When February rolls around in the ACC, things begin to take shape and teams begin to make their move. This season, it was supposed to be UNC at the top, with everyone else playing for second. Things have changed, however, and the league looks much more balanced than anyone expected at the beginning of the year.

Coach K and his overachieving Duke squad sit atop the league standings, with a couple of quality wins against Clemson and at Maryland. National and regional pundits were slow to give a lot of respect to Duke in the preseason, given the way they finished last season. Somehow, Duke has managed to outplay its expectations, though, in running their ACC record to a perfect 6-0. It’s hard to know what to make of Duke at this point, though, as their toughest test lies ahead in a game against North Carolina next week.

The Tarheels looked unbeatable when they were cruising through an uncharacteristically weak non-conference schedule, but things have slowed down a little bit since UNC entered ACC play. They stole a win at Clemson that they had no business taking, and then struggled at Georgia Tech before falling at home to a pretty pedestrian Maryland squad. The loss of Bobby Frasor looks to have taken a lot out of the Tarheels, as point guard Tywon Lawson still doesn’t seem to understand how to pace himself.

Then, there’s Clemson. Most would say that this team should emerge, when it’s all said and done, as the league’s third best team. They’ve started the year 3-3, but two of those losses have come at the hands of UNC and Duke. Clemson has all of the pieces to finish with 10 ACC wins, but they need to get healthy. Senior forward James Mays has been playing with a fractured hand for three weeks and center Trevor Booker recently suffered a sprained ankle. On the outside, freshman point guard Demontez Still, who has started all 20 games this year, will miss the next two weeks with an injured knee. If the Tigers can get all of their personnel back into the fold, they should contend for third place in the league.

Who emerges after those three is anyone’s guess. Maryland, Boston College, and Georgia Tech appear to be the top contenders, although it would be unwise to sleep on teams like Florida State and N.C. State. The league goes legitimate twelve deep and there are a host of teams that can play at a high level on any given night. One team to look out for is Miami, not because of its highly touted guard play, but because it has a pair of big men who know how to make plays around the basket.