The ACC started conference play over the weekend, with 7 league games played over the span of 3 days.

The weekend provided little clarity, outside of the fact that North Carolina, at least for now, is hardly an NCAA Tournament team, let alone a team that warranted the preseason No. 1 ranking. The Tar Heels’ 0-2 week did include 2 brutally difficult road games at then-No. 18 Indiana and at reigning ACC tournament champion Virginia Tech, but before the season, would you have bet money on North Carolina dropping both games? That seems unlikely, and while it isn’t “panic time” in Chapel Hill just yet, the start is disconcerting.

Another disquieting sign? This was a league that was supposed to be much, much better (read: deeper) in 2022-23 after managing to secure just 5 bids to last season’s NCAA Tournament. Early returns? It might not be any deeper, even if the “top” of Virginia, Duke and North Carolina, whenever they get their act together, is better overall.

Here are a few notes from in and around the ACC as conference play begins to pick up.

Virginia Tech surging

One team that could be better this season? Mike Young’s Hokies. Based on Selection Sunday seeding, Virginia Tech likely only made the NCAA Tournament because it won the conference tournament last March. This season? It’s hard to see Virginia Tech as anything but a lock come Selection Sunday. As usual, computers love the Hokies, especially on offense, where they rank among the top 20 in KenPom Adjusted Offensive Efficiency a month into the season. Their lone loss was a 2-point defeat to College of Charleston on its home floor at the Charleston Classic. Otherwise? They are rolling teams, and Justyn Mutts, a preseason ACC Player of the Year candidate at Saturday Road, has been sensational, scoring in double figures in 6 consecutive games and playing his usual brand of dogged defense. Mutts had 43 points and 20 rebounds during last week’s victories over Minnesota and North Carolina. The fact he is scoring makes the sharpshooting guard trio of Hunter Cattoor, Sean Pedulla and Darius Maddox all the more lethal.

Is it time to recalibrate expectations for Clemson?

It seems like we go through this every 2 seasons or so with a Brad Brownell Clemson team. Are the Tigers really good? Or are they just really good sometimes but for the most part, wildly inconsistent? Here we go again, I guess.

The Tigers lost a nightmare of a game early against rival South Carolina. They’ve rebounded by winning 6 of 7 since, with the lone loss coming by 3 points to a good Iowa team during Feast Week. Last week, they picked up 2 quality wins, defeating Penn State and Wake Forest at Littlejohn Coliseum for a pair of Quad 2 victories. The best news in those games? PJ Hall has looked healthy. The big man was magnificent against Wake Forest in the 77-57 win Friday night, pouring in 21 points and grabbing 8 rebounds in his 2nd start of the season. He also added this “not in my house” block of Tyree Appleby, who once hosted Hall on a visit to the University of Florida.

Hall now started 2 consecutive games after an earlier-than-expected return from offseason surgery. If he’s healthy and a “full go,” Brownell might have something surprising cooking this season at Clemson.

At Virginia, “Defend without fouling” isn’t just a thing coaches say – it is a bona fide weapon

The Cavaliers are doing something astonishing through the season’s first month. They basically are not fouling. Virginia is 15th in free-throw rate against — meaning you better score in the half-court offense because the Cavaliers aren’t sending you to the line. Not only are they defending at a high level, which you expect from a Tony Bennett team, but they also are getting to the foul line at a ridiculous rate. The Cavaliers rank 4th in the country in free-throw rate, meaning they are spending a great amount of time at the charity stripe.  Considering the Cavaliers are 361st in the country in tempo, they are doing all of this with fewer possessions per game than almost anyone in the sport. So much for the “Tony Bennett and Virginia don’t run good offense” mythology.

