1. Grantland: It’s no secret that North Carolina and Duke are the top two squads in the ACC. But can Tony Bennett establish Virginia as their perennial challenger in the wake of Gary Williams’ departure? Shane Ryan breaks down Bennett’s pack-line defense, which has been the team’s key to success this season. We’ve talked about it a little before, but the screen-shots are illustrating. There’s never more than one player outside of the three-point line, which keeps more athletic teams from taking advantage of dribble penetration and forces them to beat the Cavaliers from deep.
2. Philadelphia Daily News: Dick Jerardi does a good job describing Mike Krzyzewski‘s career in brief and why he thinks there won’t be anyone else like him. I’d only add that the game has changed significantly since the start of the 1980s, which makes both Coach K’s success impressive and the likelihood of another coach like him even slimmer. He also briefly previewed Duke’s eventual opponent last night (who ended up winning), Temple.
3. Baltimore Sun: Don Markus checks in on Maryland and whether its record is a “true indicator” of the team’s current level. I think it is, but you have to remember the Terps’ opponents too. Mark Turgeon implied that he thought their record was generous. In the end Markus concludes that the Terrapins will be erratic, blowing out opponents or losing by 30 points to similar caliber ones because of their up-tempo pace and questionable shooting.
4. Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State knows it needs to get its act together if it’s going to make the NCAA Tournament. Leonard Hamilton isn’t as concerned with the wins and losses as his team’s performance. Basically, the biggest issue is (like most years) the Seminoles can’t score consistently from anywhere. But they whipped up on Auburn last night to tune up for conference play.
5. Baltimore Sports Report: The Baltimore Sports Report takes a look at the missing pieces of some conference teams. To be short (in my opinion): North Carolina needs a shooter; Duke needs a point guard; Virginia needs a shot-creator in the backcourt; Virginia Tech needs an inside presence; NC State needs consistency; Florida State needs scoring; Clemson needs a second option who can take over the game; Georgia Tech needs a go-to guy; Maryland needs significant contributors aside from Terrell Stoglin; Wake Forest needs rebounding; Miami needs a defense; Boston College needs everything.

In an interview on sports radio this week, Gary Williams got a little indignant about the charge that he wasn’t a great recruiter, claiming that when he was the coach at Maryland, his teams had more future NBA players than any Atlantic Coast Conference school aside from Duke and North Carolina. While I think that Williams catches more flak than he deserves for not recruiting well, I also think that his claim probably isn’t true. Every source that I have been able to find has Georgia Tech as a strong third place in the ACC when it comes to NBA players during his tenure (essentially, the 1990s and 2000s). Even if by some miscount, it’s pretty clear that Georgia Tech has had better pros than Maryland during that time. The Terrapins had Joe Smith, Steve Francis, Steve Blake, and Walt Williams, while GT has had Chris Bosh, Stephon Marbury, Kenny Anderson, and Thaddeus Young. At best, Maryland was the fourth best school in the ACC in producing NBA talent during Williams’ tenure, and that’s only if you agree that quality trumps quantity and ignore Wake Forest‘s Tim Duncan, Josh Howard and Chris Paul.

Gary Williams Made Up For His Mediocre Recruiting With Excellent Coaching

Still, I don’t bring this up to condemn Williams for overstating his record, but to bring up a point about recruiting and coaching.  Dan Hanner did an interesting little study that he wrote up for this year’s College Basketball Prospectus where he set out to evaluate how important it is to get great recruits. He looked at recruits from 1999-2011 and put them into different categories based on their recruiting class rank and where they went to college and then looked to see how many minutes they played and what their average offensive efficiency rating was.  At Maryland, unranked recruits played 51.2% of the minutes while recruits ranked 100-10 played the remainder of the minutes. The unranked recruits produced an average offensive efficiency rating of 104.2 while their ranked peers produced at 106.4 mark. Now compare this to Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets had unranked recruits use 28.1% of the minutes while recruits ranked from 100-10 used 67.1% (the remaining 4.8% went to top ten recruits). Here is where things get interesting: the unranked players produce at an offensive efficiency rating of 99.1 while the ranked recruits (outside of the top ten) posted a rate of 103.3. While Georgia Tech had top recruits playing more minutes than Maryland, the unranked recruits of Maryland ended up playing better on average than Georgia Tech’s ranked recruits. For Williams, recruiting just didn’t matter as much because he had a knack for making unranked players better than their ranked counterparts at Georgia Tech. That’s the key takeaway here — that the power of a talented coach can overcome recruiting rankings.

