Do your Top 7 ACC rankings match up?

But right now, a little ACC basketball time.

I was wrong. Virginia Tech did not go to Virginia and beat the Cavaliers because the Cavaliers are the best, if not one of the two best teams in the ACC and Virginia Tech is not. They are, what, one and six now in the league and it makes, I'm sure, a lot of Tar Heel fans thinking, what happened up there?

I think they were a different team at the time. Candace Cooper, locked on ACC podcast, joining us. How are you, my friend? I'm pretty good. How are you? I'm doing very well. I gave you a homework assignment yesterday. You didn't know what it was about until I just said, hey, do this.

And you did it because you're a good person. Top seven teams in the ACC. I don't care how you rank them or why. Just what are they?

Yes. So I had Virginia and after last night, I feel good about my decision in NC State, Clemson, Wake Forest, Miami, UNC and Duke. All right. So we're going to start with number two there. We're going to start with NC State because I will be honest and that surprised me a little bit. I also think very highly of NC State. I have them ranked third on my list.

Why do you think so highly? Because that's I don't think we have any heavyweights in the ACC. I don't think we have a Final Four team. I'm pretty sure we don't have a Final Four team.

I'm not 100 percent sure. We've got a second weekend team. But what do you like about the Wolfpack? Because I like him too. Well, I like E.J. Burns. I think he is the big man energy that NC State has been missing for quite some time. Right. Shout out to B.J.

Anya that I think also, you know, just had that big man that bruiser in, you know, the paint. I also think that having Baby T and Joyner come together and just really be a really good backcourt is insane. And it's just an energy shift. I think they have a good, fresh energy and approach to the game versus, you know, being just content with being good. I think sometimes you need to go in and say, hey, yeah, UNC and Duke is cool, but clearly whatever's going on over there down the street isn't exactly working for them. And they're just playing together. And I think that's so critical for any teams that want to have some good tournament play. Yeah, I think when they get Dusan Mohortjic back, which they expect to get him back soon, I don't think it'll happen by Saturday.

They're going to be even better because it'll give them two different types of players down low that they can go to. So D.J. can play, oh, 16 to 18 minutes a game, which is what he did against Duke. The most incredible stat for me in that Duke game was that D.J. Burns only played 16 minutes. He had 18 points in 16 minutes. I swear he was on the court for 35 minutes. I watched that game and I'm like, he's always on the court, isn't he?

No, he barely plays. That's what you need from a big man. In and out, Duke, you got to be super effective, help get the W. So that all in all, you know, he's about that energy factor for sure. To me, the most impressive thing about State, I mean, look, Joyner's great and Terquavian Smith is great. I love Casey Morsell, year two of Casey Morsell.

Nobody saw this coming based on year one. Right. But you could tell that he learned how to play for from his year at Virginia because he has brought the defense, the offensive rebounding to do whatever it takes. But I've been most impressed with their half court defense, which is probably the best that Kevin Keats teams have been in the half court since he's been here. Yeah.

And I think they're just the fighting Keats, right? I think all the talk about Keats and whether or not he was going to be a good coach, I think that's really been put to bed, which is a nice and fresh change. We don't have to hear about hot seat every freaking week.

No, that is a fresh change. But I would just caution you, Candace Cooper, that the year is early. We're still in January. There is still a swoon.

And then we all know what will happen. I don't anticipate that happening because I think that's his State team. They've won four in a row. Past State teams probably wouldn't have backed up the Duke win with a win at Virginia Tech, no matter how bad Virginia Tech is playing right now. So you have UNC 6 and Duke 7. That is low for these two teams, for at least both of them. We don't have too many years where both of them are eh.

Why? Well, maybe this is right where they want to be, right? Everyone loves a sob story and a comeback story and everyone doubted a story. So I think that's what UNC is in the right position of people feeling like they aren't going to be the overall number one team again. But hey, like they they preach to us that it was one box out that gave us the opportunity to keep us from a championship. And yet sometimes they get out rebounded quite a bit in Armando Beccat.

He's going to be on one good ankle come March. So like, you know, what you want from me here? I'm trying my best. Right. You know, I also think that Caleb Love doesn't know a shot that he doesn't like and he'll shoot you in games and he'll certainly shoot you out of games.

