Jimmy Kelley – Rush The Court

Olivier Hanlan Validates ACC FrOY Award With 41 Points Against Georgia Tech

Jimmy Kelley — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:31:41 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @JimmyKelley_

In case anyone was wondering what the biggest story of Day One at the ACC Tournament will be, it’s already been decided. Boston College knocked out Georgia Tech in the opening game of the tournament behind a 41-point effort from their much-debated ACC Freshman of the Year, Olivier Hanlan. The score book reads like a video game. Forty-one points, 14-of-18 shooting including 8-of-10 on three pointers. Five rebounds, three steals and one emphatic message sent to the rest of the ACC: “I’m here to stay.”

All-ACC Microsite Teams and Postseason Awards

Jimmy Kelley — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:15:03 +0000

Another great season in the ACC is in the books and it’s time to recognize those who had outstanding seasons with our postseason awards. We here at Rush the Court’s ACC Microsite have decided to hand out our own awards based on what we believe is a unique set of criteria and, while it may not differ wildly from what the actual outcome of the award races is, just know we all voted prior to their release. Here are this year’s All-ACC Microsite Teams and ACC Postseason Awards.

Note: Jimmy Kelley, Ethan Mann, Kellen Carpenter and Matt Patton all voted for [...]

Focused Practices Helped Butler Rebound From Its VCU Debacle

Jimmy Kelley — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:15:38 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an RTC correspondent. He filed this story after Thursday night’s game between Butler and UMass in Amherst.

Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs suffered one the most lopsided losses of the conference season last Saturday when they were on the wrong end of an 84-52 blowout at the hands of VCU. In the days following the loss the Butler players had team meetings while Stevens and his staff ran some of the most intense, focused practices they have had all season. The result? A convincing 73-62 victory over a scrappy UMass team on the Minutemen’s senior night Thursday. [...]

Julius Randle Not ACC Bound After Cutting NC State From Final List

Jimmy Kelley — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:31:27 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @JimmyKelley_

Julius Randle is one of the biggest, fastest and most highly sought players in the class of 2013, but as of Wednesday afternoon, ACC teams don’t have to worry about seeing him next year on a daily basis. The five-star forward from Texas officially cut NC State from his final list, according to SNY‘s Adam Zagoria. Randle also cut Oklahoma from his list and is now down to four non-ACC schools: Kentucky, Kansas, Texas, and Florida. This deals a major blow to the hopes of Mark [...]

Erick Green and Mason Plumlee Are all-ACC First Team, But Who Should Join Them?

Jimmy Kelley — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 23:01:12 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @JimmyKelley_

Unlike the ACC Player of the Year Award, All-Conference honors are handed out based on who had the most outstanding season in relation to the other players in the league. However, much like the POY award, there are different schools of thought about how the team should be ordered. Do you honor the five best players regardless of position, or do you fill it out like any other team with one player from each of the guard, forward and center spots? Personally I believe in the [...]

NC State Forward TJ Warren is a Man Without a Position

Jimmy Kelley — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:31:15 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsInDurham

At some point in the 118-year history of basketball it was decided that each player on the court had to have a set position with a skill set that lent something to the way the game was played. These positions — point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward and center — held up for the most part through the years with players falling into one of the positions based on their height, athleticism or abilities with the ball in their hands. Recently, however, these positions [...]

How Not to Beat Duke: What Virginia Tech Did Thursday Night

Jimmy Kelley — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:01:06 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsInDurham.

Virginia Tech is one of the most infuriating teams to watch in the ACC. When your best player is the nation’s leading scorer the list of other things that need to go right in any given game to get a win is actually pretty short. It starts with playing good enough defense so that the game doesn’t reach the 70s. If that can be accomplished, the rest of the team — nine players playing 10+ minutes per game — need to score a total of somewhere [...]

Maryland: The Most Confusing Team in the ACC Could Still Be a Problem in March

Jimmy Kelley — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:15:08 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsInDurham

At one point during Maryland’s 83-81 win over Duke on Saturday, the Terps looked like a team that could do no wrong. Throughout their 68-59 loss to Boston College on Tuesday it looked like they could do no right. In a microcosm of Maryland’s season, the Terps followed up what should have been their signature win with what will be pointed to by the bracket experts as a signature loss. However, despite the disappointing result on Tuesday night, Maryland still has all of the tools to [...]

