058: Scoring offense and defense in ACC play
Plus, will ACC men's basketball have a NET problem again? Also, remember Julius Peppers?
North Carolina football has allowed 65 points in the fourth quarter over six conference games. NC State has allowed 87 points, in total, over six entire conference games.
On the flip side, North Carolina has scored 75 points in the second quarter of six conference games. Syracuse has scored 72 total points over seven league games this season.
The Tar Heels can score in bunches and surrender points in bunches too.
Here is how the rest of the ACC teams shake out when comparing scoring offense and defense, or points per game scored and allowed in conference play only.
# ACC teams: scoring offense
# and defense (points per game)
# sorted by offense ppg
Team OFF DEF
1 North Carolina 39.7 30.7
2 Florida State 34.0 17.0
3 Georgia Tech 31.7 30.6
4 Louisville 31.0 19.6
5 Virginia Tech 29.0 23.2
6 Boston College 26.8 32.0
7 Virginia 23.8 30.5
8 Duke 23.5 23.2
9 Clemson 22.6 22.6
10 Miami 22.3 26.2
11 Pittsburgh 20.0 28.8
12 NC State 17.8 14.5
13 Wake Forest 15.0 26.4
14 Syracuse 12.0 30.0 After an action packed Week 11, here are the updated conference standings and point differentials.
Florida State awaits its opponent in Charlotte for the conference title game in a few weeks. While the tie breaker scenarios are exhaustive, Louisville can beat Miami this week and end any debate.
Will ACC men’s basketball have a NET problem again?
Maybe?
Ken Pomeroy ranks the ACC as the sixth best conference today. The league feels mid-major-ish again.
Probably?
The league is 26-6 collectively so far. And while it’s only November, the average kenpom ranking of the teams that handed a league member a loss is 93.
Definitely?
Georgia Tech, Louisville, Notre Dame, Boston College, and Syracuse all project to finish with a losing overall record per Pomeroy. That’s 33 percent of the league.
The first NET rankings aren’t released for a few weeks. Given the conference’s commitment to an unbalanced schedule of 20 league games, we can expect the NET to be a bugaboo again for the league.
The last time North Carolina beat Clemson in Death Valley was 2001. A vivid memory from that game is this Julius Peppers interception on Woody Dantzler.
Peppers tips the pass up in the air, and catches it while falling to the ground. He finished with an interception and sack in the 38-3 win. Elite athlete1.
Peppers is the best athlete I’ve seen play in person. On the basketball court, he sort of reminded me of Rodney Rogers. And Zion Williamson sort of reminded me of Rogers too. Being that big and moving that fast is silly.