1. FSU News: Florida State‘s student newspaper takes a look at one of the Seminoles’ incoming graduate students, Jeff Peterson. Now studying marketing at FSU, Peterson started his career at Iowa before heading over to Arkansas; he and fellow graduate student Luke Loucks will be looking to take over the point guard position this season. Though somewhat unrelated, there’s probably not a better quote than one from the end of this article to describe the Seminoles’ offensive goals this season: “Florida State, however, is a team loaded with talent that is capable of manufacturing points by committee without a big-time scorer.”
2. Washington Post – Terrapins Insider: According to the man himself, Maryland fans can expect a decision on incoming freshman Alex Len‘s eligibility this Tuesday. Like Kentucky’s Enes Kanter from last season, Len faces questions on his amateur status. If eligible, he could provide a huge boost for the Terrapins because his 7’1″ height would provide Mark Turgeon’s squad with a legitimate (albeit raw) post presence.  Cross your fingers, Terp fans.
3. Baltimore Sun – Tracking the Terps: Speaking of Maryland, the Baltimore Sun‘s Jeff Barker thinks the team from College Park will be “sneaky good” assuming they solve the big man issue. Barker’s “sneaky good” seems to refer to beating ranked teams (read: North Carolina, Duke and Florida State). The interesting part here is that all three top squads in the conference are very good defensively and thrive in transition. Unfortunately, without a solid rebounding presence, transition possessions would abound. Though I agree with him in that the Terrapins have a good chance to surpass the media’s pick to finish ninth in the conference (also known as the last team not named Boston College, Georgia Tech or Wake Forest).
4.  Asheville Citizen-Times: Add another media outlet to the myriad calling for Miles Plumlee to have a breakout season. Plumlee (and his two brothers) went to a small, private high school just south of Asheville. The biggest issue over the years for Mason and Miles has been confidence. For whatever reason, neither seemed to feel comfortable taking the ball up strong despite great height and athleticism. By recent accounts, this year may be different (though I’ll believe it when I see it).
5. The Chronicle: Duke‘s student newspaper takes at look at freshman Michael Gbinije and his recruitment to play for the Blue Devils. Growing up, Gbinije hated Duke, but after going to a polarizing high school the university’s love-it-or-hate-it personality grew on him. Tom Gieryn also got a chance to talk to Gbinije’s high school coach about his prospects at the collegiate level. It definitely sounds like there’s a lot of work to do before Duke fans can expect to see Gbinije as a starter in the lineup, but his rebounding, transition offense and lock-down defense should be instant assets as he adjusts to the college game.

mpatton (576 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 6:00 am by mpatton and is filed under acc, microsites. Tagged: alex len, arkansas, boston college, duke, enes kanter, florida state, georgia tech, iowa, jeff peterson, mark turgeon, maryland, michael gbinije, miles plumlee, north carolina, wake forest. 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.