You Can Go Home Again

Now here’s a surprise. What are apt to be the ACC’s two worst teams, along with those directed by two of the most risk-averse coaches, orchestrated the league’s longest homestands this season.

That’s NC State and Pitt on the worst hand, and Georgia Tech and Syracuse on the other. (We’ll give Tech’s Josh Pastner, in his second season at Atlanta, the benefit of the doubt on establishing a pattern, although last year he twice played five in a row at home.)

Both the Wolfpack and the Orange also enjoy four-game home court streaks. Kevin Keatts’ team does it at the season’s outset, and plays 10 of its first 13 at Raleigh’s PNC Arena with a three-game, neutral court tournament in between.

Jim Boeheim’s club starts with a home six-pack, ventures three of four games away from the Carrier Dome, then retreats to northern New York for four more friendly-confines contests. Only one of the away games in December is on a hostile court – at Georgetown on Dec. 16.

Whether due to confidence, competitive calculation, quirk or coincidence, three ACC teams play no more than two consecutive home games this season. Duke and Florida State go back-to-back at home five times each, North Carolina four.