ACC Week 5

Miami (10-0): beat Mississippi State and Stetson. Miami was wildly underrated heading into the season (picked dead last in the ACC). Now just a month later they find themselves in both top 25 polls. That probably puts them in the overrated category, but a team that is likely to start 15-0 deserves a little respect even if they do depend very heavily on their star Jack McClinton.

North Carolina (9-0): beat Penn and Rutgers. North Carolina finished out their four game road swing last week by going into the Palestra and the RAC, two tough spots to play, and grabbing big wins. Danny Green is currently the second most frequent shooter on the team, behind only Wayne Ellington and ahead of Tyler Hansbrough. That's not a bad replacement for Reyshawn Terry.

Duke (10-0): beat Albany. Duke keeps rolling, scoring at least 77 points in every one of its games so far this season. Kyle Singler is one of the top freshman in the nation. Everyone knows that. What some might not realize is that Singler has been terrific on the boards and in blocking shots. That is huge for a Duke team without much in the way of a true post presence.

Florida State: (10-3): lost to Butler. The Florida State defense had looked good before getting torched by Butler. Not that there's anything wrong with letting Butler put points on the board, but it does serve as a caution that the Noles' early season defensive improvement might have been something of a small sample size mirage. After bad early losses to Cleveland State and South Florida, it seems that this veteran laden team might be back on the right path.

Clemson (8-0): idle. Another ACC undefeated. Yawn. Next up for Clemson is three games in Puerto Rico in the San Juan Shootout. The key matchups are the second and third games against Depaul and Ole Miss.

Boston College (7-2): lost to Massachusetts. The Eagles were beaten badly on the defensive end by UMass. The numbers defensively look good for now, but besides a stifling win over Saint Louis, the defense has not been good in recent games, giving up well over a point per possesion in three of the past four.

Georgia Tech (4-5): lost to Kansas. The Jackets struggles on the road have been well documented, but it really is striking. Before their exam break the team began December on the road by getting thrashed at Vandy and squeaking by Georgia State. After exams they came home and pushed Kansas to the wire. With ten more road games on the schedule, just making the NIT might be an uphill battle, especially after it was announced the SR Resean Dickey will redshirt this season.

North Carolina State (5-3): beat South Carolina State. It's not an impressive win by any stretch, but after early season losses to New Orleans and East Carolina, you take what you can get. An interesting stretch (Davidson, Cincy, @Seton Hall) is up next. The Wolfpack would do a lot for itself to sweep although going on the road (0-2 with a blowout loss to Michigan State and a loss to ECU) has not been easy thus far.

Virginia (7-2): idle. A long exam break for Virginia is followed by three cupcakes that will likely allow the Cavs to roll into the New Year at 10-2.

Virginia Tech: (5-4): lost to Old Dominion. The Hokies had their chances to pull out the road win against in-state foe Old Dominion, but they just could not get it done. The culprit once again was a complete inability to force turnovers while also allowing the Monarch to make too many shots.

Wake Forest (6-3): beat Bucknell. The Wake Forest offense still ranks outside the top 200 in the nation with only three of their ten regulars having an ORtg above 100. The two players most involved with the Wake offense in their minutes on the floor are a pair of freshmen, James Johnson and Jeff Teague. Johnson will need to improve his outside shooting (7-36 on 3pt FG) but his activity and very good rebounding on both ends bodes well for his future.