ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Week 1
Happy New Year. Before we get started let’s take a look back at some of the things that happened in the world of sports in 2015.
Jan 1, 2015: America experiences their first ever college football playoff games. After years of complaint that the BCS needed to go, College Football finally agreed and football fans everywhere were not disappointed.
Jan 12, 2015: Ohio State wins the National Championship. After starting the season with a bad loss on their second QB, the Buckeyes win the national championship with their third starting QB.
April 4, 2015: Kentucky loses. After starting the season 38-0 and being the clear favorite to win it all, the Wildcats lose their first game in the Final Four. Fans still not sure what happened celebrate the undefeated season as if it were a national championship.
April 13, 2015: Duke wins the National Championship. Despite not winning either ACC Regular Season or Tournament championships, the committee rewards the Blue Devils with a 1 seed. Coach K takes the opening and goes on to win the title showing Coach Cal how one wins with a team full of Freshmen.
June 16, 2015: Golden State wins the NBA Championship. After being questioned all year, MVP Steph Curry led the Warriors against a depleted Cavs team that featured LeBron James playing in his fifth consecutive Finals.
July 4, 2015: KIH Rankings Guru releases first Rankings. It was just the Coastal Division, but we wouldn’t be here today without it.
September 3, 2015: College Football Season kicks off with UNC losing to South Carolina. What seemed like a good loss at the time was a hindrance to the Heels season. The Gamecocks went 3-9 and lost to the Citadel. Carolina meanwhile would not lose again for three months.
November 2, 2015: Kansas City wins the World Series. Winning for the first time in 30 years, the Royals took home their second crown against a Mets team who hadn’t been there in 15 years.
December 5, 2015: Clemson beats North Carolina to stay undefeated. The Heels ended the regular season where it began, with a loss in Charlotte. Maybe you really cant go home as Marquise Williams looked awful in both contests combining to throw four interceptions.
December 31, 2015: Carolina beats Clemson again in Chapel Hill. Obviously this is basketball, but on the last day of the year Carolina continued to do what it always does against the Tigers at home, win. 58-0 is ridiculous and if Clemson couldn’t win during that disastrous 8-20 season, they may never get a tally in this lopsided series.
So here we are in 2016. It is a new year and with it a new season in ACC basketball. This season is going to be a wild one. BPI has fourteen of the Fifteen teams ranked in the top 100, while RPI has twelve teams that high.
Speaking of those two rankings, if you remember in my last rankings, RPI was a tool I used in ranking the teams. Part of that had to do with the lack of other data and the other part is that RPI is what the selection committee uses. BPI is now available so this time I will be using a combination of the two. Though BPI is considered superior, here is an explanation of it, I can’t disregard the committee’s use of RPI.
So with all that said let’s move into week one of these rankings. Just as with the last rankings, you will see some serious movement of teams. This has to do with the month gap between said rankings as more games have been played and teams have better established themselves. So without further ado, let’s get started as always with five teams most likely NIT bound at best.
Note: All games and records as of 1/3/16
Next: The Bottom Five