Virginia, Florida State Upsets Create Chaos for ACC Race
The ACC's top two programs went down in flaming fashion Saturday, making for an exciting conference race. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech pulled off crucial upsets over No. 8 Virginia and No. 16 Florida State, respectively, and both were commanding victories.
The Hokies outscored the Cavaliers 44-22 in the second half, finishing with a 65-51 win and handing UVA its first conference loss of the season. Meanwhile, the Yellow Jackets were 7-5 overall, 3-3 ACC beat the Seminoles 76-65.
As the top teams started to topple, the bottom half thrived on Saturday. Wake Forest, who was No. 15 in the ACC at the beginning of the day, moved up two spots with a win over Miami. Duke ascends from seventh to sixth after a 79-53 victory over Clemson. Notre Dame routed Pittsburgh, 84-58, improving to 3-6 for 12th place in the conference while dropping the Panthers to 4-4 in eighth place.
Louisville, whose game against Boston College was postponed, is 5-3 in conference play like Duke. There are three records in the standings that are the same, affecting 40% of the league.
Notre Dame has a sizable lead over Pittsburgh (seventh in ACC) heading into halftime, 41-29.
The conference race is up in the air and those crucial top spots could be anyones by the time March rolls around. The top half is hanging on by either one win or one loss, and if one falls, it'll cause movement in the standings.
North Carolina, who is 6-3 and fourth in the league, faces Clemson on Feb. 2, and a win could place them over FSU, who plays last-place Boston College the same day. But upsets over both will throw the standings and conference tournament (if there is one) for a loop.
Here are the current rankings of the ACC:
(As of Jan. 30)
- Virginia (7-1)
- Virginia Tech (7-2)
- Florida State (6-2)
- North Carolina (6-3)
- Louisville (5-3)
- Duke (5-3)
- Georgia Tech (4-3)
- Pittsburgh (4-4)
- Clemson (4-5)
- Syracuse (3-4)
- NC State (3-4)
- Notre Dame (3-6)
- Wake Forest (2-7)
- Miami (2-9)
- Boston College (1-6)
