Duke announced their presence Sunday night with a blowout win over Clemson and the rest of the ACC put together some strong out of conference wins.

David Tucker over at the Maryland Raycom Blog has been compiling a poll of the ACC blogs for an ACC Basketball Power Poll, and here’s my ballot with semi-insightful commentary.

ACC Power Poll Ballot With Commentary

1. Duke Blue Devils

Statement game. Duke pounded the Tigers 74-53 with stingy defense and offense off the multiple forced turnovers. Duke beat their three opponents this week by an average of over 33 points! The Blue Devils are in full gear going into the ACC season clearly number one above a rest of the conference that is still trying to find itself.

2. Florida State Seminoles

FSU did the very definition of not playing down to their opponent as they defeated Alabama A&M 81-34 with only allowing 10 second half points from the Bulldogs. The Seminoles had yet another different leading scorer with 3 point threat Deividas Dulkys leading the way in the win with 19 points.

3. North Carolina Tar Heels

North Carolina has one more out of conference game to go then they kick off  their ACC slate this Sunday at home against Virginia Tech. The Heels beat Rutgers and Albany by comfortable margins last week. We will find out a lot about this team on Sunday as Virginia Tech has been strong with an improved Jeff Allen down-low.

4. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

The Deacs had to take a couple games to overtime, but went 3-0 with wins over Xavier, Richmond, and UNC-Greensboro. Their OT tilts were against Xavier with 2 OTs and a 96-92 win and Richmond with just the one and a 74-68 win. Wake’s Al-Farouq Aminu may be playing the best basketball of any player in the ACC right now with averaging over 21 a game and 14 rebounds in the last three games.

5. Virginia Tech Hokies

You may not have noticed, but Virginia Tech got a really good win in Cancun Saturday without their best player in guard Malcolm Delaney. The Hokies beat the Seton Hall Pirates 103-94 in overtime with a Herculean effort from both guard Dorenzo Hudson’s 41 points and forward Jeff Allen’s 23 points and 13 rebounds. Virginia Tech now has the week to prepare for the trip to Chapel Hill at 7:45 Sunday.

6. Miami Hurricanes

The Hurricanes are 14-1 after easily dispatching Bethune-Cookman at home and Pepperdine on the road. Miami guard James Dews led the scoring in both games and also leads the team overall. The Canes have a huge game this Saturday at home versus the Demon Deacons to prove that they are a force to be reckoned with in the ACC this season.

7. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Georgia Tech did not shoot all that well from 2 or 3, but hit 29 of 32 free throws in an up-and-down, good road win at Charlotte 76-67. Jackets forward Gani Lawal scored 29 points to lead the team in scoring. After a date with Georgia in Athens, the Yellow Jackets get to face another tough home test with the Duke Blue Devils Saturday.

8. Clemson Tigers

I said last week that the Duke game could be a defining game for their season–well, if that performance defines them–they are in trouble. The Tigers took the biggest drop in the poll because there just is not much difference between the teams from 2-8 and the margin of victory knocked them down this far in addition to the uninspired performance against SC State only winning by 3. Clemson is a better team than 8th in the ACC and much better than they played in their last two games, but they have to prove it to the ACC to move their way up and that starts this Saturday on Raycom at 4 versus a struggling Boston College squad.

9. Maryland Terrapins

They knew it was coming–the Goliath-slaying William and Mary Tribe had already taken down one ACC foe on the road, but they could not stop it as the Tribe dominated the Terps with a score that does not look like it was, but it really was not close at 83-77. Terps nearly put up 100 against the ACC-punching bag UNC-Greensboro in their game with a win. Bottomline, the Tribe was Maryland’s first bad loss per se going into the ACC season and they get a chance to redeem it against the Seminoles making the trip to College Park this Sunday.

10. Virginia Cavaliers

The ‘Hoos make it out of the cellar with an impressive 72-63 win over 24th ranked UAB at home. The 63 points allowed is probably the most prominent factor of that win as Bennett builds his teams around defense and containing the Blazers like that is big going into ACC play this Saturday versus NC State on the road.

11. NC State Wolfpack

After beating everybody’s favorite win, UNC-Greensboro, the Wolfpack lost an absolute heart-breaker on a 3/4 court shot off a missed free throw to fall 62-61 to Florida. Frankly, NC State should not have been in that position as Florida was not playing well at all and the Wolfpack just could not pull away. In the end, shooting around 50% from the free throw line was the killer as, at worst, a made free throw at the end would have secured a tie from any crazy shot.

12. Boston College Eagles

Maine? Really, BC? Maine? The Eagles lost yet another head-scratcher out of conference play 52-51 to the Maine Black Bears last week. They did beat South Carolina, but it looks like the Eagles are going to be glad to go on the road to Clemson this week as all of their losses have been at home or at a neutral site.

Check out the quadruple-header of key ACC games this Saturday including Raycom’s NC State-Virginia at 12 and Clemson-Boston College at 4.

Tags: ACC Basketball, Boston College Eagles, Clemson Tigers, Duke Blue Devils, Florida State Seminoles, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Maryland Terrapins, Miami Hurricanes, NC State Wolfpack, North Carolina Tar Heels, Virginia Cavaliers, Virginia Tech Hokies, Wake Forest Demon Deacons

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