When Arizona State hired Bobby Hurley away from Buffalo as its new basketball coach a year ago, athletic director Ray Anderson made no bones about the incoming expectations for his new coach: “We are intent on becoming an elite men’s basketball program.” The hire gained nearly universal praise, in large part thanks to Hurley’s fantastic playing career at Duke and his work in leading Buffalo to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015. Once his first season in Tempe started, however, the Sun Devils looked anything but elite.

Bobby Hurley’s Team Needs To Show More This Season. (Getty)

The team ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 on both ends of the floor, won just five league games and generally appeared unready to compete for a conference title. Very little of this was the new head coach’s fault, of course. Predecessor Herb Sendek left insufficient talent on hand for the formation of a competent rotation, and those few players remaining were ill-suited for Hurley’s attacking style of offense. Still, despite the team’s continuing struggles, Hurley managed to pile up the accolades for his work in both changing the program’s culture and luring big-time recruits to the desert. As such, despite finishing 11th in the Pac-12 standings, Hurley convinced Arizona State that he deserved a raise and contract extension. And although there is plenty of evidence that Hurley has pointed the Arizona State ship in the right direction, he now needs to reward that faith and enthusiasm with some accompanying on-court improvement. Read the rest of this entry »

The ballots have been revealed and the results have been tabulated. Unlike another round of voting that took place this week, there isn’t as much shock value in seeing these results. We at the Big Ten microsite have voted and determined how the league will shake out this season. The first of three segments lists our bottom five teams.

14. Rutgers: There’s a new coach and correspondingly new enthusiasm at Rutgers. Eddie Jordan is gone and former Stony Brook head coach Steve Pickiell has taken over. There’s still some talent on this roster, with sophomore lead guard Corey Sanders returning along with Mike Williams on the wing. The Scarlet Knights’ biggest issue is that they need to shoot the ball much better all over the floor, ranking 282nd on three-point percentage and 311th on two-point field goals last season. Things weren’t much better defensively, but they added some size and versatility with graduate transfer CJ Gettys and the return of Deshawn Freeman. Pickiell has a great reputation for development, but this won’t be a quick rebuild in the Garden State.

Best Case Scenario: Double-figure wins

Corey Sanders is the leading returning scorer for Rutgers. (Getty)

13. Nebraska: The Cornhuskers actually improved by three wins last season, but the program has still fallen sharply after making the NCAA Tournament in 2014. This team loses a second-team all-conference performer (Shavon Shields) as well as an honorable mention selection (Andrew White, transfer to Syracuse). They will replace some of that talent with Louisville transfer Anton Gill, but the majority of the roster aside from senior Tai Webster is comprised of freshmen and sophomores. Scoring is going to be a question mark for this team, but the defensive side doesn’t look much better (last year’s team dipped from 28th in defense efficiency in 2014-15 to 114th last season). It looks like another long season in Lincoln.

Best-Case Scenario: Winning Record Read the rest of this entry »

This team preview is part of the RTC ACC microsite’s preseason coverage.

Can the reloaded Tar Heels get back to the Final Four?

There’s no question this year: this is Joel Berry’s team. (Photo: Robert L. Poston/CarolinaBlue)

As was well-documented, North Carolina’s 2015-16 season was equal parts fairy tale and horror film. Roy Williams loses Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson from last year’s National Runner-Up, but this season’s team will likely be just as talented. First off, Joel Berry is criminally underrated. He was without a doubt the most important player on last year’s team, and he has a good chance to wind up on the short list for National Player of the Year. Second, Isaiah Hicks may finally put everything together last season and will go a long way toward filling Johnson’s shoes. However, there are some open questions here. Theo Pinson is out indefinitely after breaking his foot again, leaving the team overly reliant on Berry in the backcourt. He’ll have help in Nate Britt and freshman Seventh Woods , both of whom should get plenty of minutes (especially considering Roy Williams’ penchant for deep rotations), and Justin Jackson is a likely All-ACC wing. But the dropoff from the talent of Berry to Britt is steep, and Woods is still a freshman. That means Williams will need Berry on the floor for most of the game — especially once conference play begins. With Pinson out indefinitely, Jackson won’t have much help on the wing either. But don’t lose sight of the fact that Jackson and Berry are both elite, championship-level players. Read the rest of this entry »

We are rounding out our ACC Must-Follow List for the year with Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Wake Forest in this post. If there are any other Twitter accounts that you think should be included, send us a tweet @rtcACC or leave a message in the comments section below.

For the rest of our Must-Follow List, check out the rest of our posts for this year. Note that these will release throughout the day on Thursday.

