Not that a lot of poll watching is worthy anything right now or really ever for that matter.
As expected the loss to Boston College costs the Heels their #1 ranking and elevated Pitt to the top of the poll though one coach and two members of the media still think the Heels are #1. Who is #2 you may ask? Duke, which is debatable but since they beat VT by 25 while the Heels were losing that is how the poll usually breaks. Wake Forest is now #4 setting up a scene that looks like 2005 all over again. Anyone want to lay money on Duke and UNC winning out until their matchup coupled with a Pitt loss to setup another 1-2 game in Cameron? Me, neither though the prospect is fun to consider.
Clemson is #11 in the coaches poll and #12 in the AP. Boston College is #17 in the AP while the coaches give them the more reasonable #23 slot. I for one will be pulling for them in every game they play from here on out just so this loss looks better though that is like “putting lipstick on a pig.”
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At least it isn’t college football, otherwise we’d all know how USC (the real one) fans feel every year…
I still do not feel inferior to either Duke or Pitt.
“I for one will be pulling for them in every game they play from here on out just so this loss looks better though that is like ‘putting lipstick on a pig.’”
Agreed, but I would like to see them lose at least 2 so that UNC at least has a shot at the ACC crown!
It’s a long season. As the Zen master said, “We’ll see.”
Zen Master. Are you referring to Phil Jackson?
We’ll be fine… as long as we don’t face the Flex offense again. Or better yet find a cure for our ineptness at defending against it.
THF, you need to watch it. the republicans made it clear that the “lipstick” comment was sexist.
=)
i personally would love to beat a #1 to regain the #1 spot. but something tells me unc will lose and dook will lose more until we meet up in february. but then again, so will pitt and wake and uconn. omg. put your seat belts on, it looks like it’ll be a one heck of an interesting ride until march madness.
I’m more upset by dook jumping ahead of us than us losing to BC.
Not bad. I thought that we would go down to at least five. Dook is dook and Pitt is fine but we will always know that we are the true number one. What I don’t lke is the State fans being all “were ahead of UNC in the standings!” because of our ACC loss. That just irks me.
I has been very interesting to me that folks are obsessing over the BC loss and not thinking ahead to next weekend. The way we played defense last night, Wake is going to be very, very hard to beat.
What difference does it make what Carolina is ranked as long as they get a #1 or #2 seed? We were number one most of last year and I don’t think we were ever number one in 2005. The only thing that matters now is winning the national title. The ACC titles are irrelevant as is the ranking.
william, I agree with everything but your last sentence regarding ACC titles. I think they are always relevant; the ranking not mattering until the end of the season.
It can be argued that an ACC regular season crown is more of an accomplishment than winning either tourney. To win the tourneys, luck is every bit as essential an element as talent is. Just look at any of UNC’s last 3 titles…
Back in the day, the ACC tourney was almost everything. The ACC did not win a national title between 1957 and 1974, which seems incredible to us now. Duke and Carolina both made it to NCAA finals in the 60’s and both got torched by UCLA in games that weren’t close. Carolina’s loss to UCLA was the worst ever until UNLV beat Duke by 30 or so in 1990.
We talk about number one rankings but I don’t believe that Carolina was ranked number one between 1958 and some time in the late 70’s and that might have been for a week or two. It was only starting in 1982 that Carolina being ranked number one became a fairly regular occurence. I remember when I was a kid in the mid-70’s thinking it would be pretty amazing if Carolina could just get into the top five.
South Carolina actually was ranked number one for a week or two back in 1970 but I don’t know whether they actually thought they could beat UCLA. Alcindor had graduated and UCLA was seen as weaker that year, but they still had Curtis Rowe and Sydney Wicks, two future top NBA’ers. What really decimated USC I believe was not finally winning the ACC championship that had been dominated for so many years by UNC, Duke, Wake and State, each of whom had won titles during the 70’s, in order to give the state of North Carolina some payback.
USC finally got its title the next year and left the ACC with a highly regarded program led by Frank McGuire and UNC-grad Donnie Walsh. You can’t do much better than that at the top, but leaving the ACC took away USC’s rivals and then Walsh was made to leave over recruiting improprieties (although not infractions apparently) and the USC program never recovered.
Carolina in 1972 with Bob McAdoo was seen as the first ACC team since 1957 to really have a chance to win it all but they played an atrocious first half and fell more than 20 points behind Florida State in the national semi’s (with no shotclock or three pointer, how do you get so far behind?)–does that sound familar?
Carolina got to within five at the end, 81-76 but it was left for NC State in 1974 to give the ACC its first NCAA title in 17 years. When John Wooden was asked at the press conference after the semi’s what he thought of FSU, he said, “I don’t know–all you reporters said we would be playing North Carolina.”