1. USA Today: Another year and another season-crippling injury for Seth Greenberg and the Hokies. Last year it was Dorenzo Hudson and JT Thompson. This year Thompson tore his other ACL and will miss his second straight season. You have to feel for Thompson, but Greenberg pointed out the silver lining: “Our main focus right now is his health and preparing him for his graduation this December. […] Now is not the time to discuss a sixth year.” Thompson’s injury is a big blow for Virginia Tech, where Thompson was expected to be a major leader and contributor this season. In 2009-10 he averaged 7.3 PPG and 4.6 RPG in just over 20 minutes a game.
2. Miami Herald: Jim Larranaga got his first official (exhibition) win on the Miami sideline last night against Florida Southern, 88-78, but it wasn’t easy. The Hurricanes trailed by five at the half and by ten halfway through the second half. Garrius Adams caught fire late, aiding a late 28-6 run with three treys in two minutes. Malcolm Grant led the way for Miami with 26 points on a fantastic 8-12 shooting performance, but Durand Scott wasn’t far behind with 23 points and seven rebounds (that rebounding will be crucial while Reggie Johnson is out). The bad news was the Hurricanes finished with significantly more turnovers (17) than assists (10).
3. United States Navy: The host of the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic, the USS Carl Vinson, is getting ready for the Veterans’ Day game. Construction crews started building the court on Tuesday that is expected to seat 7,000 people. It should be finished by November 9 to allow both teams to practice on the new court the day before the game. In the case of inclement weather (quite unlikely in San Diego), the crew is also constructing a smaller court in the ship’s hangar bay though it has far less seating for spectators.
4. Detroit Free Press: Duke target Mitch McGary has opted for John Beilein and Michigan over Duke and Florida. McGary will be the Wolverines’ first McDonalds All-American in ten years (the last was Daniel Horton in 2002). My guess is this means that Duke will really turn up the heat on Tony Parker, another incredibly talented class of 2012 power forward. It is starting to look like NC State may sport the best 2012 recruiting class in the conference.
5. ACCSports.com: Ryan Davis caught up with new Maryland coach Mark Turgeon to talk about the upcoming season. It sounds like Nick Faust will be called on from day one, and Turgeon expects Sean Mosley to live up to the expectations people set for him last year. One interesting question was comparing this year’s Maryland team to last year’s Boston College team. I’d tend to agree with Turgeon that the teams are very different (namely, the Eagles were lights out from beyond the arc, while Maryland should make its money on defense), but I hadn’t thought about the other comparisons (very shallow benches, new coaches, and solid returners). Although I don’t think the comparison is apples to apples, I think it should be heartening for Terrapin fans that Boston College saw the success it did facing similar problems.

• Everett Withers (UNC): “I think the kids in this state need to know, you know, the flagship school in this state. […] They need to know it academically. I think if you look at our graduation rates as opposed to our opponent’s this week graduation rates for academics or football, I think you’ll see a difference. I think if you look at the educational environment here, I think you’ll see a difference.”
• Tom O’Brien (NC State): “As far as the flagship, here is a guy that’s on a football staff that ends up in Indianapolis. If you take three things you can’t do in college football, you have an agent on your staff, you’re paying your players and you have academic fraud. I mean, that’s a triple play as far as the NCAA goes. […] Our guys go to school, they’re not given grades and they graduate […] It’s a little tougher here if you have to go to school and you’re expected to have a syllabus and go to class. I think our guys earn everything they get here. And certainly all our graduates earn everything they get at this university.”

The Tsar of the Tempo-Free, Ken Pomeroy, released his second annual preseason rankings with some surprises atop the list. The top ten teams are fairly consistent in content with most preseason rankings, but the order is definitely different.Pomeroy’s projections don’t love the Tar Heels, who slide from consensus number one in human polls to third. On the other hand, the rankings are relatively bullish on Duke, putting the Blue Devils at fourth. Kentucky checks in at the top spot, followed closely by Ohio State. As for the ACC, I thought North Carolina‘s ranking made some sense if you consider their whole season last year instead of just the last quarter. The high rankers of the Tar Heels make the assumption that they will pick up where they left off last season, rather than regressing to their early season struggles.

Ken Pomeroy's Preseason Top Ten

Duke will see its rating fall over the first few weeks, if observations about the team’s middling defense prove true. Right now Pomeroy has the Blue Devils ranked fourth in defense, which seems very high. But the rest of the ACC is very interesting. Miami checks in ranked above Florida State and the Seminoles’ top-ranked defense. This definitely could be true once Reggie Johnson returns to the lineup, but I suspect the teams will flip-flop fairly quickly. Pomeroy also doesn’t share the media love for Tony Bennett’s Virginia squad, which he predicts to finish tenth behind Georgia Tech.

