On Tuesday, Louisville head coach Rick Pitino told the Louisville Courier-Journal that he had stripped junior star Montrezl Harrell of the Cardinals’ team captaincy. While Pitino claims that the decision was “no big deal,” it is yet another disappointment from one of the ACC’s two preseason AP All-Americans. Statistically speaking, Harrell has not regressed from his sophomore season, but he hasn’t really improved all that much either. His scoring is up about a point per game (14.0 to 14.9 PPG) and he is grabbing nearly an extra rebound per game (8.4 to 9.2 RPG), but while the junior shot the ball more efficiently last year, his level of impact looks and feels about the same. Still, Harrell turned down NBA Draft riches to return to Louisville, and expectations were that he would develop into elite impact territory. Perhaps the most concerning aspect of Harrell’s season has been his play against good competition; in Louisville’s three losses to Kentucky, North Carolina and Duke, Harrell scored nine, nine and 10 points, respectively — shooting 12-of-29 from the field in those games. With so much of the Cardinals’ offense dependent on him for success, it’s no surprise that Louisville lost each of those contests.

Montrezl Harrell hasn’t been the superstar Louisville hoped for this season. (Jamie Rhodes / USA TODAY Sports)

Harrell isn’t the only preseason All-American from the ACC who has been underwhelming this season. North Carolina guard Marcus Paige entered the year as the highest vote-getter in preseason All-America polls, returning to Chapel Hill following a stellar sophomore campaign in which he had often carried the Tar Heels offensively. Expectations were certainly very high for his junior campaign. Paige limped out to a slow start, shooting only 35 percent in North Carolina’s first four games, including an unlikely loss to Butler. And like Harrell, Paige’s statistics in the Tar Heels’ four losses tell the story: 15.0 points per game on 33 percent shooting. To his credit, Paige has been dealing with plantar fasciitis, and he may be turning the corner in conference play given his “clutch gene” play against Louisville and a 23-point, nine-assist outing at N.C. State. Still, Paige needs to find better consistency and efficiency to support his candidacy for any postseason award.

Someone always fills the vacuum, and it has been Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant and Virginia’s Justin Anderson who have replaced Harrell and Paige in the postseason award conversations. Grant has been the focal point of a dangerous Notre Dame offense, scoring 16.7 points per game and shooting at 51.2 percent on the season. The Fighting Irish have been one of the ACC’s most pleasant surprises, and Grant has become a must-watch player as a result. He is an offensive threat who has the potential to explode on any given night, as evidenced by his 27-point outing against Michigan State and his 24-point night versus Georgia Tech. On top of that, Grant submitted an early candidate for “Dunk of the Year” against the Yellow Jackets, making the senior a veritable household name in college basketball. In Charlottesville, Anderson has been the standout player on a Virginia team that remains undefeated and perched atop the ACC standings. While the Cavaliers are commonly known for their sticky defense, Anderson has played exceptionally well on the offensive end this season, nearly doubling his scoring output and hitting at an astonishing rate (52.7%) from three-point land. The junior has shot under 50 percent from distance in a game only seven times this season, which makes him a player that defenses cannot cheat on around the perimeter.

In an exciting ACC season filled with elite and interesting teams, the conference boasts several of the best individual players in the country. Duke’s Jahlil Okafor was highly regarded in the preseason and he remains so at the midpoint — he’s virtually a lock to become an All-American at the end of the season. The talented freshman was joined by two familiar ACC faces in Paige and Harrell on that list in the preseason, but as it turns out, they might be replaced by two of the conference’s biggest surprises instead.

Brett Thompson (8 Posts)

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2015 at 12:01 pm by Brett Thompson and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: feature, louisville cardinals, north carolina tar heels, notre dame fighting irish, Virginia Cavaliers. 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.