This week’s AP Top 25 poll is out; after seven days of moving and shaking, here’s a look at the five teams the landed in the top 25. Virginia remains No. 1 after playing just one game — a road win over Miami. Florida State, which struggled at times on Sunday against Pittsburgh, creeps back into the poll after a 2-0 week.
The ACC is the only league with three top 10 teams; the Big Ten, Big 12 and Big East all have two top-10 teams, each.
- No. 1 Virginia
- No. 5 Duke
- No. 10 North Carolina
- No. 15 Clemson
- No. 25 Florida State
Quick Thoughts
- ACC play continues to be a coming out party for De’Andre Hunter, who scored 22 points against Miami, including three three-pointers — a career high.
- Five of Hunter’s six three-point attempts came on spot-up possessions, per Synergy Sports; the rookie forward, who is scoring 33 points per 100 possessions in conference games, made three of those five spot-up attempts. Hunter also shot 3-of-4 on attempts after a cut. For the season, Hunter is shooting 62.5 percent on cut field goals.
- Duke has played a lot of zone this season, but the Blue Devils went to it full-time in wins over Virginia Tech and Clemson. Against the Tigers, Duke forced a steal on 15 percent of Clemson’s offensive possessions (10 total), per Sports Reference. That’s the third-highest rate of any ACC game this season: Pitt (17.2 percent), Wake Forest (15.3 percent).
- Trevon Duval and Grayson Allen each had four steals in the road win over Clemson; it was the first time since 2015 (Tyus Jones, Justise Winslow) that two Duke teammates have each had at least four steals in a game — that, too, occurred in a win against Clemson.
- North Carolina is up to No. 6 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency standings; the small-ball offense is working. According to Synergy, North Carolina has been very good against half-court man-to-man defenses: 0.94 points per possession, 46 FG%.
- Clemson dropped two games last week, including Sunday’s match with Duke when the Tigers suffered a power outage on offense. With Gabe DeVoe and Marcquise Reed struggling (2-of-14 3PA), Clemson went just 5-of-20 from beyond the arc, and attempted only 12 free throws. The result: Clemson’s second worst shooting game of the season — an effective rate of 38.5 percent. This trails just the January loss to Virginia, when the Tigers managed to score only 36 points.
- One of my favorite players in the ACC, three-point specialist P.J. Savoy, had his best game of the season in Florida State’s win over Pitt: 18 points, five three-pointers and an offensive rating of 139 points per 100 possessions, per KenPom.
- According to Synergy Sports, Savoy (1.09) is one of four Seminoles scoring at least 1.08 points per possession on spot-ups — along with Braian Angola (1.26), Phil Cofer (1.08) and M.J. Walker (1.13).
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