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1. Basketball Prospectus: The statistically inclined need to check out this piece looking at shot creation for North Carolina last season (and as a side note, I have literally no idea how I never linked to their earlier piece on “clutch” shooting). Basically the article looks to quantify Kendall Marshall‘s importance. For instance, take Tyler Zeller‘s mid-range jumper: 100% of his made shots are assisted! Marshall on the other hand had 0% of his mid-range shots assisted, but 100% of his threes were. It’s a fascinating piece and just another reason to order the College Basketball Prospectus.
2. American Way Mag: Everyone’s favorite Young Jeezy quoting college basketball analyst gives an excellent preview of the rapidly approaching season. No surprises at the top with North Carolina sitting just above Kentucky. Jay Bilas on the impact of the one-and-done era: “Fifteen years ago, you and I could’ve sat down at the Final Four and we would have had a really good idea of who the top ten teams in the country were going to be the next year. We’d know exactly who would be the preseason All-Americans. […] Now, you can’t.” Bilas’ alma mater, Duke, is lumped in his second tier with Vanderbilt and Louisville.
3. Washington Post – Terrapins Insider: The NCAA finally ruled on Alex Len‘s eligibility. Len has to sit out ten games “based on NCAA rules governing amateurism.” The only vague hint about what that might mean came from Athletic Director Kevin Anderson: “It has been a difficult situation in light of Alex’s educational pursuits.” While the athletic department hasn’t decided whether it will appeal the NCAA’s decision, this is great news as far as Maryland’s conference outlook. Len gives the Terrapins desperately needed size. The other good news is that he will be able to practice with the team until he’s officially cleared December 28 against Albany.
4. ACCSports.com: With Duke and North Carolina’s consistent presence at the top of college basketball (both have finished the season ranked in the Top Ten of the AP poll 15 of the last 27 seasons), having to play and recruit against them every year is a daunting task. But Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton welcomes the challenge: “In my opinion, that’s an advantage for everybody in the ACC. What better challenge could you ask for?” Hamilton has a pretty talented team of his own this season that I’ll bet gives both Tobacco Road powers everything they can handle.
5. ESPN: Speaking of taking on Tobacco Road, Mark Gottfried is taking it by force. In case you missed it yesterday, Gottfried added another top recruit to NC State’s already strong 2012 class in TJ Warren, a great scoring small forward. With the addition the Wolfpack’s recruiting class for next year has surpassed both of its rivals in the Research Triangle (it includes two five-star and one four-star recruits so far). According to Evan Daniels of Scout.com, they may still have a couple of more recruits to add.

And for Wake Forest fans looking to relive the glory days, I present Chris Paul (and his family) on Family Feud! (h/t Ball Don’t Lie)

Mark Gottfried is making a recruiting impact on Tobacco Road. The Wolfpack already had 2012 commitments from Rodney Purvis and Tyler Lewis. Now, Gottfried has struck again with another local talent in TJ Warren. Warren is a 6’7″ small forward from Brewster Academy (NH, though he lives just outside of Raleigh). Purvis and Warren are five-star prospects while Lewis is a four-star prospect. Dave Telep first broke the story and managed to catch up with Warren about his commitment: “When I made the decision it just felt right […] It was that feeling inside and I’ve been having that feeling for a long time.” Warren is ranked #23 by ESPNU, #23 by Rivals and #22 by Scout. From his recruiting profiles, he’s a big time scorer.

Mark Gottfried Already Secured a Top-5 Recruiting Class for 2012

Former head coach Sidney Lowe should get some credit for convincing CJ Leslie to stick around Raleigh for college, but Gottfried has taken recruiting Triangle talent to another level. The scary news for other ACC teams is, according to Evan Daniels of Scout.com, the Wolfpack may be poised to add even more to their already top-five recruiting class: “They are in good shape with Amile Jefferson [ranked #20 by Scout] and are also recruiting Andrew White [ranked #52 by Scout].”

Gottfried came to Raleigh with a reputation for being a great recruiter, but I’m not sure anyone expected this much success this quickly.

And then there were two.

Duke is a very tough team to project this season. The Blue Devils lost their top three players (Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and Kyrie Irving) from last season, but there’s still plenty of talent and a Hall of Fame coach on the sideline in Durham. Thoughtful preseason rankings slot Duke anywhere from fourth to ninth nationally, which seem very reasonable for where Duke could finish the season — not necessarily where it should start.

The team’s two major questions are, “who will run the offense?” and “will any of the frontcourt players finally live up to his potential?” Duke’s relative success depends almost solely on these questions. Of course, one thing we forget is that both questions also faced the Blue Devils when Kyrie Irving went down after the Butler game last year. To that point Nolan Smith had not played much point guard since the first half of the 2009-10 season. During Duke’s National Championship year Mike Krzyzewski moved Smith to the off-ball position, ceding the point guard spot to Jon Scheyer. If not for Brian Zoubek’s miraculous ascension from unproductive bench-warmer to one of Duke’s most important pieces, the guard switch would have garnered much more attention. Smith excelled while working off the ball and Scheyer limited Duke’s turnovers to the absolute minimum.

