A Look At Last Season's Close ACC Games

Winning close games was, as you might expect, a good indicator of how teams ultimately fared in 2014. But not entirely.

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Three of the top four squads in the final standings also enjoyed three of the five highest winning percentages in close encounters. Yet the leading success rate was realized by a Wake Forest unit that was one game above .500 overall and won only a third of its ACC contests.

Wake was closest at the end of games less often than anyone else, so its 3-0 success rate isn't all that impressive. But getting close wasn't a guarantee of anything: Duke had the second-fewest close games and still finished tied for third and won 26 times overall, 13 in the ACC.

Miami, which finished 10th in the ACC in 2014 with a 7-9 mark, was within striking distance at the end more regularly than anyone else in the ACC (42.4 percent of the time). That's a rather handsome affirmation of coach Jim Larranaga's strategic intentions. He aimed to keep games close so that, with a squad replacing all five starters and possessing scant ACC experience, the Hurricanes still were positioned to seize victories at the last.

That Miami was 1-6 in overtime outings, and nearly topped then-undefeated Syracuse at the Carrier Dome in early January using slowdown tactics, reflected the effectiveness of Larranaga's approach.

You might also conclude that losing heavily in close games was a very bad sign, indicative of weakness overall. After all, the two bottom teams in the conference standings, Virginia Tech and Boston College, proportionally failed most often in close contests.

But so did Maryland (surely you remember Maryland), which ended up tied for seventh in its final ACC season.