There's not much question that the ACC is down, but it only took one day to prove that the competitive heart of the conference still burns bright:
Georgia Tech gave Duke a tremendous game, covered on the main page, Wake Forest surprised a lot of people (but not us) by knocking off Virginia Tech, Virginia beat Miami by one in a taut second half, while Clemson, after struggling offensively for some time, clocked FSU 79-59.
Even in Chapel Hill, where we fully expected UNC to win by 40 or 50, BC showed significant signs of life though they lost by 23.
In short, it was a fun, exciting and in some ways thrilling day of ACC basketball.
It was distinctly possible that Duke could have been in last place and Wake Forest in first, which is something no one would have predicted on Friday.
Look, we know Virginia Tech isn't the biggest team in the world, but it's still stunning that Wake Forest outrebounded them 42-31. Travis McKie had almost a third of them personally, pulling down 15.
Here's the quote of the year so far: "It's a powerful weapon, the mind," said Jeff Bzdelik, after Wake's deliberate approach wreaked havoc on Tech's collective psyche. It's worth remembering that CJ Harris has been injured and was back for this game.
At 10-5 and 1-0 in the ACC, the Deacs have already surpassed last year overall and matched their conference record.
And like Georgia Tech, their confidence is bound to be up after Saturday's performance.
That can't possibly be the case for Florida State. When Princeton led FSU 27 to 10 at the half, we thought it was an anomaly.
Clemson had a 32-10 lead in the first half and went on a 20-0 run.
Everyone knows FSU is defensively oriented, but that suggests stopping someone. Clemson isn't exactly an offensive powerhouse this season:Â what the hell happened?
Ian Miller had 17 points and Bernard James hit 10, but no one else was really close to double figures.
Part of what happened was fouls: Clemson shot 28-33 from the foul line while FSU was just 10-13.
Recall if you will that the 'Noles took UConn to overtime in November.
In their recent losses, they've scored 41 against Harvard, 49 against Michigan State, 64 against Florida, 51 (in regulation) against Princeton and now 59 against Clemson.
Virginia's offense wasn't that great, but Mike Scott played well, finishing with 23, and UVa's defense is always tough. Miami is getting better, though not in time to pull this one out.
Kenny Kadji had 14 points and 10 boards, and Reggie Johnson had seven points and nine boards as he continues to work his way back.
Virginia shot just 38.2% but held Miami to 35.3%.
As expected, UNC was too much for Boston College. To general surprise, though, B.C. made things interesting, showing a lot of heart early and then cutting the lead to just nine at 59-50.
Of all the surprises on the first day of action, this was to us the biggest.
Carolina promptly stomped on their rally but still: it's an impressive accomplishment for a team starting five freshmen.
Harrison Barnes was impressive, shooting 10-15 and grabbing five boards and four rebounds.
UNC outrebounded B.C. 41/11 to 27/4.
In the Post Saturday, John Feinstein argued that the ACC is just another conference now. Don't buy it.
As we discussed the other day, the conference is in transition. As we have argued for the last several years, coaching is behind the decline. That has been largely addressed. Virginia, Maryland, State and Georgia Tech are in advanced states of repair, if nothing else then in terms of recruiting, and the rest are not far behind.
And as we saw Saturday, the basic driving force of the conference, the endlessly competitive nature of the league, has not changed in the slightest.
On Sunday night, we'll see where Maryland stands when they visit Raleigh. For many of us it'll be the first chance we get to see Alex Len in action, and that should be fun.
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