ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Week 5
Momentum. Momentum is a magical force that exists in sports where a series of events can determine the course of a game in such a way that it gives one opponent the upper hand over the other. Now you are probably thinking based on my use of the word magical that I don’t believe in momentum. In that regard you would be wrong. I use the word magical because there is no scientific way to measure momentum. A made shot here, a steal there, the roar of the crowd all can effect momentum either way.
I have seen games where a monster slam dunk leads to an 18-3 run. I have seen games where a fired up coach getting a technical leads to his team taking over an evenly matched game. Of course I have also seen the same events lead to the exact opposite. I think the key to momentum is less in how the first team responds but more so in how the second team reacts.
Momentum often relies not only on one team executing properly but on the other team failing to do so. A missed basket may not lead to a run by the other team, but if that missed shot causes a player to tighten up or force things it could. A good coach will look into calling a timeout especially if his team can’t play through the shift in momentum. As we go through this past week, momentum made it’s case in several instances.
Monday: Dukes loses four of five. The Blue Devils are taking the path of several other champions before them. In 2012 Kentucky won it all. The next season they went to the NIT and lost in the first round. In 2014 UConn won it all. The next season they went to the NIT and lost in the first round. Will Duke join those two? Luckily for Duke the other team in that stretch was Louisville who followed up their championship with a sweet 16 appearance. The Devils look to be closer to that scenario than the others. However, if things couldn’t get much worse for Duke, they fell out of the AP poll for the first time in eight years.
Tuesday: Indiana loses in OT. Indiana up to this point was 7-0 in conference play. Of course all seven wins had come against the bottom of the Big Ten. Now Wisconsin is not the team that went all the way to the Championship game last year. But a win in the Kohl Center would’ve still given some credence to the Hoosiers run. Instead they lost in OT. But give Indiana credit, they followed that loss with a win against another Big Ten bottom feeder.
Wednesday: Arkansas upsets Texas A&M. The Aggies were playing as good of basketball as anybody in the country. The lost was to a team that was 9-10 at the time. Luckily the Aggies followed that loss up with a big win against Iowa State. Arkansas, may want to reconsider it alliance as it went on to beat Texas Tech in the following game. A move to the Big 12 would give Arkansas more opportunities against Lone Star teams, a state the Razorbacks are now 2-1 against this season.
Thursday: Oregon grabs the Pac 12. The Pac 12 might finally be taking shape. Despite an early loss to Oregon St, Oregon was starting to figure things out. Their biggest obstacle was a road trip to the Arizona schools starting with the Wildcats. Not only did the Ducks go in and win that one pretty handily, seizing some Pac 12 control, they finished their week with a sweep of the Grand Canyon State. Their win the Sun Devils was Oregon’s seventh in eight games. Just like in football most seasons, it seems the Pac 12 will run through Eugene this season.
Friday: The Ivy League Passes the Torch. Our Mid Major round up brings us to the Ivy league, where Harvard has been the cream of the crop for the last few seasons. The Crimson have represented the Ivy league in the NCAA tournament for the last four seasons and have shared a piece of the crown for the last five. After Friday night that looks to be changing. The Crimson not only fell to under .500 for the season but are now three games behind co-leaders Yale and Columbia for the league crown. In a league that doesn’t play a tournament, that kind of deficit is hard to catch.
Saturday: Big 12/ SEC shows how challenges should be done. Look I am an ACC guy. I love that they play the ACC/Big Ten challenge as it forces teams that would normally not leave the state (Duke fans raise their hands) to play a true non conference road game. I wish more conferences would do it and am glad the SEC and Big 12 are now as well. But I will say this despite being only in their third season compared to the ACC and Big Ten’s 17th, The SEC and Big 12 have figured it out. Saturday was awesome. Not only did it give college basketball some major non conference games in January (something that never happens), but it gave us some amazing ones too. Oklahoma LSU was a battle between National Player of the Year Candidates. Kentucky Kansas was a blue blood battle not conference related. It was awesome. ACC and Big Ten, I hope you were watching, because the SEC and Big 12 just raised the bar and you can’t sit there and act like it didn’t happen. Tradition is great, but learn and adapt and help add to what was easily the best challenge ever in college basketball.
Sunday: Wichita State dominates. The Shockers were going to be the interesting case this year for the selection committee. The team that has been a staple of the tournament for the last few seasons started the season 2-4 without star guard Fred VanVleet. Since then they have won 14 out of 15 against a weak schedule. Would the committee overlook the losses with the guard out like they do for Power five squads? The question may be moot as Sunday’s win made the Shockers 10-0 in MVC. They have won nine of those game by double digits. Wichita State would make for some good drama on the bubble, but if they keep this up, there won’t be a bubble to pop because they will already be dancing come selection Sunday.
Momentum made it’s impact in the ACC this past week as well. Teams that seized it moved up in the rankings. Teams that felt it, fell down. So let’s get into this week’s rankings as always with the teams that make gaining momentum a little easier.
Note: All games and records as of 1/31
Next: The Bottom Five