Virginia

Tony Bennett doesn’t have a Twitter account, but there are some good parodies (Getty Images)

• @UVAMensHoops – Official Twitter account of Virginia’s men’s basketball team
• @JeffWhiteUVa – Jeff White, Director of News Content for official Virginia team site
• @WhiteysWorld365 – Whitelaw Reid, Staff Writer, Virginia Magazine (Official Alumni Magazine)

Players

• Justice Bartley – @justicebartley2
• Trevon Gross, Jr. – @Sir_Trey
• Kyle Guy – @kylejguy5
• De’Andre Hunter – @Dr_Dre14
• Ty Jerome – @tyjerome_
• Jeff Jones – @Jeff_r_Jones
• Austin Nichols – @a_nichols33
• London Perrantes – @London_Tyus
• Jarred Reuter – @JarredReuter22
• Jack Salt – @JackSalt33
• Marial Shayok – @supermarial03
• Darius Thompson – @dthomp15
• Isaiah Wilkins – @IsaiahWilkins21

Bloggers and Beat Writers

• @TheUVAFool – Streaking the Lawn, independent site covering Virginia athletics
• @cavalierinsider – Cavalier Insider, coverage of Virginia athletics from The Daily Progress
• @ARamspacher – Andrew Ramspacher, Virginia athletics beat writer for The Daily Progress
• @JerryRatcliffe – Jerry Ratcliffe, columnist on Virginia athletics and the ACC for The Daily Progress
• @DoughtySports – Douglas Doughty, Virginia athletics beat writer for The Roanoke Times
• @RTD_MikeBarber – Mike Barber, Virginia and Virginia Tech beat writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch
• @normwood – Norm Wood, Virginia and Virginia Tech beat writer for The Daily Press
• @DavidTeelatDP – David Teel, reports on the ACC for The Daily Press
• @Cavs_Corner – Cavs Corner, Virginia focused site on the Rivals network
• @DamonDillman – Damon Dillman, Sports Director at CBS19 Charlottesville

Read the rest of this entry »

We are continuing our ACC Must-Follow List for the year with Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, and North Carolina in this post. If there are any other Twitter accounts that you think should be included, send us a tweet @rtcACC or leave a message in the comments section below.

For the rest of our ACC Must-Follow List, check out the rest of our posts for this year. Note that these will release throughout the day on Thursday.

Georgia Tech

He might not believe in golf, but he does believe in Twitter (RamblinWreck.com)

• @GTMBB: Official team account
• @GTJoshPastner: Josh Pastner, Head Coach
• @CoachTHardy: Tavares Hardy, Assistant
• @CoachDLaB: Darryl Labarrie, Assistant
• @CoachReveno: Eric Reveno, Assistant
• @SwartzJulian: Julian Swartz, Director of Operations
• @MarioWest5: Mario West, Director of Player Personnel
• @TylerBenson_TB: Tyler Benson, Director. of Video
• @Iron_Jackets: Dan Taylor, Player Development Coach
• @Cantkier: Ellie Cantkier, Administrative Coordinator

Players

• Justin Moore – @saymoore0
• Tadric Jackson – @TadricJ1
• Jodan Price – @JodanPrice05
• Norman Harris – @_NotTheNorm
• Josh Okogie – @CallMe_NonStop
• Quinton Stephens – @Ice_Stephens22
• Christian Matthew – @LiveLoveCMatt
• Sylvester Ogbonda – @iaresylvester
• Abdoulaye Gueye – @abdoula57379092

Bloggers and Beat Writers

• @ksugiuraajc: Ken Sugiura, covers Georgia Tech athletics for Atlanta Journal Constitution
• @jacketsonline: Rivals site for Georgia Tech
• @Kelly_Quinlan: Kelly Quinlan, writer for jacketsonline
• @FTRSBlog: SBNation site for Georgia Tech
• @BuzzTalkRadio: Radio show covering Georgia Tech
• @JeffSchultzAJC: Jeff Schultz, writer for Atlanta Journal Constitution
• @MarkBradleyAJC: Mark Bradley, writer for Atlanta Journal Constitution
• @ZachKleinWSB: Zach Klein, sports director for WSBtv Atlanta

Read the rest of this entry »

With the 2016 Election now mercifully behind us, we are on the verge of the new college basketball season. We will be unveiling our team-specific Twitter follows over the next few days, but be sure to add these ACC writers and personalities to keep up to date on the latest stories in the conference. And of course follow us on our microsite feed @rtcACC. If you have any suggestions for additions or corrections (several prominent writers no longer cover the conference), feel free to tweet at us or leave a comment below.