Duke Needs Seth Curry to Take Over as Floor General This Year.

But once Kyrie Irving’s foot problem arose last season, Duke was again left without a quarterback. The best choice was to move Smith back to the point, although Krzyzewski experimented with Tyler Thornton and Seth Curry there briefly as well. The result was Smith leading the ACC in scoring and nearly leading the conference in assists. Of course Smith was a special player. His career arc only answers the question that it’s possible for Seth Curry to step up and lead Duke. Read the rest of this entry »

1. ACC Sports Journal: Mike Lananna sat down with Wake Forest star Travis McKie to talk about the upcoming season. McKie is only a sophomore, but he’s already one of the veterans on the team because of the frequent and numerous departures out of Winston-Salem. Last year, the 6’7″ wing averaged 13 points and 7.7 rebounds a game as a freshman, but this year he hopes to move his game more to the perimeter. I don’t want to read too much into the interview, but McKie sounds very excited about playing for Wake Forest and understands that rebuilding takes time. Assuming the Demon Deacons get more solid recruiting classes, McKie could see the Big Dance by his senior year.
2. Sports Illustrated: I know they’ve already been linked everywhere, but Luke Winn’s Power Rankings are back! Winn’s in-depth, original analysis makes for a must-read article every week. This week three ACC teams make the cut: (1) North Carolina, (4) Duke and (20) Florida State. He looks at Kendall Marshall‘s “pass first” mentality, finding that Marshall was the only point guard from the Power Rankings to average more assists last season than field goal attempts. Duke’s analysis makes up for its lack of statistics with a great anecdote about Austin Rivers choosing his number (“0” was actually his fourth choice).
3. Slam Online: Is Harrison Barnes actually underrated? Slam‘s Matt Domino looks at Barnes’ transition from being overrated as a freshman to underrated as a sophomore. Domino also addresses the logical fallacy that “Barnes needs [Kendall] Marshall,” which makes him less valuable. I totally agree. Just because Barnes needs Marshall to run the point, doesn’t mean that North Carolina isn’t relying on Barnes to be its most productive offensive player in most games.
4. Gaston Gazette: Mike Krzyzewski doesn’t sound thrilled with his team’s performance against Bellarmine this week, as many players are still finding their new roles. The Blue Devils ended up winning the game against the D-II national champions by 25, but the game was much closer than expected. The tough love is already flowing liberally: “’I wanted to see if they could figure it out,’ [Coach K] said, ‘and they didn’t.'”
5. Cavalier Daily: Virginia’s student newspaper takes a look at the early season expectations for Tony Bennett‘s squad. I was shocked when the Cavaliers received votes in the Coaches’ Poll released last week. Bennett cited Mike Scott as a big part of improving Virginia’s woeful field goal percentage both by taking higher-accuracy looks and by forcing defenses to pay attention to the interior. He also said that this team is their best chance to make the NCAA Tournament since he arrived in Charlottesville in 2009.

Florida State had a great season last year. The Seminoles dominated opponents defensively and made do on the other end of the floor. Six players were listed 6’7” and up, and the entire roster showcased a wealth of lateral quickness that made them the most effective defensive team in the country. That shouldn’t change this year. The offense, not the other end, will once again define the ceiling for Leonard Hamilton’s squad.

Chris Singleton is Gone, But the Seminoles Will Still Dominate Defensively

Looking back to last year a Sweet Sixteen season ended with a bitter aftertaste. It wasn’t when they lost; it was the way they lost. If you don’t remember, Florida State took on Shaka Smart’s Cinderella from VCU. After Jamie Skeen put the Rams up four with three minutes to go, Florida State locked down on defense. Unfortunately, even after holding VCU scoreless in the final three minutes, it didn’t help with the hideous offensive sets for the Seminoles. They went 1-5 from the field during that stretch (plus a missed free throw), and the hideous final possession, where Derwin Kitchen put up an off-balance three that the whole country knew would send the game to overtime, was indicative of just how poorly the team executes in the half court.

