- John Gasaway: Virginia is playing as well as anyone in the country. The Cavaliers have the second best efficiency margin in the country, trailing only American cupcake-feasting Louisville. Duke is fifth in efficiency margin behind Louisville, Virginia, Florida and Arizona. North Carolina has been elite over its 12-game winning streak (and has shot the ball incredibly well), which should make for an exciting rematch in Durham this weekend to close out their season.
- Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician: Not mentioned in that elite bunch? Syracuse, which continued its regression in the worst kind of way by losing at home to Georgia Tech last night. Jerami Grant missed the game, which put the Orange on their heels inside. Rakeem Christmas and Baye Keita were offensive no-shows (along with Trevor Cooney), which left CJ Fair and Tyler Ennis to try to cobble together a win. Big ups to Georgia Tech which looks much more dangerous with Robert Carter back in the lineup.
- Tomahawk Nation: Moving our focus back to the bubble, it’s time to again point out the obvious flaws in the RPI. If Florida State had scheduled a Division II school (which doesn’t count) instead of Leonard Hamilton’s alma mater, Tennessee-Martin, its strength of schedule would improve a whopping 14 spots from #42 to #28. That’s incredibly stupid. There are a lot of other fun hypotheticals in here that show how close the Seminoles are to the right side of the bubble, but your big takeaway should be that a sport where margin of victory stats are available for every game should take them into account.
- Baltimore Sun: It’s becoming increasingly clear that Seth Allen‘s injury may have derailed Maryland’s season. The Terrapins are just starting to click with him back at 100 percent and the Terps still aren’t a great team, but they are significantly improved. Last season, Allen’s potential always shined through, but he seemed to be a year away. Unfortunately his injury set him back. I’m not sure what Maryland’s ceiling is going forward, but don’t bet against the Terrapins making the NCAA Tournament in the Big Ten next season.
- Yahoo Sports: Tell me if this story sounds familiar: ACC team racks up more than 20 wins and a decent statistical profile, but it also nabs a bottom 15 percent non-conference schedule where they lost their only chance at a good win. Now add in no sparkling conference wins. What do you get? 2009-10 Virginia Tech and 2013-14 Pittsburgh. I think the Panthers are a better team (certainly the advanced stats say so), but boy they are leaving themselves some work to do in the ACC Tournament if they keep this up.
EXTRA: Trying to decide on an all-ACC team? Here are 20 of the top contenders (with sortable stats) from Backing the Pack‘s Austin Johnson.