The ACC is a wide open field

Editor’s note:

Herald sports reporter Steve Hewitt is a voter in the Associated Press college basketball Top 25 poll. Every week through the end of the season, he’ll write a column providing some analysis and reasoning behind his votes.

There’s no doubt the ACC still has teams that will challenge for the national title this season. But if you take a look at this week’s Top 25, that might not look like the case.

When the Associated Press’ new poll was released on Monday, there were six teams on the list — and one of them is a questionable selection in this poll voter’s view. The highest-ranked team is Florida State at No. 15, with four teams — Duke, North Carolina, Louisville and Clemson — living in the back end of the poll from spots 21-24.

It speaks to the depth of the conference, but right now, there’s no clear-cut favorite. Virginia, No. 4 in the preseason, is at No. 17 this week but still unranked in my poll after its opening-week loss to San Francisco, so the jury is still out on the Cavaliers. Duke fell significantly after a home loss to Illinois, making it the first time in almost 40 years the Blue Devils have lost two non-league home games.

Florida State may look the most impressive after good wins over Indiana and Florida, but at this stage, the ACC is anyone’s to win.

Missouri was the biggest mover in this week’s poll after a victory over Illinois. The Tigers went from unranked to No. 13 in my poll and No. 16 in the AP. Coach Cuonzo Martin, after experiencing some tough luck with injuries over the last three seasons, may have something brewing with Missouri this year.

San Diego State is showing again that it should be commanding respect every year. The Aztecs had one of the best wins of the week with a 12-point road win over Arizona State. They debuted in my poll at No. 21 and climbed to No. 18 in the AP.