- The Dagger: Is it good to have the two most disappointing teams in college basketball? I mean, at least there were expectations for those teams coming into the season, right? Well that’s where Jeff Eisenberg has Boston College and Maryland, respectively. Here are some troubling stats: “In all but two of Boston College’s nine games this season, its opponent has scored 78 or more points and averaged more than 1.1 points per possession.” Yikes. Speaking of interestingly morbid statistics, Maryland owns a ridiculous 18 more turnovers than assists so far this season. That’s two more turnovers than assists per game, which gives some more context to the team’s poor offense so far.
- Fox Sports Carolinas: Lauren Brownlow’s weekly ACC roundup is full of more good (depressing) statistics to tell your friends. Apparently Virginia turned it over 14 times each in its two losses last week. Right now, miscues are the big issue in Charlottesville, as the Cavaliers currently rank #293 out of 351 teams in turnover percentage. Olivier Hanlan didn’t escape unscathed either, as Brownlow pointed out that he recently played his worst two games of the season. He didn’t quite pass the more shots than points barrier, but he came pretty close (his offensive ratings were 91.0 and 65.0 in the two losses). Long story short, there’s no dearth of mediocrity in the ACC so far this season.
- Testudo Times: Yes! GIF-filled ACC power rankings. In terms of ordering, I think Brendan Darr and I agree fairly well (other than he appears to value bad losses over close wins), but I’d probably rank Notre Dame a couple of spots lower. The other thing in seeing these rankings (with team records) indirectly points out is that Boston College fans would trade places with Wake Forest fans in a second. The odds of that being the case going into the season were astronomical, but the optimistic tone following Boston College’s strong showing at the ACC Tournament last season is now long gone. Meanwhile Jeff Bzdelik is fielding a team that just might be good enough for him to keep his job.
- ESPN: For all those who live and die by the “Roy Williams doesn’t adapt his system to his personnel” narrative, this season looks like one to ignore. It’s not that he’s stopped running or eschewed the secondary break; it’s just that this year’s team is making people pay on defense, where it’s only allowing opponents to shoot a little over 37 percent from the floor. That’s a full five percent below the team’s percentage from last season. Despite only having one reliable perimeter shooter, Williams is fielding a more than capable offense and an outstanding defense as far as Ken Pomeroy’s data goes.
- Duke Basketball Report: There have been a lot of overtimes this year, already matching last year’s eight overtime games all season. Strangely enough Virginia Tech and Miami are particularly fond of giving fans free basketball, as they’ve each finished tops (or tied) in overtime sessions in four of their nine years in the ACC (although they tied each other for two years). The reason for this phenomenon? Your guess is as good as mine, but I would guess it has more to do with bad teams playing slightly better than average than playing in multiple trap games (from the other side of the coin).