Virginia spent a great amount of time as a staff this past summer emphasizing spacing and thinking of how it could do a better job of getting the ball to the bevy of wings moving downhill. “We felt that with the way so many people switch these days, it would benefit us to change the way we space the floor a little and try to create better driving opportunities,” a Virginia assistant told Saturday Road. That has worked. Virgin is shooting just 73.5% as a team at the stripe — a number “we’d love to improve,” the staffer told me. But the Hoos have 4 players who already have shot 25 or more free throws this season: Kihei Clark, Kadin Shedrick, Reece Beekman, and Jayden Gardner, and during last week’s win at Michigan, they made 2 more free throws (12) than Michigan attempted (10). The final margin? Two points.

Duke made shots last week, which is just the beginning for this team

After shooting poorly in Portland, Ore., the biggest question facing Duke after a 6-2 start and runner-up finish at the PK 85 Phil Knight Legacy event was whether the young Blue Devils had enough scorers to maximize the talent of the roster defensively and in the frontcourt. Last week doesn’t answer those questions, but it sure did help. The Blue Devils were 5-for-13 from beyond the 3-point arc during their victory over No. 25 Ohio State and even better (8-for-21) in their ACC opener against Boston College. The Blue Devils won both games pulling away and more vitally, appear to have gotten Mark Mitchell (15 points, 2 3-pointers) going again after a sluggish trip out west. Meanwhile, Jeremy Roach keeps making winning plays, giving coach Jon Scheyer a guy he can rely on in crunch time while the Blue Devils wait on Dariq Whitehead to breakout as the team’s best finisher.

Duke still is a work in progress, but if Scheyer’s team starts to score efficiently, the frontcourt of Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively II, along with the size of Mitchell on the wing, is going to take over basketball games on the defensive end and give this Duke team a championship-caliber ceiling.

Games to watch this week in the ACC:

All times are Eastern.

Dayton at Virginia Tech (Wednesday, 8 p.m., ACC Network) — The Flyers are better than their record, at least if you value high-level analytics, which keep Dayton among the top 75 from an efficiency and pure performance standpoint. The 5-4 start features multiple losses by 5 points or less, including a heartbreaking 1-point loss to Wisconsin at the Battle of Atlantis. Virginia Tech’s lone defeat this season came against College of Charleston, a mid-major which can punch above its weight — and the Flyers fit that mold.

Pitt at Vanderbilt (Wednesday, 9 p.m., SEC Network) — Pittsburgh is quietly 5-1 in games when John Hugley IV plays. A trip to Memorial Gym, with its elevated floor, benches behind the basket, and weird shooting background, is tricky, but this would be a quality win for a Pitt team that wants to claw its way to respectability and perhaps even bubble chatter in 2022-23.

Louisville at Florida State (Saturday, 1 p.m., ACC Network) — A battle of teams that have combined for 1 win this season. Something has to give! If you are that person who slows down to see every accident on the side of the road, this is the game for you.

Georgetown at Syracuse (Saturday, 1 p.m., ABC) – For the sentimental Big East fan in you, this is a good viewing alternative to the train wreck that will be Louisville and FSU. To be fair, these 2 teams aren’t much better, but at least there’s Patrick Ewing Sr. and Jim Boeheim, right?

Loyola Chicago vs. Clemson, Atlanta (Saturday, 7:30 p.m., ACC Network) — Brad Brownell’s team faces a Loyola Chicago team that has not had the start to its Atlantic 10 dream it hoped for this autumn. The Ramblers really can shoot, though (87th nationally in effective field-goal percentage, per KenPom), and Clemson will need to stay solid defensively to avoid an upset.

Marquette at Notre Dame (Sunday, 4 p.m., ESPN2) — The Fighting Irish are a tough team to figure out. Are they the group who routed then-No. 20 Michigan State last week? Or are they the group who lost days later on that same home floor to a middling Syracuse squad? What is clear is Mike Brey’s club will need quality, out-of-conference wins on its resume to avoid another First Four-type season and the Fighting Irish can snag a juicy Quad 1 win Sunday if they upend Shaka Smart’s Marquette team, which again feels NCAA Tournament bound.