To say the start of the ACC season has been strange would be an understatement. Anyone who predicted Luke Kennard would be the favorite for player of the year, while playing for head coach Jeff Capel wins some sort of medal. Yea, it’s been a rocky start for the preseason favorites, never mind the Grayson Allen mess, but if they can ever get their stuff together, and stay healthy, they’re still a major threat. 

(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)

Meanwhile, Florida State and Notre Dame are the only undefeated teams in the conference at press time (told ya it was a strange start) and look like their top 10 ranking is legit. Their next three games are at North Carolina and home vs. Notre Dame & Louisville, so the road gets tougher, let’s see what they’re made of. Don’t expect Notre Dame to be undefeated much longer as their next three are on the road at Miami, Florida State, and Virginia Tech. 

North Carolina seems to have righted themselves after losing the ACC opener at Georgia Tech, winning a tough game at Clemson and destroying NC State in Chapel Hill. Team sparkplug Theo Pinson returned in the State game and did Theo Pinson things, grabbing 5 boards, dishing out 5 assists, and threw in 4 steals for good measure. I’m telling you, this guy would eat the basketball if he thought it’d help the Heels win. I already mentioned the FSU game this weekend, but the Heels don’t play a ranked team for the rest of January after that game. Now’s the time to make a run. 

I’ve been impressed so far with Clemson, and they look like they can be a tournament team as they’ll continue to improve. Virginia and Louisville have gotten off to sluggish starts in conference, but both will bounce back as UVA has a nice run of winnable games coming up. Louisville hosts Duke this weekend, which should be a great one. 

Virginia Tech had a rough week last week, getting blown out and giving up nearly 200 points combined in losses in Raleigh and Tallahassee. Seth Allen returned last night after missing those two games and scored 11 and dished out 5 dimes in a win over Syracuse. 

Pitt’s dynamic duo of Michael Young (22.3) and Jamel Artis (21.5) are #1 and #2 in scoring in the league right now, but is Pitt the team that beat Virginia, or are they the team that trailed Syracuse by 20-25 most of the game last Saturday before losing by 11?

Looking forward to a fun weekend of ACC hoops highlighted by the FSU/UNC game and the Duke/Louisville game as well. Taking predictions on what asinine thing Grayson Allen will do next. Whoever wins gets a either a free house or a diamond ring, courtesy of Rob Shields!

Good luck! 

Seth Bondroff
Seth Bondroff

Seth, a die hard fan of Orioles Baseball and Tar Heel Basketball has been in the gambling industry for 20 plus years. He’s been trying to find the secret to picking winners even longer than that. Seth lives in Eldersburg Maryland with his wife and two children.

X