So, yes, I think Williams misspoke when he said that Maryland was the third best producer of NBA talent in the ACC during his tenure. I also happen to think that Georgia Tech’s ability to out-recruit Maryland ultimately didn’t matter too much — the Terps are the ones with the 2002 national championship banner hanging in the rafters, not the Yellow Jackets.

1. SBNation DC: Gary Williams was back on the radio waves yesterday. This time he was defending his recruiting, even if his quotes only confirm his critics’ arguments. Williams pointed out that Maryland had plenty of players play in the NBA, which really trivializes the player development that was the hallmark of his successful teams.
   

   The toughest thing was always when you’d call a kid the first day of his senior year and he already narrowed his schools down to the five schools he wanted to visit. They basically say, ‘Where have you been? Why haven’t you already called?’

   As the sport has become more televised, recruiting has moved earlier and earlier. It’s unfortunate you have to start recruiting kids when they’re freshmen in high school, but that’s part of the process. Williams was also notorious for not wanting to deal with AAU coaches at all.

2. ESPN: Almost on cue (ahem), Austin Rivers and Seth Curry are starting to show signs of clicking in Duke’s backcourt. Early games caused critics to question the duo, especially Rivers, and their effectiveness together. But a strong game against Michigan has gotten conversations changing a little. Duke hasn’t been dominant so far this season, but the Blue Devils keep winning against very solid talent. They’ll get another test against Thomas Robinson and Kansas in tonight’s Maui Invitational championship game.
3. Stadium Journey: Martin Rickman (of Blogger So Dear) reviewed Wake Forest‘s Lawrence Joel Coliseum. Hopefully the team’s solid start will bring life back to the Joel, which was at one time one of the toughest places to play in the ACC. This site is a pretty cool idea and has reviews of many of college basketball and college football’s best stadiums. My one complaint is the reviews seem to have a very tight range (at least the overall reviews seem to rarely drop below three out of five stars and rarely go above four).
4. The Sporting News: Dorenzo Hudson is ready to dance. Despite Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen’s departures from Blacksburg, Hudson is convinced this is the Hokies’ year (for the record, I think Virginia Tech was a lock for the NCAA Tournament had Hudson not been injured last year). I totally forgot that he averaged over 15 points a game two years ago. Hudson is the real deal, but he’s going to need help — possibly from Erick Green and Dorian Finney-Smith — to lead the Hokies to their first NCAA Tournament since 2007.
5. ESPN and Winston Salem Journal: Ever heard someone complain that there’s too much coverage of North Carolina on ESPN? Well, I wouldn’t expect that to change as the Worldwide Leader promoted a Tar Heel to replace George Bodenheimer as the multi-billion dollar corporation’s president. John Skipper graduated from North Carolina with a degree in English Literature, Class of 1978.

Well…when it rains, it pours. And good lord did it pour following the ACC’s perfect 26-0 start. The conference has since gone 8-8 with absolutely hideous losses from Boston College (getting beaten by Holy Cross might be OK, but by 22?), Clemson (at College of Charleston would be one thing; at Littlejohn is another), and supposed-upstart Virginia (TCU is an acceptable loss… in football).

1. ACCSports.com: Mike Krzyzewski sounded a little like Dean Smith when he talked about win number 903 and retirement. Although he acknowledged the record was a big deal, Coach K deflected much of the credit to his former players. He also doesn’t have a set goal for wins or seasons as he looks to retirement. Rather, to quote him, “my thing probably will not be as planned. I’ll know. I’ll just know.” This seems the general sentiment for hypercompetitive coaches. Gary Williams obviously just knew after last season. Smith just knew in 1997.
2. TarHeelBlue.com: Roy Williams has filled out his coaching staff with a couple of former players in Bobby Frasor and Jackie Manuel. Technically they aren’t coaches. Frasor is the assistant video coordinator and Manuel is the strength and conditioning coordinator. Coincidentally, both alumni-turned-employees played for Williams’ championship teams in 2005 and 2009.
3. Baltimore Sun – Tracking the Terps: You can criticize Mark Turgeon for many things, but not about his candidness. After a blowout loss to Iona (an experienced team which many will likely predict to upset someone in the Big Dance), Turgeon said: “This is the biggest challenge I’ve ever had in coaching. It’s not even close. To me, the kids have got to care more. I’ve taken over programs before that were picked low in their league, but the kids did what they were supposed to do.” Turgeon’s attack feels risky to me. He has a young team that’s also shorthanded. Terrell Stoglin only took up point guard duties just last week because of Pe’Shon Howard’s injury. At the same time, lack of effort needs to be nipped in the bud immediately. As Turgeon is showing, it’s a delicate balance one has to walk as a high-major college basketball coach.
4. Charlotte Observer: In the wake of Ryan Harrow’s transfer, Lorenzo Brown has really stepped up for NC State. Against Princeton he dropped 16 points and dished eight dimes — including one for the game-winning shot to Deshawn Painter. On the game-winning play the Charlotte Observer‘s JP Giglio said, “it was the kind of assertive play N.C. State has been missing from the point guard position for the better part of 20 years.” I’m not sure I’d go that far, but Brown has game and will be the X-factor for a young, talented Wolfpack team.
5. Lexington Herald-Leader: Jerry Tipton set out to answer the question, “since the John Wooden-led UCLA dynasty ended in 1975, which program sets the standard for excellence?” Unsurprisingly Seth Davis, Robyn Norwood and Blair Kerkhoff all chose either Duke or North Carolina at the top spot. Jay Bilas hinted at an elite tier of programs that included eight teams. I’d tend to agree, although Kentucky should be very close behind.

