ACC Week 2

Duke (6-0): beat Princeton, Illinois, Marquette, Eastern Kentucky. Duke rolled into Maui and won their fourth Maui Invitational title. In a season loaded with elite freshman, Kyle Singler continued to do his part, scoring 18 points per game in Hawaii to win the tournament's MVP award. Worth noting: Duke is back to its running ways after a year away from that formula, running to the tune of greater than 73 possessions per game. That's the most for the Blue Devils since at least 2003.

Clemson (5-0): beat Old Dominion, Presbyterian, Gardner Webb. The Tigers got another possible NCAA Tournament resume-builder with the win over Old Dominion. Clemson faces very few elite teams, but the rest of the nonconference schedule has plenty of tests with Purdue, South Carolina and Charlotte coming to Littlejohn, a road date with Alabama, and three games in the San Juan Shootout in late Decemeber.

Miami (5-0): beat Providence, Morgan State. Miami nipped Providence to take the inaugural Puerto Rico TipOff Classic before beating a poor Morgan State team by 4 without the services of Jack McClinton. The 'Canes temporarily find themselves atop the RPI standings. We know that one won't last.

North Carolina (5-0): beat Iona, South Carolina State, Old Dominion, Brigham Young. The Heels also won a tournament title, beating a feisty BYU squad to take the Las Vegas Invitational without a showdown with fellow top 10 Louisville. UNC, like Maryland recently, struggled with the deep shot against BYU, hitting just two, although they are averaging over six threes per game in their first five.

Boston College (4-0): beat Mercer, Rhode Island. BC has escaped the big upset so far, but with so many freshman in the rotation playing key roles that might not last. Freshman shooting guard Rakim Sanders, considered just a good recruit, has averaged 16.3 ppg on good shooting numbers (58.6 eFG%) giving the Eagles a potent backcourt with Sanders and star Tyrese Rice.

Wake Forest (3-0): beat North Carolina Central, Winston-Salem State. Wake is another young team with eight of their top nine scorers so far being freshman or sophomores. WF beat two of the newest members of Division I, but not by all that many, winning the two games by 17 and 20 respectively. It will be a growing process for a team that will go on the road for four of its next five games.

Virginia (5-1): beat Drexel, Penn, lost to Seton Hall. The Cavs were upset in the finals of the Philly Hoop Group Classic in a convincing loss to Seton Hall. Virginia has a plethora of backcourt scoring options that should help create a dynamic offense, but the defense will likely be a big question mark. After giving up more than a point per possession (108.9 eff) in a win at Arizona, the Cavs did the same against Seton Hall (eff = 110.5) and lowly 2-4 Penn (eff = 102).

North Carolina State (4-1): beat Rider, South Carolina, Villanova, lost to New Orleans. The Wolfpack dropped out of the rankings with a disastrous loss to New Orleans before bouncing back nicely by taking the Old Spice Classic title including a win over a ranked Villanova team. Freshman sensation JJ Hickson leads the team in scoring at 18.0 ppg through his first five games. But Hickson comes off of the bench and ranks just fourth on the team in minutes which could lead to some tough decisions later in the season.

Florida State (5-2): beat Georgia State, Florida, lost to South Florida. After wrapping up the Glenn Wilkes Classic with a terrible loss to Big East bottom feeder South Florida, FSU came back and took out the defending national champs for the second straight season. It was a good win to be sure, especially in Gainesville, but the early season losses suggest that Florida State could be headed back to the ACC cellar.

Georgia Tech (3-2): beat Notre Dame, lost to Winthrop. The Yellow Jackets took two of three in the Virgin Islands before taking a week off. GT will go on the road for their next three, starting with an ACC-Big Ten Challenge match at highly ranked Indiana. After seeing his scoring drop by over six points per game last season, Anthony Morrow is putting up big numbers, averaging 19.0 ppg while hitting three three-pointers per contest.

Virginia Tech (2-2): beat Eastern Washington, lost to Butler, Gonzaga. Alaska was not kind to the Hokies as they lost to two mid-majors in Butler and Gonzaga. There are lots of young players in the mix, but those young guys will need to learn to play defense in a hurry. Both Gonzaga and Butler averaged about 1.25 points per possession against Virginia Tech. Butler put up 84 points in an overtime game that went just 59 possessions. After ranking in the top 25 in steal percentage each of the past four seasons due to their backcourt of Jamon Gordon and Zabian Dowdell, the Hokies check in at a gruesome 280th in the nation.