So it's very stressful. You know, the ISO ball is intense in Chapel Hill. Isn't that what we saw last year, though? It was. And it was cute, you know, the first year because they were winning and a lot of things go unnoticed when you're winning.

And you also had that Brady manic effect, like Pete Nance and his bad back, you know, get old man issues like we got to get together. I know this is the time to get things together. Right.

Well, they've got basically two months that less less than that, really, to figure it all out. We're I think we're two months from the ACC tournament. So you've got Duke seventh.

I think there's an argument to be made and I got the same list from Joe Gilliam. I think there's an argument to be made that Duke might be eighth, to be perfectly honest, because I also had Duke seventh on my list. What do you think Duke's potential is realistic potential this year?

I think that they barely get into the tournament. And I think that Shire doesn't get enough flack for how, you know, listen, Coach K figured out that one and done approach and it's going to take him some time to figure out that one and done approach as well. And so Shire certainly has a group in front of him that hasn't figured out how to gel in their six months, seven months that they are going to be together.

So either the X knows have got to improve or you've got to figure out how to get that rotation a little more sound. But Filipowski, he's a bright spot, I will say. Filipowski, he's been great. I look at Duke and I don't see how they score. And especially without Jeremy Roach, my understanding is that we will more than likely not see Jeremy Roach on Saturday against Miami, which means I give me the hurricanes a thousand times in a row in that matchup. And Miami has been a problem for Duke anyway, regardless of whether or not Duke is healthy. But Tyrese Proctor, the adjustment from Australia and the competition he was playing against there to coming over late and the competition he's playing against here, he's not ready at this point to carry this team. So they have major guard issues. And I don't know how you over, you could deal with no forwards. I don't think you can deal with no guards. Especially not in anybody's tournament when we all know that they have to be the floor generals. And I think if you're going up against a really good Isaiah Wong, who is absolutely going to have his way against Proctor, is going to be a long day for the Blue Devils on Saturday. Yeah.

So here's the thing, though. Their record would have to be really bad in the league for them not to make the tournament because of the wins that they've got already. They've got really good wins already. But I don't know if net or anything like that really matters if you don't win enough games in the league. Your net all of a sudden looks like it's 58, which it could very easily be by the time we get into late February and March if they're not winning games.

And that will tell us everything about it. But I think they're going to win enough to get themselves in, but I just don't have any faith that they'll be able to score. I know our friend Brendan Marks from The Athletic has a breakdown of what Duke's potential is.

They just published a mailbag. But look, if you can't score, it's really hard to play. And I thought that maybe we'd see something like we saw in 2010, but that team had John Shire.

Right? Well, maybe John needs to give a better speech or some sort of experiential learning going on here. But whatever he's doing, it's honestly not working.

But hey, I don't think he's been given enough criticism yet. But I think it'll certainly come after you get the next group of four or five stars who are supposed to be the second coming for basketball. But the problem is what position those guys play. There's a lot of redundancy in the positions that they've got. And then they bring in guys like Ryan Young.

Ryan Young's a good player. I don't think he was expected to start coming in, but he's had to start. Derek Lively, hurt, hasn't really shown. I don't even know what Derek Lively's supposed to be.

I know what he was billed to be, but I don't see that. For whatever the reasons are. I think if Darique Whitehead had been healthy and not sick for a while, I think we might see something different. But I'm not with you on the criticism of Shire yet, because I just don't know what he could do because he doesn't have guards. And Jeremy Roach were healthy and playing, and they were still doing this.

Then I think we would have some real conversations. But they really expected Jeremy Roach to be. Your ceiling for North Carolina is what? I was ready to go back to Houston. Honestly, I really thought that we were going to make another trip. But after seeing a couple of L's, I'm not sure where this team is going to be.

I think it can do elite eight. I honestly feel like it's an elite eight energy for UNC. I don't see them getting back to championship though. Look, what we saw at the end of last year, it's there, right? We saw Caleb Love being a more dynamic, or at least giving us more positive, streaky Caleb Love.

