As Jones goes, the Blue Devils go. Duke now finds itself the No. 1 team in the country and should probably hold onto that title until a December 3rd trip to East Lansing when they face off against the formerly No. 1 Michigan State Spartans.
I think it's fair to say that at some point North Carolina is going to need someone other than Cole Anthony to carry the offense. Through three games, Anthony leads the Tar Heels in scoring with 27.3 points per game, leading all freshman scorers in the nation.
While Anthony is sure to be a sensation he can't single-handedly carry the Tar Heels to where they annually expect to be.
The next closest scorers are junior forward Garrison Brooks, 11.3 points per game, and grad transfer Justin Pierce, 10.3 points per game. Thus far, Charleston Southern grad transfer Christian Keeling, 6.0 points per game, hasn't provided the scoring punch that Roy Williams has expected.
Maybe when Brandon Robinson returns, which is expected to be in time for the Heels trip to the Bahamas for the "Battle for Atlantis", that'll give an offense that is rated deceptively fifth by KenPom in adjusted offensive efficiency a much-needed boost.
I'd expect come mid-to-late February, the Heels to have rounded into form, as most Williams' teams have done. It'll be interesting to know then which of the other Heels has aided Anthony along the way.
Objectively, Wake Forest is not a very good basketball team. Whether that's because of coaching, which most would tell you is, or a lack of talent, the Demon Deacons don't seem to do much of anything right.
The final seconds of Sunday night's 67-65 overtime loss to Charlotte, illustrated yet another example of just how inept this team has been under head coach Danny Manning.
Despite having an opportunity to foul Charlotte in the final moments, Wake allowed the Niners to advance the ball past mid-court and dribble out the clock.
Those events are even more mind-boggling when you take into account the fact that Charlotte players were expecting a foul and fully prepared to give themselves up.
Following what amounted to a two-game suspension, Wolfpack junior forward D.J. Funderburk made his return to the lineup Wednesday night. Funderburk came off the bench scoring 11 points and grabbing 7 rebounds during the Packs 86-77 victory over Florida International.
Kevin Keatts chose to bring Funderburk off the bench again on Saturday in the Wolfpacks 95-64 thrashing of St. Francis (NY). It'll be interesting to see how Keatts continues to deploy his starting center.
It doesn't matter so much who starts, as it does how Keatts decides to utilize the pair moving forward.
The presence of both is why I'm a big fan of the roster composition of this NC State team and am high on what they can achieve in 2019-20.
What a week for Ron Sanchez and his Charlotte 49ers basketball program.
The Niners followed up Tuesday's demolition of Davidson with an overtime win over Wake Forest. Albeit an anemic and highly disappointing Demon Deacons team, but still a win against an in-state ACC team.
This past week should go a long way on the recruiting trail for Sanchez and restore a belief in the program that hasn't been there it about a decade.
Part of that belief should rest on the shoulders of uber-talented freshman point Jahmir Young.
Young shined on Sunday night at Halton Arena, scoring a game-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting, helping to earn himself Conference USA Freshman of the Week honors for the second straight week.
Davidson head coach Bob McKillop felt that his team lacked joy in the first two months of the season.
Whether it was during a "secret" scrimmage at Tennessee or in the first two contests against Auburn and Charlotte.
It's no secret that there was an abundance of preseason media expectations for a Davidson team that returned it's starting five for the first time since 2012-13 season.
Junior guard Kellan Grady expressed a similar sentiment to his head coach, saying that the team was "pressing" in the first two games.
McKillop said on his radio show that Davidson was "exposed" in the first two games. Davidson struggled to contend defensively, which led McKillop to spend the day after the Charlotte loss going over film and spending an hour and 15 minutes of practice on defense.
Following the 91-71 win against Nevada, McKillop acknowledges that he doesn't have anyone on his roster that he would consider a "lockdown defender" and felt that the team's poor scoring outputs led to a diminished return on the defensive end.
Because of this, his team needed to find it's "connectivity" on the defensive end, which he believes it has.
McKillop believes that "joy comes before success". Well, the joy came back on Saturday night in an 87-49 win over UNC-Wilmington.
Now the success has also returned with back-to-back wins prior to a meeting with Wake Forest at the Spectrum Center in uptown Charlotte.
Why: Charlotte is coming off of two impressive wins last week and will look to keep up the momentum in Boone.
Why: Duke is the top-ranked team in America playing at the World's Most Famous Arena.
Why: Davidson has a shot at a win against an ACC opponent coming off of a loss at Charlotte.