We here at RTC hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday. Of course, we kept on our eye on ACC hoops for you while you were eating and possibly dabbling in the football-viewing arena. It’s only week two in the season, but there continue to be teams and players who are continuing to excel or providing disappointing early returns. Below is this week’s ACC Stock Watch:

Trending Up

• Duke. Sure, they’re obliterating lesser competition, but their win over Stanford in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic was a great sign because Jahlil Okafor was not dominant and yet the team was composed and beat a good Cardinal team. Tyus Jones (roughly five-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio through six games) and Justise Winslow (14 points per game on 45% shooting thus far) continue to show that they are beyond their years as freshmen and can help cover for a game where Okafor doesn’t play up to his standards.

Trevor Lacey had a sensational second week to keep the Wolfpack undefeated on the year (APPhoto)

• Trevor Lacey, NC State. Lacey was billed as an impact freshman, and he certainly had an impactful week for the Wolfpack. Lacey averaged 23.5 points per game in NC State’s two wins over South Florida and Richmond this week, and even spent a large portion of the time handling the ball in lieu of Cat Barber. Lacey has hit the ground running, and has presented a great second option for Mark Gottfried at the point if Barber is playing erratically.
• Justin Anderson, Virginia. As discussed here after last Friday’s win over George Washington, Anderson has tied for or been the lead man in scoring for this team in every game this season. Last year’s Sixth Man of the Year followed up a solid start to the season last week with a perfect shooting night against Tennessee State (7-7 from the field, 5-5 from three) to notch 20 points. Anderson might be the hottest player in the conference right now not playing in Durham.

• Isaiah Hicks, North Carolina. Hicks struggled through a season last year where he was playing at a position he wasn’t well-suited for, small forward, as he tried to adjust to the college game as a freshman. This year, back at the power forward spot he prefers, he looks so much more confident and aggressive. In the first two games in the Bahamas Hicks averaged ten points and looked assertive in scoring around the basket.

Flat

• North Carolina. After a loss to an underrated Butler squad, North Carolina looked like the unit that provided so many clunkers last year. The lack of three-point shooting and poor performance from the foul line were eerily reminiscent of last year’s up-and-down team, but surrendering 29 offensive rebounds to the undersized Bulldogs was startling and a sign of a lack of effort. The Tar Heels corrected things quickly in obliterating UCLA on Thursday, and in a positive development went 8-23 from long range and had four players hit at least one trey.
• Louisville. Yes, they’re 5-0. But how do you explain that 45-33 head-scratcher against Cleveland State? Zero points from the bench and 31% shooting made Rick Pitino’s 700th win an ugly one. This is most likely an abberation, but the Cardinals have to hope this isn’t a sign of things to come if they can’t count on scoring from anyone other than Montrezl Harrell in a big spot.

Trending Down

• Olivier Hanlan, Boston College. The Hanlan as the lead-ballhandler experiment is not working quite so well thus far. Hanlan is still scoring at a prodigious rate (17.6 points a game), but his three assists compared to 4.2 turnovers per game is horrendous for the primary point guard. The Eagles dropped both games this week to West Virginia and Dayton to fall to 2-3 on the year. If Hanlan is auditioning for possibly playing the point at the pro level, he will need to improve his distributing dramatically as the season goes on.
• Brice Johnson, North Carolina. Johnson and Kennedy Meeks had a great two-man high-low combination working in the season’s opening week, but old demons returned for Johnson in the Battle 4 Atlantis competition. He was in constant foul trouble against pesky Butler and eventually fouled out, in addition to being part of the horrendous rebound deficit the Tar Heels produced in that game. He followed that up with a clunker against UCLA after coming off the bench, finishing with just four points and three rebounds.
• Florida State. It’s not good to be trending downward after doing so in the season’s initial week, but the Seminoles dropped their third in a row earlier in the week to UMass. Though they followed it up with a win over the Citadel, even that was uninspiring. Leonard Hamilton’s squad is surrendering 77 points a game in its three losses. It’s difficult for a fringe NCAA Tournament contender to rebound from three losses in the non-conference schedule, and that Northeastern defeat last week may loom large come Selection Sunday.

Lathan Wells (77 Posts)

A 30-year old unabashed college basketball fan, I currently reside in Richmond, Virginia. I especially enjoy following the ACC and the local teams, VCU and the University of Richmond. I hope to continue my journalistic pursuits in the sports arena full-time in the future, but in the meantime I am really enjoying covering the greatest sport there is for RTC. Follow me on Twitter @prohibitivefav.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 28th, 2014 at 9:31 am by Lathan Wells and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: battle 4 atlantis, boston college, brice johnson, cat barber, duke, feature, florida state, isaiah hicks, Jahlil Okafor, justin anderson, justise winslow, Kennedy Meeks, leonard hamilton, louisville, mark gottfried, Montrezl Harrell, nc state, north carolina, olivier hanlan, rick pitino, stanford, trevor lacey, Tyus Jones, virginia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.