Well, the streak is dead after Maryland decided to shoot less than 20% from the floor (OK, Alabama’s slightly-better-than-decent defense had something to do with it too), and Georgia Tech turned around and lost by double figures to St. Joseph’s in the Charleston Classic. Stephen Schramm of the Fayetteville Observer posted a nice recap of the 26-game winning streak if you want to reminisce. The run was great while it lasted. No worries though, the ACC (or at least North Carolina) is still atop of Luke Winn’s Power Rankings!

1. ESPN Radio (via Washington Post): Maryland alum Scott Van Pelt sat down with Gary Williams to talk about his relationship and rivalry with Mike Krzyzewski. Williams has fond, competitive memories of playing Coach K’s Duke teams in the early 2000s when both schools were at the top of college basketball. Williams brings up a couple of gut-wrenching losses (including this one). The most interesting piece of the interview might have been the lede of one of Van Pelt’s questions when he mentioned that Williams will be an analyst for the Big Ten Network.
2. New England Cable News: If you believe his dad, Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers isn’t focused on his future so much as the present. According to the Boston Celtics head coach, Rivers isn’t worried about being one-and-done or the NBA lockout; “He’s more concerned about winning.” Doc Rivers’ interview makes it sound like his son is doing his best to fit into Duke’s system, which should be great news for Blue Devil fans (many of whom were concerned Rivers would try and fit the system to him). Rivers has been mercurial through the first three games, averaging a very inefficient 12.7 PPG.
3. New York Times: Another potential sexual abuse scandal may headed for college sports, as ESPN reported earlier today that Syracuse police are investigating Bobby Davis’ claims that associate head coach Bernie Fine molested him “hundreds of times” when he was a ball boy for the Orange (starting in the seventh grade). Coming on the heels of the Penn State disaster, Syracuse acted immediately. Fine has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation proceeds. One difference between this and the Jerry Sandusky scandal is that this is a newly opened investigation by the police, not grand jury report. Jim Boeheim has already made some waves by coming to the defense of his longtime assistant coach.
4. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Mark Gottfried isn’t the only new ACC coach making waves on the recruiting trail. Brian Gregory is quietly putting together a top-15 class headlined by five-star forward Robert Carter. He also still has two scholarships to give (or save for next season when he only has two available). My guess is he’ll use at least one on a point guard in the spring. In their loss last night, the Yellow Jackets only managed four assists to ten turnovers, and only had two players make more than two field goals. Not counting Mfon Udofia and Kammeon Holsey, Georgia Tech starters went a smooth 4-25 from the field.
5. Orlando Sentinel: It’s safe to say that Bernard James wasn’t impressed with the Seminoles’ defensive effort Wednesday night. His teammates don’t sound impressed either with lots of talk of “lessons” and “growing” from the win. As Leonard Hamilton pointed out, Stetson plays the type of ball that Florida State is most vulnerable to (it runs the dribble drive with lots of shooters). There are more talented teams with similar systems, but I agree with the players that the game should serve as a learning experience (and as a bonus, they did get the win). But these kind of games definitely make you wonder how the Seminoles will fare in conference play.

EXTRA: Apparently the NCAA has its finances online for the world to see (originally Deadspin thought the documents were leaked). If you’ve ever been curious how the NCAA uses the hundreds of millions of dollars generated by college basketball, these documents are worth perusing. It’s an interesting public relations move for the organization to release these documents without publicizing it. But in the wake of all of the recent criticism about NCAA greed, I think releasing the documents was the right choice.

