- Seminoles.com: On Monday night, Florida State won its first exhibition game over Embry Riddle, 95-73. The Seminoles trailed by six with about seven minutes left in the first half before ending the period with a 22-7 run to take control. Even though it’s only an exhibition contest, perhaps this will be a better Florida State team on the offensive end than they have been recently. Not only did they tally 95 points but they did so while shooting 59 percent from the field. Of course the traditional problems with ball-handling may once again be a trait of Leonard Hamilton‘s squad this season, as the Seminoles gave it away 19 times in this one.
- Sports Illustrated: Duke‘s Jahlil Okafor continues to get preseason love from the national media. This week, the big freshman is featured on one of SI’s College Basketball Preview regional covers. Last year the same magazine followed Jabari Parker around much of the year during his stellar one-and-done season for the Blue Devils. Like Parker, Okafor is a Chicago native that no one, including Mike Krzyzewski thinks will be around in college beyond this season.
- NBC Sports: The preseason watch list for the Bob Cousy Award came out on Tuesday. The ACC landed seven guards on the 36-man list, the most of any conference. Interestingly, only four of those have actually played in the league prior to this season: Duke’s Quinn Cook, Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan, North Carolina’s Marcus Paige, and London Perrantes of Virginia. League newcomers on the watch list include Terry Rozier of new ACC-member Louisville, Miami transfer Angel Rodriguez, and Duke freshman Tyus Jones. Cook and Jones are one of two teammate pairings to make the list, joining Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison and Tyler Ulis.
- SCACCHoops: Each year it seems more and more coaches, including some in the ACC, are opting to play other comparable schools in a so-called “secret scrimmage” before real games begin. The NCAA allows each program to have two preseason meetings with other college teams. Those games can be traditional exhibitions, played in front of the public and under regular game conditions (against non Division I schools), or they can be scrimmages against Division I programs. Note that it’s no longer allowable for NCAA DI teams to play touring national teams or AAU squads. The scrimmages must be non-publicly attended and can be conducted in any format agreeable to both coaching staffs. Since practically every head coach will take advantage of the chance to use both available meetings with other opponents, if your team is only playing one exhibition game, they probably are having a scrimmage with some DI school somewhere. Virginia‘s Tony Bennett obviously likes the scrimmage format better for preparation, as his Cavaliers don’t play any exhibitions. Instead they will tangle with Marquette and Georgetown in closed scrimmages.
- Yahoo Sports: In this era of college basketball, there’s no doubt that player transfers have become much more prevalent. Some schools, such as Iowa State have made a habit of bringing in significant transfers seemingly every year. In the ACC, N.C. State has become a popular landing place for perimeter players who leave other schools. Last year, former LSU Tiger Ralston Turner was a solid contributor for the Wolfpack and this year, Trevor Lacey is expected to have a huge impact. According to this list put together by Yahoo Sports last month, Lacey is the #1 rated eligible transfer in the country. Mark Gottfried already has another in the pipeline with Terry Henderson sitting out this season after leaving West Virginia. It’s worth noting that N.C. State has also been losing significant players via the transfer route, including a couple of 2012 McDonald’s High School All-Americans in Rodney Purvis and Tyler Lewis.