Roller coaster ACC tough to call

After No. 24 Duke lost to Miami on Monday, there’s a good chance the Blue Devils will lose their ACC ranking for the first time since 2007.

Duke’s struggles after dropping three out of four games since mid-January, coupled with winning records by usually weak teams like Clemson and Virginia Tech, reflect a larger theme in the ACC this year for men’s basketball.

No team is safe, and there will be no easy wins (except Boston College — sorry, Eagles).

The season’s unpredictability makes conference assessment hard, but it may be worth taking a look at the wild ACC season. Here are a few takeaways from the early returns of conference play.

Does anyone want to win this thing?

It might seem like only No. 2 North Carolina (7-0 ACC) does right now. But some of those wins, including close victories at Virginia Tech and against Wake Forest, suggest lackadaisical play for a team with Final Four aspirations.

UNC forward Brice Johnson is a perfect microcosm of the team’s tendency to slack off: to kick off conference play, he shot just 1-8 for three points with two turnovers. Then, just five days later, he amassed 39 points and 23 rebounds in a dominant performance.

After UNC, the next eight teams are all within two games of each other, ­­including Pitt, whose 5-2 ACC record sits tied for third with Miami, Clemson and Notre Dame.

Any of those teams are within striking distance of the top spot, and coaches and players know struggling teams like Virginia (4-3) and NC State (1-6) can pick up their play quickly and compete. Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried said the relentlessly tough ACC schedule has contributed to his team’s slow start after it beat Pitt on Jan. 19.

“This is my fifth year in this league, and I don’t think there’s any doubt that, from top to bottom, one to 15, this is the deepest and best the ACC has been,” Gottfried said.

The best example of the conference’s current parity is Pitt’s Wednesday game against Clemson. If the Panthers win, they stay at third in the conference, but if they lose, they drop to seventh.

Mission for March

With that kind of depth in the conference, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi currently predicts the ACC will send an NCAA-best eight teams to the NCAA Tournament: North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, Louisville, Pitt, Duke, Notre Dame and Clemson. Additionally, Lunardi says Florida State and Syracuse are on the bubble, and a few more key wins could launch them into the tournament picture.

Overall, 10 of the conference’s 15 teams have a shot at March Madness. While attrition through tough competition will make it very difficult for all 10 to make it, a number that high is still impressive. Last year, six ACC teams made the cut.

Still, with so many matchups against quality opponents, anybody can build a solid tournament resumé.

“There are enough hopefuls and more than enough quality matchups left for the ACC to hover around its current bid total all the way into March,” SB Nation’s Chris Dobbertean wrote.

NBA talent in the ACC

It makes sense that a conference with a glut of quality teams also boasts several future NBA draft picks.

UNC’s Johnson might be the best of the bunch, but Duke’s top NBA draft prospect, Brandon Ingram, could have him beat. Ingram and teammate Grayson Allen create a troublesome scoring tandem for opponents, even if the opponents haven’t struggled to beat the Blue Devils lately.

“[Allen and Ingram are] two extremely talented players on a painfully underachieving team,” wrote Bleacher Report’s Kerry Miller. “It’s tough to decide which one is more important to the team’s success.”

From Louisville’s Damion Lee to Notre Dame’s Demetrius Jackson to NC State’s Cat Barber, the Panthers will often face teams with at least one star player each time out.

Two players in the conference, Barber and Allen, average more than 20 points per game, and the former already torched the Panthers for 31 points.

Pitt has a couple of those caliber players itself in forwards Jamel Artis and Michael Young, who are combining for 33 points and 11 rebounds per game.

Pitt will face off against Clemson this Wednesday at 7 p.m., most likely adding another exciting chapter to an already tumultuous ACC season.