first two teams (UNC and Duke are like five cuts above the rest of the league). Every game is down to the wire it seems. Awesome stuff..

ACC is probably the third best conf this year behind Pac-10 and Big East...

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 6:47 PM. Reason : x]

1/27/2008 6:47:34 PM

^ Where's the support for your argument?

Off the top of my head I can think of only a handful of games between the ACC and the Big-East, and I can't think of any between the ACC and the Pac-10. Of the five games I can remember between the ACC and the Big-East, the ACC is 4 of 5. With State wins over Seton Hall, Villanova, and Cincinatti, a UNC win over Rutgers, and a last second loss by Duke to Pittsburgh. Admittedly I don't watch a lot of basketball outside of head-to-head ACC competition, but I haven't seen anything to make me think the Pac-10 and Big-East are any better than the ACC. All three conferences have 1 or 2 very good teams at the top and a lot of parity amongst the rest of the conference.

1/27/2008 7:10:27 PM

http://kenpom.com/conf.php?c=ACC&t=p

Ranking of conferences by average rating of the teams

 1 Pac 10                              .9179  16 Metro Atlantic                      .3861  
 2 Big 12                              .9149  16 Summit League                       .4187  
 3 Atlantic Coast                      .8966  17 Southern                            .3842  
 4 Big East                            .8787  18 Big West                            .3599  
 5 Big Ten                             .8750  19 Patriot League                      .3244  
 6 Southeastern                        .8500  20 Big Sky                             .3107  
 7 Missouri Valley                     .7494  21 Southland                           .2946  
 8 Atlantic 10                         .7284  22 Big South                           .2786  
 9 Mountain West                       .7154  23 America East                        .2639  
10 Conference USA                      .6762  24 Northeast                           .2567  
11 Horizon League                      .5409  25 Ivy League                          .2375  
11 Mid American                        .5289  26 Ohio Valley                         .1809  
12 West Coast                          .5026  27 Mid Eastern                         .0936  
13 Western Athletic                    .4486  28 Atlantic Sun                        .1910  
14 Colonial                            .4352  28 Independents                        .0836  
15 Sun Belt                            .4218  29 Southwestern                        .0564  

1/27/2008 7:18:22 PM

^^ my eyes... and the fact that the Big East has 10 of the top 50 RPI compared to 5 in the ACC. 10/16 > 5/12

Off the top of my head... PC over BC and FSU, Seton Hall over UVa and I think Syracuse beat UVa but I can't remember... head to head really is irrelevant. I mean why would UNC over Rutgers be a good win for the conference...

Just my opinion... we'll see how it shakes out.

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 7:29 PM. Reason : x]

1/27/2008 7:22:46 PM

ACC is the class of basketball. It's the league that built college basketball into what it is today.

1/27/2008 9:21:30 PM

this is a down year for college basketball.

uva over arizona was a good win.

[Edited on January 27, 2008 at 9:25 PM. Reason : and pitt had fields vs duke but not vs the big east]

1/27/2008 9:24:39 PM

Quote :

"except the acc isnt the best basketball conf. this year."

We shall see.

1/27/2008 9:30:48 PM

Exactly Brass Monkey. However we all knew this

1/27/2008 10:57:26 PM

the ACC is awesome to watch this year. Might not be as dominant but if you also look out of conference it is by far.

1/27/2008 11:03:26 PM

I'd be willing to say we'll have two final four teams this year.

1/27/2008 11:05:12 PM

Well, the only two with even a chance are UNC and Duke... I can't see Duke standing up to a Top 10 team with an interior presence and winning. They can get away with it against a Maryland or a Clemson, but when they are facing a UCLA or a Kansas, how will they fare? UNC is probably the ACC's best bet to make the Final 4.

What is shocking to me is that the ACC has only 2 teams in the Top 35... Miami is #37 in this weeks Coaches poll...

1/28/2008 1:01:30 PM

The ACC is the ONLY CONFERENCE IN THE NATION where every single team has a record above .500

take that bitches

1/28/2008 1:19:21 PM

Ga Tech got to .500 by beating our sorry asses in Raleigh

Regardless, the mediocrity is what is holding the ACC in the top RPI spot. It's certainly not the toughest conference this year. It's just that there are no truly terrible teams (i.e.- Rutgers, St. Johns, Oregon State, Colorado, etc) to drag down the RPI. The Big East and Pac 10 are much tougher conferences this year...

