Thirteen ACC schools saw action in early season tournaments over the last week-plus, and the results of all of those games were mixed. There were a number of championships won by league representatives (a total of five), but also a handful of puzzling losses. Overall, the ACC probably missed an opportunity to stake an early claim as the best conference in the land, but it certainly did enough during Feast Week to remain in that conversation. Below we will look at some comparison numbers with the other five major basketball conferences (Power Five plus the Big East), as well as some of the best and worst team performances from Feast Week.
As you can see, the ACC was the busiest conference in early season tournament play, with both the most schools participating and the most overall wins. We are only counting games played in tournaments at neutral sites in a winners-advance format. This condition means that Duke’s wins in the 2k Classic semifinals (VCU) and finals (Georgetown) count towards these totals, but the Blue Devils’ home wins over Siena and Bryant (labeled as 2K Classic exempt games) do not. Also, non-Division I competition doesn’t count (if the NCAA Selection Committee won’t count ’em, neither will we), so wins over Chaminade in Maui by Kansas and St. John’s are not included. Finally, we also shouldn’t overlook the fact that the perceptions of some leagues have been influenced by teams that were not a part of any Feast Week events (see: Kentucky, Oregon, Louisville).
The ACC had the most tournament champions. They are listed below.
- Virginia – Charleston Classic
- Miami – Puerto Rico Tipoff
- Duke – 2K Classic
- North Carolina – CBE Classic
- Syracuse – Battle 4 Atlantis
The best tournament performance by an ACC team goes to Miami, as the Hurricanes crushed the competition in Puerto Rico in a spell of dominance that included the defeats of a pair of AP Top 25 teams, Utah and Butler. Of course, Jim Larranaga‘s guys immediately undid much of the bandwagon-building that they did in the Caribbean, falling to Northeastern in dramatic fashion at home on Friday. The biggest surprise winner from the conference has to be Syracuse, which was probably lucky to draw Charlotte in its Battle 4 Atlantis opener and avoid pre-tourney favorite Gonzaga in sprinting through the deepest Feast Week field.
The table below shows how the ACC did head-to-head with the other major conferences. Interestingly, the league put together a better winning percentage against its peers than it did against the non-power conference schools. With such a small sample size, it’s hard to draw any firm conclusions, but results like these will end up as part of the equation for how leagues are eventually evaluated by both the humans and the computers.
This final table tracks how ACC squads performed against different levels of competition. It speaks to the volatile performances we saw from the league, with league teams actually winning a higher percentage of its games versus KenPom top 50 teams (69.2%) than it did against schools rated 51st or below (65.0%).
Here are some of the highs and lows from the ACC’s early season tournament play, using current KenPom rankings:
- Best Win: Notre Dame, 68-62 over Iowa (#20) – Advocare Invitational
- Worst Loss: Boston College, 45-62 to Santa Clara (#225) – Wooden Legacy
- Biggest Upset Win: Wake Forest (#75), 82-78 over Indiana (#25) – Maui Invitational
- Biggest Upset Loss: Notre Dame (#28), 68-70 to Monmouth (#103) – Advocare Invitational
Notre Dame’s inclusion above for both a win and a loss is emblematic of the ACC’s overall Feast Week performance. The league has another immediate chance to make a big national statement this week in the annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Coaches across the conference are surely hoping that the league’s big wins won’t be cancelled out by an equal number of disappointing defeats.