General ACC Follows

Our ACC Twitter follows will keep you informed and entertained (Credit: ESPN Video)

• @accmbb The official Twitter account for ACC Men’s Basketball.
• @ACCSports covers both ACC basketball and football; also located on accsports.com.
• @theACCDN: Features clips from the conference’s Digital Network
• @accbballnews: Chatham Journal’s ACC Basketball News
• @_andrewcarter: Andrew Carter, writer for The News & Observer/Charlotte Observer (see more in our interview with him earlier this year).
• @rickbozich: Rick Bozich, WDRB Sports journalist in Louisville.
• @ericcrawford: Eric Crawford, WDRB Sports journalist in Louisville.
• @lebrownlow: Lauren Brownlow, Durham-based writer/radio personality.
• @scacchoops: Jon Pence, creater of SCACCHoops.com.
• @jwgiglio: Joe Giglio, writer for The News & Observer.
• @stevewisemanNC: Stephen Wiseman, writer for the Durham Herald-Sun and AP voter.
• @stephenschramm: Stephen Schramm, writer for the Fayetteville Observer and AP voter.
• @aaronbeardap: Aaron Beard, AP writer in North Carolina.
• @DavidTeelatDP: David Teel, ACC writer for The Daily Press.
• @joeovies: Joe Ovies, radio personality for 99.9 FM The Fan in Raleigh.
• @LukeDeCock: Luke DeCock, writer for The News & Observer.
• @ArmstrongABC11: Mark Armstrong, ABC11 sports anchor in North Carolina.
• @AGoldFan: Adam Gold, radio personality for 99.9 FM The Fan in Raleigh.

Rush the Court ACC Microsite Team

• @rtcACC: Our conference microsite with discussion of major stories in the conference
• @bradjenk: Brad Jenkins
• @mpatton0: Matt Patton
• @MAuerbach24: Matthew Auerbach
• @TheMickMcDonald: Mick McDonald
• @CharlieMaikis: Charlie Maikis
• @pengriffey_jr: Brandon Jefferson

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re searching the Indiana roster for the name of the best player, you can stop when you see Thomas Bryant’s. The 6’10” sophomore is one of the most, talented forwards in the country and could easily have been playing in a regular season NBA game right now instead of still residing in Bloomington. But if you’re looking for the most exciting Hoosier on this season’s roster, you’ll need to redirect your eyes to another sophomore, OG Anunoby. The 19-year old London-born but Missouri-raised athlete was thrown into the limelight last December after James Blackmon Jr.’s season-ending injury. From that point on, his role changed from that of an unheralded freshman to providing stellar perimeter defense for 17 minutes off the bench with some highlight dunks sprinkled in. Given his youth, athleticism and length, Anunoby is a fan favorite among the Hoosiers faithful – not to mention a number professional scouts – and is one of the reasons Indiana is expected to compete for a Big Ten title despite significant departures from a Sweet Sixteen team.

OG Anunoby has all the hype coming into this season that he was missing as a HS recruit. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

How unheralded was Anunoby going into his freshman season? According to RSCIhoops.com, there were 260 better players in the Class of 2015 than him — not exactly the pedigree of a typical freshman standout. But once Blackmon fell to injury, Tom Crean was forced to improvise and use a combination of Anunoby and Juwan Morgan to replace the veteran shooting guard. While neither freshman could adequately replace Blackmon’s prolific scoring, Indiana’s defense improved with the pair in the rotation. Anunoby particularly distinguished himself as a defensive specialist (97.6 defensive rating) with a keen ability to defend multiple positions. His contributions helped save the Hoosiers’ season after a devastating injury to one of its starters, ultimately resulting in sole ownership of the Big Ten regular season and a nice NCAA Tournament run that ended at the hands of #1 seed North Carolina. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no clear-cut favorite in this season’s race for Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Most pundits are picking Oregon‘s Dana Altman but it feels like he is winning by default. Altman has something working against him, though, which is that expectations are already sky high in Eugene. If Oregon wins the conference it may be because they were expected to win the conference, and if the Ducks underachieve, Altman will quickly fall out of the race. I still think that Altman is the right pick and the correct pick. Adam and his eternal soft spot for Sean Miller respectfully disagrees. Here’s the case for each.

