Three ACC teams ended inside the top 10 of Ken Pomeroy’s finale tabulations for the 2015-16 season: North Carolina, the national runner-up, Virginia and Louisville. This was tied with the Big 12 for the most teams inside the top 10 at the end of the season. It’s early on, but the ACC is off to an even better start in 2016-17 — five teams, half of Pomeroy’s current top 10, hail from the league:
- No. 1 Duke
- No. 2 Virginia
- No. 3 North Carolina
- No. 7 Louisville
- No. 9 Syracuse
| Team | Ranking | Offensive Efficiency | Defensive Efficiency | Net Differential |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duke | 1 | 121.5 | 91.8 | 29.7 |
| UVA | 2 | 115.2 | 85.9 | 29.2 |
| UNC | 3 | 118.9 | 90.2 | 28.7 |
| Louisville | 7 | 110.4 | 86.3 | 24.1 |
| Syracuse | 9 | 110.3 | 89.5 | 20.8 |
Pomeroy ranks teams in order of adjusted efficiency margin. This is simply a team’s offensive efficiency (points per 100 possession) minus their defensive efficiency. Essentially, how many points a team score per possession, compared with how many points they allow per defensive possession.
There’s obviously a great deal of basketball left to be played — it’s not even December — and there will be plenty of moving and shaking. However, this bodes well for the ACC to once again stake its claim as the best basketball conference in the nation.
Quick Notes:
- No other conference can claim more than two more the top 10; the Big 12 is represented by both Kansas and Baylor.
- Duke ranks No. 1 in the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency
- UVA ranks No. 1 in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency
- North Carolina and Virginia join Kentucky, Kansas and Villanova as the only five schools to rank in the top 10 in terms of both offensive and defensive efficiency
- Louisville and Syracuse are the only two teams inside the top 10 to have offenses that rate outside the top 15 — No. 36 and No. 37, respectively
- The 18th annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge launches Monday night; the Big Ten has just one team inside KenPom’s top 10: Wisconsin (The ACC has won this event 10 times)
- The ACC has five more teams inside KenPom’s top 50: Miami (28), Notre Dame (29), Clemson (32), Virginia Tech (34) and Florida State (38)