But we saw both of it last year. I think R.J. Davis has been exactly what we've expected R.J. Davis to be. I don't know why we've been going through this, well, R.J. Davis isn't, no, this is who R.J. Davis is. He's a good, solid player who's a good shooter. Bacon's already got the one ankle thing going, and he's already still putting up double doubles.

He's a machine, an absolute machine. We don't know about Pete Nance, and we really don't know about the bench. That's the thing that, like I know they're playing guys, and there's guys that are giving them something, but they're not getting enough out of their bench. To where I think that what happened last year can happen this year. Yeah, I think that's a Hubert Davis problem though, right? Because you have to give the rotation. If you saw last year's championship game, those boys were just gassed.

If Brady Manning had two more sips of muscle milk, we might be talking about a different team. And yet here we are. Why are we not giving DeMarco, Donner, Dontres, Stiles, any bird? I don't understand, but you're going to learn the hard way once again, Hubie. And I just, it's getting frustrating. Sometimes, you know, you got to do what you got to do. But all I'm saying is those guys who are your starters are going to need a little help.

Yeah, I understand that. The only thing I'll say is that they're getting some time, but it's what do you do with that time? And at some point, if you're not doing a lot with that time or enough with that time, then we go back to the other guys once the rest has been achieved. But this team is still- You got to give people, Adam, Adam, you got to give people longer than four minutes for a chance. You have to. Four minutes and they mess up twice. Like, come on, like just in point. Now that's quick. Don't mess up twice.

Don't mess up twice. That's what I'm saying. Look, I think this team will go as far as Caleb Love will take them. 100% agree.

And I think, honestly, I think this team will go as far as Armando Baycott's ankle will take them. Well, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make a difference. He doesn't even need ankles. He's not giving the ball. Yeah, you're right. I mean, no, but he's still going to get 20 and 16. He is.

It's an automatic. You write it down now. Before the game starts, Armando Baycott against NC State, 20.16 rebounds. Now, what happens on Saturday, Candace?

Between NC State and North Carolina? Yes. I think that all the talk that Baby T like to say, I think he's going to back. I think the team is going to back up.

It's an energy. Like, I don't know. I don't think that UNC took it personally enough. I feel like those guys are going to come in. And by guys, I mean the Wolfpack are going to make a little noise.

And I hope they do that. I think North Carolina needs a good punch in the mouth. A good reality check from a rival will do you some good. You know, it's never too bad to say, yeah, you're not that great.

Like the name of the chess. You're going to have to do a little more than just be on UNC's team in order to be successful. I talked about this yesterday. I actually think this game is more important for North Carolina than it is for NC State. From this standpoint, one, UNC still has not beaten a really good team yet. So they have that hanging out there.

That's the one. I mean, Ohio State, they won that game. Thank you, Ohio State, because it was just gifted back to them. Hey, Carolina had to take advantage of the gift and they did full marks for that. But they haven't gone out and looked like the better team against a really good team to date. And whether they're better or not than NC State, I think they're at the very least very similar. That's important from that standpoint. And I think state, if you're in a rivalry game, if you're going to play twice, which these two teams always do, I always would rather play the first one on the road.

That's a free shot. You're not supposed to win on the road. I think so. I don't know what's going to happen, but I think this game is more important to the Torriels.

Oh, absolutely. I think a nice little punch in the mouth from NC State will do you and see some good. And I hope it happens. I'd rather NC State win this one, keep their streak alive than to have North Carolina feeling like they're back and get a little too complacent and then mess around and drop another one that they shouldn't lose. So this is reverse psychology for you, Candace Cooper, because what you want here, if I could read between the lines, is that you want NC State to start feeling big about themselves so they get knocked down. Do you see what I did there? I do see what I did.

I do see what you did there. The way that backfires, of course, is that they get really confident and now we see what this team is really capable of. And I think this team could end up being on top of all of our lists when we get to the end of it. As they deserve.

Yeah, as they deserve. You know, it's high time to get a little love around the triangle. Candace Cooper, I appreciate your time. Locked on ACC podcast. Thank you very much, my friend. At Candace D. Cooper on Twitter. Thank you very much.