Streakers

Hot starts to the ACC season

Duke is 11-0 heading into Saturday’s visit to Boston College, the first time since 2015 any ACC team compiled double-digit victories to start the season. Now, if Florida State defeats eminently beatable Tulane on Dec. 10, and Miami beats George Washington and Hawaii over the next two weeks, they’ll join Duke with at least 10 wins to open the 2017-18 season.

FSU last had 10 wins to open a season in 2004. That was its best run to start the year since joining the ACC in 1992, but was followed by losses in 14 of its last 23 games.

Miami’s best start since becoming an ACC member in 2005 was a dozen wins in 2008 under coach Frank Haith. With Jim Larranaga at the helm the Hurricanes’ best start was eight straight wins in 2015; the ’16 team lost its sixth game but otherwise won 13 of its first 14.

Last year’s best start was engineered by Notre Dame, which won its first nine and led No.1-ranked Villanova on a neutral court until fading in the second half.

In 2016 no one did better than a 6-0 run to open the season. Only four ACC teams won as many as four games to open the ’16 season; this year 10 did that well.

The starts by the ’15 leaders were impressive: 19 straight by UVa to open the season’s festivities, and 11 by Louisville in its opening run as an ACC member.

And of course the best ACC debut by a recent expansion member was turned in by Syracuse in 2014, when the Orange won their first 25 games of the season before losing in overtime at home against Boston College.

At the other end of the spectrum, nine ACC teams debuted with a loss over the past half-decade, among them Georgia Tech, Pitt and Wake this season.