[Edited on January 28, 2008 at 1:24 PM. Reason : x]

1/28/2008 1:23:36 PM

How can they be much tougher and then also have such shitty bottom teams?

Our tops teams are right up there with anyone in the nation (UNC, Duke) and our middle is also extremely strong (although the middle of the PAC-10, at least, might be stronger in the middle), and our bottom is the strongest in the nation by far.

1/28/2008 2:05:24 PM

ehh, there are 3 teams in the ACC with better than .500 conference records, 6 in the Pac-10. PAC 10 has also played at least 2 more conf. games than the ACC, if that means anything

1/28/2008 2:11:48 PM

A good comparison would be OOC schedule, head-to-head comparison, player rating comparison (i.e. how many McD's AA's, top 100/top 150 players do the conferences have) which would be a good indicator of the athletes each conference has. The RPI is a little stupid sometimes, b/c you can end up having teams like Appalachian State being #1 in the RPI like they were at one point in time last year. So I wouldn't put to much emphasis on RPI in the comparison.

1/28/2008 2:15:00 PM

UNC, UCLA, Duke, and either Mich St./Indiana is how I feel about the final four thus far.

I feel like Kansas will end up choking somehow again, for the 9234903rd year.

1/28/2008 3:15:55 PM

^^ the RPI is very useful once all the teams are connected. Outliers like App State being #1 only happen before the teams get connected. By this time of the year the rankings are good. Remember, the RPI is the single biggest think the NCAA Tourney Committee looks at when judging bubble teams. It has to be pretty useful.

^ I think the best four teams are, in no particular order: Kansas, UNC, Memphis and UCLA. Say what you want about Memphis but they've played one hell of a schedule and did it at home, on the road and at neutral courts... Duke is a tick below along with G'Town, Michigan State, etc...

Quote :

"and our middle is also extremely strong"

See that is where I disagree. I think it's a two horse league. Look at some of the losses that BC or Maryland has. Do you see those losses in comparable teams in the Pac-10 or Big East? I don't. There aren't any Robert Morris or American losses by ASU, Oregon, UConn, Louisville, Stanford etc, etc...

*** holy shit... UMd lost to Ohio, American AND VCU all at home.. jesus christ

[Edited on January 28, 2008 at 3:48 PM. Reason : boston college is the 4th best team in the acc but probably the 3rd or 4th best team in new england]

1/28/2008 3:21:57 PM

RPI says that Miami is the 4th best team in the ACC after UNC, Duke, and Clemson, with the Pack at 5th. I don't think BC will end up being 4th in the conference, even though that's where they are in the standings right now.

1/28/2008 3:56:32 PM

^^Yeah, but at least in UMD's case, that was pretty early on, and since they've beaten UNC and gave Duke a run for their money. They're playing well now.

I watch lots of ACC games...almost all of the one televised, and the middle of the ACC is as tough this year as the middle of almost any conference for sure. The Pac-10 is the only one that can really compete in the middle in my opinion.

Every year, the ACC teams beat on each other (just like SEC football) and everyone claims that it's a down year (which it happens to be true this year, but so is the entire nation basically), and then the tournament comes and ACC teams do very well (just like the SEC football bowl-bound teams).

1/28/2008 4:05:45 PM

Quote :

"Both have the best great tradition and heritage"

1/29/2008 6:10:50 PM

pat forde says the Big least is the SEC of basketball

Quote :

"There were eight games involving Big East teams over the weekend. Underdogs won half of them and covered the spread in three of the others. Syracuse's seven-point victory over Providence -- secured by a 15-8 closing burst -- was the only time a favorite lived up to Las Vegas' pregame expectations. Weekends like that are why the Big East in basketball is starting to resemble the SEC in football: There are no soft spots on the 18-game schedule. Anything can happen on a given night, and it already has. "

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3219660&sportCat=ncb&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos1


Yet no mention of the parity among acc teams.

[Edited on January 29, 2008 at 6:15 PM. Reason : (same article as in the other thread)]

1/29/2008 6:15:16 PM

Pat Forde reads The Wolf Web, but rather than give the ACC credit he gives the credit to the Big Least b/c ESPN is stationed in Bristol, CT and he probably reads all of the stories on the Big East in the local paper. Seriously ACC basketball resembles SEC football more than the Big Least. I mean already 7 games have gone into OT, and a ton have been decided by 3 points or less. Generally the Big East is a good conference, I'm not denying that.