Who is the ACC FrOY? Duke’s Rasheed Sulaimon or Boston College’s Olivier Hanlan?

Jimmy Kelley — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:07:02 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsInDurham.

There are two awards in each conference that spark the most debate — Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. While one has many different definitions and, depending on whom you ask, could be given to three or four different players every year, the other is much more objective. The ACC Freshman of the Year is given annually to the first-year player who has had the most outstanding season. Nothing about value, impact or how good the respective player’s team was, just that he [...]

Miami vs. Florida State Could Be a Worthy ACC Undercard Tonight

Jimmy Kelley — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:01:59 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is a columnist for the ACC microsite. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsInDurham

When rivalry week rolls around each February the attention shifts toward the major games: Duke vs. North Carolina, Michigan vs. Michigan State, Kentucky vs. Florida, Syracuse vs. UConn, and other games of that ilk. However, some of the other games on ESPN’s slate are worthy of attention and one such game is Wednesday’s match-up between #3 Miami and Florida State. Long the football-playing athletic younger brother of Florida State’s disciplined teams, Miami has flipped the script this season with its play and crushed the Seminoles in Coral [...]

Boston College is the Best Worst Team in the ACC

Jimmy Kelley — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 21:35:36 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham

Conte Forum is a hockey arena masquerading as a basketball court. The banners in the rafters tell the stories of Boston College’s rink-related exploits while Doug Flutie’s Heisman Trophy sits in one endzone. But for forty minutes the arena doubles as a proving ground for the best teams in the ACC as Steve Donahue’s team shed the stigma of its 2-7 conference record and pushed the conference’s upper echelon teams to the brink. Just two years into Donahue’s tenure, the Eagles are starting to have the [...]

With Lorenzo Brown Out, Tyler Lewis is Seizing Opportunity to Shine

Jimmy Kelley — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 22:01:28 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham

There is no denying that Lorenzo Brown is N.C. State’s most important player. The key to their fast break, Brown was the catalyst for everything good that has happened for the Wolfpack in 2013. Since he picked up an ankle injury against Virginia, N.C. State is 0-3 and are in a bit of a tailspin as they look to discover an identity without their point guard. While the results haven’t been good, the play of freshman point guard Tyler Lewis has been encouraging and should give [...]

Michael Snaer’s Late-Game Heroics Save Florida State Once Again

Jimmy Kelley — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:01:58 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham

Florida State has had a rough go of it this season. A shocking loss on opening night was followed by struggles during non-conference play with the ACC yet to show the Seminoles any mercy either. But if there is one shining light for FSU in the darkness that has enveloped it’s season, it has been the late-game heroics of Michael Snaer. The senior guard struck again on Tuesday night with a buzzer-beating layup that pushed FSU past Georgia Tech and gave Snaer his third game-winning shot [...]

Miami Finally in the AP Top 10, But Still Trails Duke…

Jimmy Kelley — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:30:42 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham.

The Associated Press has released two editions of their Top 25 since Miami dismantled Duke back on January 23. and all they’ve done since is continue rolling over ACC competition including a huge road win in Raleigh over N.C. State on Sunday. Yet for some reason the Hurricanes can’t seem to leapfrog the Blue Devils in the poll. Are the voters still holding early-season losses against them? Are Duke’s three top-five wins from the first month of the season still holding up? Both are legitimate questions, [...]

Mason Plumlee Makes His Case For ACC Player of the Year

Jimmy Kelley — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:15:19 +0000

Jimmy Kelley is an ACC correspondent for Rush the Court. Follow him on Twitter @DevilsinDurham

The ACC Player of the Year award is, just as with every conference’s top award, an honor that has different meaning depending on whom you ask. Some would define it as the most outstanding player in the conference during the season. For others, the award should go to the player who was the most indispensable and without whom his team would have fallen well short of where it finished. Going even deeper down the rabbit hole, some believe that a player who makes a bad team [...]