The Associated Press released their second set of rankings for the 2016-17 basketball season, and as expected, there was not a ton of change as far as the ACC is concerned. The nation’s best basketball conference has five teams represented in the latest poll, including the top-ranked Duke Blue Devils, who received 58 out of 65 first place votes following their swift 2-0 start to the new campaign.
In addition to Duke, the North Carolina Tar Heels and Virginia Cavaliers remained in the top 10 following both teams’ undefeated starts to the season. The ‘Heels drop in at number five, while the ‘Hoos sit at eighth this week. Rounding out the ACC representation in the the top 25 are the Louisville Cardinals at number 12, and the Syracuse Orange at number 18.
While there is plenty for fans of the conference to be excited about in the second edition of the top 25, there are other teams appearing to be right on the cusp of being ranked should they endure a successful second week to the season. The Florida State Seminoles were third in the “Others Receiving Votes” category, the Miami Hurricanes were sixth, the NC State Wolfpack were seventh, the Virginia Tech Hokies were eighth, and Notre Dame was 10th. In other words, the ACC effectively has nine teams ranked in the top 35 nationally, speaking to not only the top-level talent within the conference thus far, but to the depth of the ACC as well.
Here are the full rankings, with first-place votes listed in parentheses.
1) Duke (58)
2) Kentucky (1)
3) Villanova (5)
4) Oregon
5) North Carolina
6) Indiana (1)
7) Kansas
8) Virginia
9) Wisconsin
10) Arizona
11) Xavier
12) Louisville
13) Michigan State
14) Gonzaga
15) Purdue
16) UCLA
17) Saint Mary’s
18) Syracuse
19) West Virginia
20) Iowa State
21) Rhode Island
22) Creighton
23) Texas
24) Cincinnati
25) California
Thanks for reading everyone! Follow me on Twitter @MikeMcDanielACC and check out InsideTheACC on Facebook and on Twitter @InsideTheACC.