This year the ACC is 11-6 against the Big East, with a projection of finishing 12-7.

BC 0-1 (L to Providence)
CU 1-0 (W over DePaul)
DU 1-1 (W over Marquette and L to Pitt; with an odd game against St. John's @ Cameron in late Feb. the Devils have a projected record of 2-1 against the Big East)
FSU 0-2 (L's to Providence and USF)
GT 1-0 (W over Notre Dame; an upcoming game @ UConn in Storrs will be a tall task, projected record 1-1)
UM 2-0 (W's over Providence and St. John's)
UMD (did not play any BE teams)
UNC 1-0 (W over Rutgers)
NCSU 3-0 (W's over Villanova, Cincinnati, and Seton Hall)
UVA 0-2 (L's to Seton Hall and Syracuse)
VT 1-0 (W over St. John's)
WF 1-0 (W over USF)

1/29/2008 7:28:51 PM

Quick turn it on the FSU @ VT game on FSN. They are going to break down why the ACC is the best conference. Could be good for discussion in here.

1/29/2008 9:57:25 PM

Dan Bonner said this (paraphrased)

The ACC has best RPI of any conference. It is the only conference with every team having a winning record. Every team has at least 1 win in conference play. The Big East is the only other conference that can make that claim. The fact that so many teams have 3 conference wins shows how competitive the conference is. And the Big East is the one conference that can be argued being just as good top to bottom as the ACC.

1/29/2008 10:02:58 PM

current ACC Standings

As Of January 29) 
School Conf. Pct. Overall Pct. 
Duke 5-0 1.000 17-1 .944 
North Carolina 4-1 .800 19-1 .950 
Boston College 3-2 .600 12-6 .667 
Virginia Tech 4-3 .571 13-8 .619 
Clemson 3-3 .500 15-5 .750 
Wake Forest 3-3 .500 13-6 .684 
Georgia Tech 3-3 .500 10-9 .526 
NC State 2-3 .400 13-6 .684 
Maryland 2-3 .400 12-8 .600 
Miami 2-4 .333 15-5 .750 
Florida State 2-5 .286 13-9 .591 
Virginia 1-4 .200 11-7 .611 

1/30/2008 9:52:52 AM

In other news

Apples taste just like oranges and both happen to taste like chicken.

1/30/2008 12:00:34 PM

People on here act like the RPI is fucking GOD when it comes to rankings. Yeah I realize it is important to the selection committee, but the RPI formula puts too much weight on road victories. NC State would greatly improve it's RPI if it would go play a bunch of easy early season road games. Although that didn't work too well going to ECU

The over-weighting of road victories is what makes teams in conferences like the CAA and MVC, etc sit so high in the RPI standings. They play a bunch of early season games on the road, knock off a few big conference teams, and their RPI shoots up. At the end of the year, when all of the big name teams have been through their conference schedule, those little road victories give these smaller schools an RPI advantage at selection time.




[Edited on January 30, 2008 at 12:15 PM. Reason : sd]

1/30/2008 12:14:55 PM

You're right RPI is important, but I also think the committee looks at other things -- maybe not "officially" as criteria, but these guys are human. Bracket placement and bubble teams matter when they think about bringing in revenue. If the last spot was going to either Ohio State or Washington, who would they take all else (including record and RPI being equal)? OSU because they'll travel fans.

The ACC is fantastic in that regard. We'd go anywhere to see State play.

1/30/2008 3:39:24 PM

bttt for the Duke/State and Clemson/Maryland games this weekend.

3/2/2008 9:58:33 PM

We're still not the best basketball conference this year. And there were similar good games across the country.

Arizona/UCLA and Texas/Texas Tech just to name a few.

3/2/2008 10:00:21 PM

RPI #1

3/2/2008 10:01:58 PM

Yeah the argument for why the ACC is the best conference has been covered pretty extensively in this thread. Also no other conference matches the tradition and atmospheres of the ACC.

3/2/2008 10:05:38 PM

Sorry...the RPI isn't the end-all-be-all.

Pac-10 ftw.

3/2/2008 10:08:02 PM

Man fuck the Pac-10. When was the last time they won it all? Yeah 1997. 11 fucking years ago.

3/2/2008 10:10:28 PM

^and since then, 3 DIFFERENT acc teams have won it all, and another played in the championship game

3/2/2008 10:29:17 PM