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1. Yahoo (Contributors): The biggest news out of the largest sports website in the world is that ESPN college sports star writer Pat Forde just joined the ranks at Yahoo (as of midnight), but this article on the average attendance of conferences caught my eye. Somewhat surprisingly the ACC ranks an abysmal fifth with just over 10,000 fans per game, only ahead of the Pac-12 (which should really be ashamed for being behind the Mountain West). It definitely hurts that Duke is limited by the intimate atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium and that the conference is experiencing a relative slump. The full list is pretty interesting too. Apparently all of D-I was seen live by 27,626,125 people last season.
2. ESPN – North Carolina: We mentioned ESPN’s new North Carolina Basketball blog, authored by Robbi Pickeral, yesterday. Probably the most interesting content she wrote in the first day were her five anticipatory thoughts on the Tar Heels for this year. The North Carolina game at Kentucky tops the list, as it should. But a couple of her choices are more suspect. Namely, “Will Harrison Barnes score 40 (again)?” and “Freshman impact.” Really, I could care less whether Barnes scores 40; I’m far more interested to see if he manages to build on his stellar end to last season. And freshmen could be interesting, but certainly not in my top five considerations about this Tar Heel team; how about a look at John Henson‘s offensive growth instead?
3. Atlanta Journal-Constitution – College Recruiting: “Could Duke make an all-out effort to recruit a Georgia basketball star and not succeed?” The question references the talented power forward Tony Parker, a player whom Mike Krzyzewski has doggedly pursued throughout the recruiting season. Parker fits the recent Coach K big man mold perfectly, sizing up well with former Blue Devil interior stars Elton Brand, Carlos Boozer and Shelden Williams. With Miles Plumlee graduating and Mason Plumlee likely moving onto greener pastures, Duke could really use Parker.
4. The Mikan Drill: The trio of Harrison Barnes, John Henson and Kendall Marshall are stealing most of the limelight in excitement for North Carolina’s top-ranked team heading into the season. Somewhat lost in the shuffle is the man who kept that team alive during its growing pains early last season, Tyler Zeller. This is a good look at Zeller’s strengths (passing and running the floor) and weaknesses (defensive rebounding). My only addition to each category would be his beautiful baby-hook shot and unfortunate tendency toward injuries.
5. Mercury News: Interested in a summary of conference realignment to date? Dave Skretta takes a look at the winners and losers. Conference realignment has been a mess, especially in this age of Twitter bringing news faster than final decisions can be reached (or, for the more cynical, worse sources). This is a good recap of what has actually happened, though I disagree that the Big Ten and Pac-12 were really losers in conference realignment. Both chose to stay put with incredibly lucrative media contracts, instead of taking back-up plans that might actually serve to lower their revenue cuts.

Matt Patton is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic Coast Conference and an ACC microsite staffer.

Question: Coach K will become the all-time winningest coach soon. Is he the greatest coach in NCAA basketball history? If not, where does he rank?

Yes, but with a disclaimer. Mike Krzyzewski is the greatest coach of the modern era. You can define that era in many ways: the expansion of the NCAA Tournament (either when in 1975 it expanded to 32 teams, or when in 1985 it expanded to the truly modern 64 teams); the adoption of the shot clock (1985-86); the addition of the three-point line (nationally in 1986-87); or the advent of ESPN (1979 NCAA Tournament).

Truthfully, the best interpretation is somewhere in between, for all four of these events led to the game we know and love today. The expansion of the Big Dance made the NCAA Tournament more difficult both because more games separated teams from the championship and because at-larges increased the overall talent of the field. The shot clock redefined offenses and frankly made the game more exciting. The three-point field goal introduced statistical “noise” that created large swings in performance and allowed for more upsets (basically, a 40-minute game is a small enough sample size that even a horrendous shooting team like Florida State to go 9-19 from three and a good shooting Notre Dame team to go 7-30 from downtown). Finally, ESPN’s consistent coverage of college basketball symbiotically raised the popularity of both ESPN and men’s hoops.

Krzyzewski Will Pass Bob Knight for the Most Wins in Men's Division I History Early this Season

But to suggest that Coach K is a better coach than John Wooden would be too presumptive. There are plenty of arguments, but no sound logic can definitively put Krzyzewski over the Wizard of Westwood: Wooden won ten national championships in 12 years including an 88-game winning streak that is without a doubt the most dominant stretch of college basketball ever. If you still want to try to argue Coach K over John Wooden, read that one more time. I am not saying that Wooden would see that success now, but it is not like we are dealing with similar resumes. Wooden has as many titles as Coach K, Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams, and Tom Izzo (or Bill Self) combined.

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The Worldwide Leader unveiled its first team-specific college basketball blog (Notre Dame and Stanford both have team-centric football blogs) this morning with the North Carolina Basketball Blog. The woman behind the pages is former Charlotte Observer and Raleigh News & Observer reporter Robbi Pickeral (if you want to follow her on Twitter @bylinerp).

This comes as a bit of a surprise, as ESPN’s college basketball blog “network” doesn’t even currently include conference-specific blogs, although some of the conference football bloggers do spend some time covering basketball. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ESPN unveil a couple more team blogs if this one is successful. Duke and Kentucky would certainly be the leaders in the clubhouse, but there are plenty of other deserving teams around the country.

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