Written By Danny Morales
The Virginia Cavaliers currently sit at the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball standings but the ACC could see some shakeup during the final month of the season before the 2015 New York Life ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Virginia (21-1, 9-1 ACC) only has one loss in conference play and is a game ahead of Notre Dame going into Monday’s slate of games. The Cavaliers will only face one currently ranked opponent during their final 8 games and Virginia holds the tiebreaker over Notre Dame.
Notre Dame (21-4, 9-3 ACC), North Carolina (18-6, 8-3 ACC), Duke (20-3, 7-3 ACC) and Louisville (19-4, 7-3 ACC) all have 3 conference losses, but the Fighting Irish sit in second going into Monday, with a half game lead over the Tar Heels and a two game lead over the Blue Devils and Cardinals. Notre Dame has six games left this season with a game at Louisville on March 4th as their only real remaining test.
Duke might have the toughest road to to close out the season as the Blue Devils still have two games against North Carolina and Syracuse during their final eight games.
Louisville has eight games remaining on the season as well with the Cardinals closing their season with a two-game stint at home against Notre Dame and then Virginia to close out the season.
With five quality teams at the top of the standings battling for the top four seeds -- which receive byes for the first two rounds of the tournament -- and Syracuse (15-8, 6-4 ACC) being excluded from the field because of a self-imposed postseason ban, the last month of the season should make for some great basketball in the ACC.
Virginia Tech (9-14, 1-9 ACC) sit at the bottom of the standings with their single conference win over Pitt (16-8, 5-5 ACC). The Hokies still have games against Duke and Virginia remaining on their schedule as well as two games against Miami (15-8, 5-5 ACC).
Boston College (9-3, 1-9 ACC), Georgia Tech (11-12, 2-9 ACC) and Wake Forest (11-13, 3-8 ACC) currently sit in the 13,12 and 11th seeds respectively and if the season ended today would be playing on the first day of the ACC tournament.
The Rest of the ACC:
Clemson (14-9, 6-5 ACC) are sitting in the No. 6 seed going into Monday, with Pittsburgh and Miami half a game behind. The No. 5 and 6 seeds are also important because they get to play a team on the second leg of a back-to-back when they open up the ACC tournament on the second day.
NC State (14-10, 5-6 ACC) and Florida State (13-11, 5-6 ACC) are one game back of Clemson for that sixth seed. The Wolfpack have games against Virginia, Louisville and North Carolina coming up while the Seminoles have to take on Duke, Virginia and Louisville during the final stretch of the season, making it an uphill battle for both.
With so much room for change in the standings it's still tough to predict who will face who in the 2015 New York Life ACC Tournament on Tuesday, March 10 in Greensboro, North Carolina, but the jockeying for seeding will sure make the final month of ACC basketball interesting to watch.