Some afternoons, we’re going to do our best to point you to the developing stories and thoughtful writing from all over the ACC that has turned up during the course of the day.  So without further ado, here’s your Afternoon Delight.

What's More delightful Than Wake Forest's Muggsy Bogues Playing Defense Against Maryland's Chris Gatlin? Nothing (Courtesy of @si_vault)

• Charles P. Pierce at Grantland joins the fray with a gleeful and thoughtful evisceration of the NCAA. It’s the must-read piece of the day, but there are a number of excellent places that are joining voices in a chorus of criticism. In particular, I appreciated this Inside Higher Ed piece that includes Duke’s own Shane Battier weighing in on the bizarre experience of being a college athlete.
• A few ACC coaches also sat down to talk the last couple of days. At a charity event for the Cal Ripken, Sr., Foundation, current and past Maryland coaches Mark Turgeon and Gary Williams, as well as Villanova coach Jay Wright, participated in  a roundtable style-talk that included topics like the challenges of recruiting in Baltimore and their thoughts on conference realignment. There were no earth-shattering revelations here, but it’s interesting to learn what these guys had to say. In a really thorough interview, Boston College blog Around the Res has also been posting the transcript of an interview with Eagles head coach, Steve Donahue. The first two installments of the chat, touching on interesting topics like the team’s conditioning efforts and plans to integrate more post play, have already been posted with more to come.
• College Park nervously awaits the word on the eligibility of Alex Len, the promising 7’0″ Ukranian center who could be a big help to a shorthanded Maryland team. Jeff Barker of the Baltimore Sun published a tantalizing report that Len should be declared eligible to practice today, though he will probably face a suspension of some number of games. So far, there has been no official confirmation that Len has been cleared, but understandably folks are eager for the news. Len’s eligibility is in doubt because of a number of games he played with BC Dnipro, a professional team overseas (similar to Deniz Kilicli’s situation at West Virginia). So while we wait for more news about Len, here is a totally bizarre clip of the cheerleaders for BC Dnipro dancing.

Maryland was very unlucky last season. It ranked 330th out of 345 schools according to Ken Pomeroy’s statistical “Luck” element, falling just in between ACC compatriots Clemson and Georgia Tech. However, the team’s flaws contributed as much to its close losses as anything else. First and foremost, Sean Mosley took a step back from a very promising sophomore season and became a virtual non-factor on offense. Terrell Stoglin‘s brilliant play masked Mosley’s absence for much of the season, but the lack of a consistent third option killed the Terrapins down the stretch. Additionally, Jordan Williams had an Achilles’ heel: poor free throw shooting. Williams was the rock of last year’s Maryland squad, but his inability to shoot foul shots well forced him to take on a reduced role at the end of games.

Terrell Stoglin and Jordan Williams Would've Made a Dynamic Duo at Maryland

Looking back at Maryland’s year is like reading The Little Engine That Could(n’t). Gary Williams‘ squad was competitive, only being blown out twice by a middling opponent (once by Miami and once by Virginia Tech). Those two bad losses, though, were balanced byonly two decent wins (vs. Clemson and Florida State). For whatever reason Maryland couldn’t break into that next tier last year.  The year was so frustrating that after hearing Jordan Williams was departing for the NBA Draft, Hall of Famer Gary Williams departed for the cool breezes of retirement. While inconsistency — especially on the recruiting trail — marked the last few years of his tenure, Williams-coached teams regularly flourished during ACC play in the early 2000s especially the 2002 National Championship team headlined by Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter and Juan Dixon. But the stresses of constantly having to reload from lost players and assistant coaches finally caught up to the head coach after Jordan Williams left his team with very few players and nothing to speak of in the front court. The good news is that the very capable Mark Turgeon was hired away from Texas A&M to take the helm in College Park. Read the rest of this entry »

To be honest, on average, the graduation rates for men’s college basketball players have  increased everywhere. To be completely honest, the graduation rates for student-athletes as a whole have improved. Still, let’s take a minute and appreciate how this trend holds up in the Atlantic Coast Conference: All in all, basketball players are graduating at better rates that they once did in the ACC, and at a rate that’s better than the national average for men’s college basketball players. So, that’s something.

