The story of the past week in college basketball was highlighted by some really good games between the ACC’s best. It all started last Wednesday when #10 Notre Dame came back from a 10-point second half deficit to knock off #4 Duke in South Bend. The loss dropped the Blue Devils to 4-3 in conference play and, coupled with the dismissal of junior guard Rasheed Sulaimon on Thursday, it appeared that Duke swirling in turmoil. Before the Blue Devils faced off with #2 Virginia on Saturday evening, Duke’s archrival, #11 North Carolina, blew an 18-point second half lead at #9 Louisville, thus suffering its second conference loss of the season. Later that night in Charlottesville, Duke showed that reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated when it rallied late in the second half to best the previously-unbeaten Cavaliers. To make matters even wackier in the ACC, Notre Dame suffered a loss at Pittsburgh earlier in the day for its second league loss of the season. As the calendar turns to February, Virginia is still on top of the ACC standings at 7-1, but it certainly has several teams breathing down its neck:  Notre Dame is right behind at 8-2; North Carolina is at 7-2; Louisville is at 6-2; and always-dangerous Duke now sits at 5-3. The ACC may not be the deepest league in the country, but watching these five great teams battle it out over the final five weeks of the regular season promises to be extremely entertaining.

This week’s Quick N’ Dirty after the jump…

Quick N’ Dirty Analysis.

• Kentucky remains the unanimous #1 team for the 11th consecutive week. The Wildcats moved to 21-0 on the season with easy wins at Missouri and at home against Alabama. John Calipari’s squad has been on cruise control these past few games and has not really faced a significant challenge since it was taken to overtime by Ole Miss and Texas A&M in early January. Kentucky should face a tougher road this week, however, as it hosts Georgia on Tuesday before traveling to what should be a hostile environment at Florida on Saturday. The SEC is not very good again this season, but we should know by now that the Wildcats will get every team’s best shot.
• The fight for #2. Even with a home loss to Duke on Saturday, Virginia remained in the #2 position although three other teams also received votes for that spot. Along with the Cavaliers’ three votes there, #3 Wisconsin, #4 Duke, and #5 Arizona all earned at least one pollster’s #2 vote in this week’s RTC25. Things do not get easier for Virginia this week, as Tony Bennett’s squad faces North Carolina in Chapel Hill tonight before hosting Louisville on Saturday. Wisconsin scored a dominating victory at Iowa on Saturday and it will play its games this week in the comfort of the Kohl Center against Indiana on Tuesday and Northwestern on Saturday. Duke also has a slate of home games this week, as it hosts last-place Georgia Tech on Wednesday before a rematch with Notre Dame Saturday. Arizona has now won six straight games and it will be heavily favored to make that seven straight when the Wildcats travel to rival Arizona State on Saturday. Should there be more clarity regarding the #2 spot next week? Probably. Will there be actual clarity though? We should all know better than that by now.
• Northern Iowa is now the best of the non-power leagues. The Panthers are up to #13 this week after a dominant 16-point home victory over #16 Wichita State on Saturday. Northern Iowa is now 20-2 overall and has not lost a game since New Year’s Day. Ben Jacobsen’s squad figures to be significant favorites in all of its games until the February 28 season finale at Wichita State. After the Shockers dominated the Missouri Valley for all of the 2013-14 season, it is good to see another team step up and make the league a potential two-bid conference.

Game of the Week. #2 Virginia vs. #9 Louisville. Two of the best defensive teams in the country will battle in Louisville on Saturday in a very important game in the ACC standings. The key match-up will be between each team’s perimeter group. Virginia brings the three-headed monster of London Perrantes, Malcolm Brogdon, and Justin Anderson, while Louisville features the improving duo of Chris Jones and Terry Rozier. Expect this one to be highly-contested, entertaining and low-scoring.

Keep Tabs On. #2 Virginia vs. #11 North Carolina; #8 Kansas vs. #14 Iowa State; #15 West Virginia vs. #18 Oklahoma; #4 Duke vs. #10 Notre Dame; #7 Villanova vs. #17 Georgetown; #15 West Virginia vs. #21 Baylor; #1 Kentucky vs. Florida.

Conference Call. Big 12 (6), ACC (5), Big Ten (3), Big East (3), Pac-12 (2), Missouri Valley (2), AAC (1), Atlantic 10 (1), SEC (1), WCC (1).

WCarey (318 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, February 2nd, 2015 at 2:01 pm by Walker Carey and is filed under blogpoll, Regular Features. Tagged: acc, duke, feature, louisville, notre dame, rtc25, virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.