This looks familiar.
Seven games into the 2018-19 season, the ACC already is down to a single undefeated team. Who else but the Hoos, winners of 31 of 34 games last season including eight to start, with 15 straight from mid-December to early February?
Last year at this time, shortly after the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, there were four conference clubs without a loss – Duke, Virginia, Florida State and Miami. The Blue Devils went on to win 11 consecutive games before a defeat at Boston College.
This year it’s just the Cavaliers at 7-0, with lightweight Morgan State visiting Charlottesville on Monday.
The best start of the 2016-17 season was engineered by Notre Dame, which won its first nine and led No.1-ranked Villanova on a neutral court until fading in the second half.
In 2015-16 no one did better than a 6-0 run to open the season. Only four ACC teams won as many as four games to open; this year nine squads won at least five at the season’s outset.
The starts by the 2014-15 leaders were impressive: 19 straight by UVa to open the season’s festivities, and 11 by Louisville in its opening run as an ACC member.
And of course the best ACC debut by a recent expansion member was turned in by Syracuse in 2013-14, when the Orange won their first 25 games of the season before losing in overtime at home against Boston College.
At the other end of the spectrum, nine ACC teams have debuted with a loss since the latest wave of expansion in 2014, although none this season.
FAST OUT OF THE GATE Wins to Start Season Since Last 4 ACC Expansion Members Added |
||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Team | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
Boston College | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Clemson | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Duke | 5 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
Florida State | 5 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
Georgia Tech | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Louisville | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 11 | X |
Miami | 5 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 0 |
North Carolina | 5 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
NC State | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
Notre Dame | 2 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
Pittsburgh | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
Syracuse | 2 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 25 |
Virginia | 7* | 8 | 7 | 1 | 19 | 1 |
Virginia Tech | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Wake Forest | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
*Ongoing streak. |