Rush The Court

There were many topics of interest floating around 2015 ACC Operation Basketball in Charlotte on Wednesday, most of which were addressed by ACC Commissioner John Swofford during his annual “State of the League” summit with the media. The format for this event works well, with the head coaches all made available (except Rick Pitino) after the commissioner’s press conference. Later that afternoon, several coaches were asked to react to some of the topics mentioned by Swofford.

Here are five key takeaways from Wednesday’s ACC Operation Basketball:

1) New Rules/Officials Mandate

The expected impact of college basketball’s new rules this year was a major topic of discussion. During his opening statement, Swofford was very supportive of the changes and even suggested that other tweaks to the game should be on the table as well. The coaches were also predominantly supportive of the new rules but were particularly interested in how strictly the officials will enforce the mandate to clean up physical play. The NCAA’s new national coordinator of men’s basketball officiating, J.D. Collins, was also in Charlotte to meet and confer with the coaches (perhaps to warn them that games will really be called differently this season?). Some coaches admittedly seemed a bit skeptical, remembering what happened two years ago when officials were similarly charged with cleaning up excessive contact — a huge increase in fouls resulted in lots and lots of complaining. By midseason, referees appeared to have reverted back to the way games had been officiated for years. Collins claims that won’t be the case this time around, but it remains to be seen if collegiate officials will collectively stick to their guns when coaches, media and fans whine about watching boring games featuring parades to the foul line. It may turn out to be that the watchability of games this season is sacrificed until players and coaches begrudgingly adapt to the changes in the best interests of moving the game forward.

2) ACC as Nation’s Best Conference

As expected, ACC coaches at Operation Basketball championed their league as the best in the country. That argument may hold some more water this year, as the depth of good teams in the league appears to be better than it has been since the expansion to 15 teams went into effect. Here are some of the coaches making their case:

• Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton: “I think there should be more emphasis placed on the fact that we do now, without a shadow of a doubt, have the No. 1 basketball conference ever assembled in the history of college basketball. Every night out you have a competitive game.”
• N.C. State’s Mark Gottfried: “Well, it’s interesting, I’ve been in the conference now four years. This is my fifth year, and I’ve watched Florida State win the ACC; Virginia; Notre Dame; Miami; teams that aren’t named Duke and North Carolina. And even though Duke and North Carolina are very good, I think it tells you how good our league is top to bottom.”
• Notre Dame’s Mike Brey: “I really believe this is the year we get to eight bids and maybe more. I really feel this is the year. My first two years I didn’t have that feeling. I do feel with the teams and knowing what’s coming back and how teams have recruited, I think this is the year it has the look of that Big East that I left those last couple years when we were getting eight, nine, and that one year we got 11 bids.”

3) 20-Game Conference Schedule

One of the things that Swofford brought up as a future consideration was an initiative to move from 18 to 20 ACC games per season. Somewhat surprisingly, many coaches were supportive, citing the opportunity for more quality games to impress the NCAA Selection Committee. Mike Brey, a longtime proponent of the change, made a compelling argument of the merits by looking at what occurred when his former league became the first to go to an 18-game conference schedule. According to Brey, that single move was the primary reason that the 16-team Big East started getting half of its teams or more (11 in 2011) into the Big Dance.

4) Louisville Scandal/Pitino a No-Show

The big elephant in the interview room at the Ritz-Carlton Charlotte was the ongoing Louisville scandal and the resulting absence of its head coach at the event. When Swofford was asked about the situation, he naturally condemned the alleged improprieties as having “absolutely no place in college athletics, in any way, shape or form.” He went on to say, “I have a lot of confidence in President Ramsey and Tom Jurich — and in Coach Pitino — so we’ll just have to see how this plays out. But I think the fair thing to do is to wait and see how this plays out and where it ends.” It didn’t seem fair that two Louisville players were sent to Charlotte while the head coach was missing, but that’s what happened as Louisville sent graduate-transfers Damion Lee and Trey Lewis to face down the media. The pair held up very well under the questioning, with the only revealing quote from Lewis, who said that Louisville’s athletics director “explained to us that Coach Pitino is going to be our coach,” and that “Coach has come in very confident saying that he’s going to be here for a long time. So I have no worries about that. None of the players have any worries about that.”

5) It’s All About the Guards

Below is how ACC media voted for its preseason poll and awards. The top tier of schools — North Carolina, Virginia and Duke — have all been showing up as consensus preseason top-10 teams in the various magazines that came out this month. The trio also dominates the predicted individual conference awards as well. It’s worth noting that the preseason first team All-ACC is made up entirely of perimeter players, so guard play is expected to be the strength of the league this season.

ACC Operation Basketball 2015-16 Preseason Poll

Team & Points (First-place votes in parenthesis)

1. North Carolina (60): 1292
2. Virginia (18): 1226
3. Duke (8): 1187
4. Notre Dame (1): 949
5. Miami: 841
6. Florida State (1): 827
7. Louisville: 821
8. NC State: 808
9. Syracuse (1): 666
10. Pitt: 623
11. Wake Forest: 391
12. Clemson: 359
13. Georgia Tech: 296
14. Virginia Tech: 260
15. Boston College: 134

2015-16 Preseason All-ACC Team (votes in parenthesis)

FIRST TEAM
Marcus Paige, Sr., North Carolina (86)
Malcolm Brogdon, Sr., Virginia (77)
Xavier Rathan-Mayes, So., Florida State (43)
Brandon Ingram, Fr., Duke (29)
Demetrius Jackson, Jr., Notre Dame (28)

SECOND TEAM
Anthony Gill, Sr., Virginia (27)
Grayson Allen, So., Duke (27)
Zach Auguste, Sr., Notre Dame (24)
Anthony “Cat” Barber, Jr., NC State (22)
Brice Johnson, Sr., North Carolina (22)

ACC Preseason Co-Players of the Year
Marcus Paige, Sr., North Carolina
Malcolm Brogdon, Sr., Virginia

ACC Preseason Freshman of the Year
Brandon Ingram, Duke