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It Is Ninth-Tenths of the Law, After All

By T.H.

From Ken Pomeroy's indispensible college basketball stats, the raw average possessions for the ACC teams to date:

North Carolina       78.9
Virginia             75.7
Maryland             75.7
Georgia Tech         74.9
Wake Forest          73.6
Miami FL             69.6
Boston College       69.5
Clemson              68.5
North Carolina St.   68.1
Florida St.          67.7
Virginia Tech        67.7
Duke                 66.5
UNC is playing some of the fastest basketball in the country, behind only Washington and Houston in the major conferences, and 10 or so mid-major teams. Maryland is also pushing the tempo, unsurprisingly as they were the fastest team in ACC play last year. The surprising thing is Duke, who went from being almost as fast as the Terps last year to being the slowest team in the league this November - how much of that is a consequence of lacksadasial competition versus a shift in Blue Devil philosophy will be interesting to see as the season wears on.

Both strategies seem to be getting points, but everything looks efficient in December. Duke is throwing up an impressive defense, while N.C. State and Georgia Tech are compensating for poor play on that end with lots of points:

                     PPP         OPPP
Virginia            1.201       0.931
Georgia Tech        1.180       0.949
North Carolina St.  1.179       0.977
North Carolina      1.149       0.927
Wake Forest         1.137       0.973
Virginia Tech       1.126       0.879
Duke                1.116       0.798
Miami FL            1.110       0.917
Maryland            1.103       0.826
Clemson             1.094       0.839
Boston College      1.088       0.944
Florida St.         1.047       0.939
I'm curious as to how these will change as the season wears on.

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