The Case for Sean Miller

Sean Miller Has His Work Cut Out For Him This Season (USA Today Images)

As of today we must acknowledge that we don’t know that status of Allonzo Trier. He’s pretty good at basketball and critical to Arizona‘s success this season. That said, if he misses extended time and the Wildcats still finish among the top three teams in this conference, it should only further cement Miller’s claim on Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Beyond the fact that the conference set a precedent of rewarding overachievers (all of the 2015 awards), Miller is poised to navigate a Pac-12 season with a group of talented players all of whom are in brand new experiences. Considering Altman returns 68 percent of the minutes played by his rotation last season and UCLA’s Steve Alford is only moving players into more natural positions, Miller will almost certainly have a larger impact on his team’s success that some of his counterparts. And in making this candidacy, I don’t want to paint the Wildcats as underdogs. They’re not. They’re ranked 10th nationally and even in the absence of Trier (and now, Ray Smith) they still rate as a top-30 team according to Sports Illustrated‘s What-If scenarios. Even with just eight scholarship players, none of whom has significant experience in their role, expectations are always lofty in Tucson. But Arizona only plays Oregon once (in Eugene) and has a schedule that is favorable so that this inexperienced, albeit loosely veteran, roster can have time to develop. Miller teams trend well late in the season and this is a group that likely won’t buck that trend.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s perhaps strange to consider Chimezie Metu the hottest topic out of the Galen Center and perhaps I’m wrong on this one. Such is the case with preseason prognosticating. But consider that the Trojans – a team that attended the 2016 Dance – have many of the right pieces already in place and developed to cover for the departures of Julian Jacobs and Nikola Jovanovic. I find Metu perhaps the most intriguing prospect in the Pac-12. Jacobs was a first team conference performer last year in leading the conference in assists. And while I don’t love to play the game of “how to replace a singular talent,” Elijah Stewart has long felt poised to become an elite scorer while Louisville transfer Shaqquan Arron could very well have that guard productivity covered (after all, he was a top-30 recruit in 2014). The frontcourt is well-positioned to also see a sophomore bump out of Benny Boatright, a stretch four who shot a cool 37 percent from beyond the arc while posting competitive-but-not-great rebounding numbers (get in there big fella!). Losing Jovanovic to the Draft, therefore, left the Trojans with their biggest gap at the biggest position. Enter: Metu.

Chimezie Metu Returns to Show What He Can Do at USC. (Shotgun Spratling/uscfootball.com)

He’s a fantastic athlete who has shown bursts of remarkable ability. As freshmen go, of course, they were indeed just bursts. He could play the role of big body this season, filling space and continuing those flashes or dominant presence, controlling the paint and altering anything in the lane. If it’s the former (body), I still like these Trojans as a top-of-the-league competitive and in the dogfight for an NCAA bid (two straight). If it’s the latter, however, with Metu as a nightly double-double threat and protecting the rim like he’s demonstrated (seriously, 8.2 percent block rate… but 5.2 fouls per 40 minutes), then the Trojans begin to feel like an NCAA lock with a shot at a top-three finish. Read the rest of this entry »

The losses Michigan State sustained after last year’s disappointing First Round NCAA Tournament exit would cripple most programs: a national Player of the Year (Denzel Valentine), the Big Ten’s best three-point shooter (Bryn Forbes), a stout senior interior presence (Matt Costello), and a one-and-done freshman (Deyonta Davis). Fortunately, Tom Izzo was able to reload with perhaps his best recruiting class ever, and along with some veteran returnees, it looks as if the Spartans once again have a team capable of winning the Big Ten and making a run in March.

Michigan State’s excellent freshman class will need to be good right away for Tom Izzo’s short-handed squad. (Source: Detroit Free Press)

Not so fast. Injuries have already struck hard to the Spartans’ frontcourt, sidelining UNLV graduate transfer Ben Carter and senior Gavin Schilling with knee ailments before exhibition games even tipped off. Both figured to see extensive minutes at the four and five slots, and the loss of both leaves Izzo in a precarious position with his frontcourt rotation. Right now it basically consists of two true freshmen (albeit highly-regarded ones): 6’7” Miles Bridges, 6’8” Nick Ward, and 6’6” redshirt sophomore (and former walk-on) Kenny Goins.

The best version of this team’s lineup probably involves Bridges at the four and Ward at the five, although Izzo will likely go with Goins as the nominal center to start (for example, he started against Northwoods). Bridges will be a matchup nightmare up front, too quick for big men and too strong for wings. He has a smooth lefty stroke from the perimeter (going 5-of-5 from deep in the first exhibition game), and he can also grab a defensive rebound and push the ball up the floor by himself. Most of all, he’s an insane athlete – the height he gets when leaping and the sheer power with which he dunks are awe-inspiring. Ward, on the other hand, is a more traditional post player. He’s got great touch around the basket with his left hand and has proven capable of playing above the rim. Given his girth (listed at 250 pounds), he has the best chance of slowing opposing big men, but Izzo will still be forced to double-team against the likes of burly Big Ten bodies such as Ethan Happ, Isaac Haas and Thomas Bryant.

Read the rest of this entry »