Every team’s season has a shape, a rhythm. In part that’s built into the schedule, which in turn is an amalgam of coach’s intent and league edict. Then, as the games unfold, as teams power or blunder through highs and lows, they reveal and develop strengths and weaknesses, punctuated by injury and the casual bounce of the ball.
In that context, a quick read on consecutive losses is telling. Only two ACC teams, Miami and NC State, have gone through mid-February while incurring a single, isolated defeat. And only two teams, Duke and Virginia, had suffered two and only two losses in a row by Valentine’s Day.