But is it the whole story? No, but since the NCAA loves nothing if not thorough documentation, we can get at least get a clearer view of the story. The NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is a modified version of a rolling measure called the Federal Graduation Rate (FGR). The Federal Graduation Rate for a given year is the percentage of an incoming freshmen class that graduates at that institution within six years of entry, averaged with the three classes that preceded it. The FGR does not count any player who transferred to another university and graduated or otherwise left the university. The NCAA’s measure, GSR, tries to account for the fact that lots of athletes transfer to other universities, and, at least in a few sports, enter the professional leagues. So, in short, the GSR is in some ways, an inflated version of the Federal Graduation Rate, where an athlete can get counted as “graduated” as long as they leave the university in good academic standing. It almost makes sense, but since it’s the NCAA’s preferred metric, we’ll roll with it.  (ed. note: see our previous article this morning for Matt’s take on the value of graduation rates to the NCAA)

Now, because of the six year window that both rates use to count graduation, the numbers that were released this year deal with the players who entered a given university between 2001-02 and 2004-05.  So, while these numbers can give a good indicator in the general direction a program is heading, the data isn’t particularly timely.  Still, looking at the past and looking at how the data is trending can give a useful glimpse into the present.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Sports Illustrated: Luke Winn hits another home run with his analysis of Duke‘s team this year. The more stories I read about this Blue Devils’ team, the more excited I am to see Miles Plumlee suit up this season. Coach K is really hyping his front court, which will certainly play a crucial role if the Blue Devils hope to keep up with Tobacco Road rival North Carolina. Winn also spends time discussing Duke’s back court and the maturation that will be needed from freshman guard Austin Rivers.
2. ESPN: The Worldwide Leader’s college basketball coverage continued Thursday with interesting posts from Dana O’Neil and Andy Katz. O’Neil highlighted five things she’s looking forward to from the ACC this season. Possibly the most interesting of her questions is whether or not NC State can get its “verve” back. It’s certainly possible with a relatively down conference and a team that is full of sneaky talent, but after last season’s relative mediocrity it’s tough to find a Wolfpack bandwagon to jump on. Katz gives some quick, lesser-reported facts from the conference media day, with a tidbit from each team (and two from Duke and North Carolina). My personal favorite part of the article is when Katz goes off on a tangent about Tony Bennett‘s and his shared love for network comedy Modern Family.
3. Washington Post – Terrapins Insider: One under-reported part of Operation Basketball were the discussions on Gary Williams and his sudden retirement. Mike Krzyzewski nostalgically spoke about Williams’ career, praising both the great Duke-Maryland games over the past ten years and Williams’ legacy as a “lifer” of the same generation as Coach K, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun: “People don’t approach — I’m not saying they don’t approach the game well — but they don’t approach it the same way we did. So you lose some of that.”
4. Chicago Tribune: Former Miami coach Frank Haith still faces questions regarding his tenure in South Beach (excuse me, Coral Gables) thanks to Charles Robinson’s jaw-dropping exposé of Hurricane booster Nevin Shapiro’s utter disregard for the NCAA rulebook. For those who may not remember, Haith reportedly accompanied recruits to a strip club and knew about a $10,000 dollar gift to help land a recruit (for the record, Haith has denied both allegations). But according to Haith the questions are coming from the media, not his team at Missouri.
5. Shakin’ the Southland: In the second part of their Clemson basketball preview, Shakin’ the Southland looks at the Tigers’ very youthful roster, which reflects a late coaching change that kept Brad Brownell from recruiting a strong sophomore class. One freshman to keep an eye on is TJ Sapp, who draws comparison to Clemson star Demontez Stitt. The opening part of their basketball preview analyzed Clemson’s schedule.

BONUS: SpartanJerseys.com noticed a Michigan State uniform in a clip about the patches being sewed on the Cardinals’ World Series jerseys. The interesting thing about the Spartan uniform: it’s camouflaged. A little deductive reasoning led the site to guess that the camo jerseys will be for the Carrier Classic game this November. The Michigan State jersey is white, which means North Carolina will probably be wearing its road blues (with camouflage of course). First, I’m confused why the uniform made the video in the first place. Second, I’m incredibly impressed someone noticed it. And third, could that be North Carolina’s jersey just off screen (top right corner)? It’s a cool idea (even if it’s a little gimmicky) to emphasize the special nature of the game with a shout-out to the US Armed Forces.

One Observant Viewer Noticed a Camouflaged Michigan State Uniform in This Video (h/t SpartanJerseys.com and Uni Watch)

The University of Maryland invented Midnight Madness in 1971 under legendary coach Lefty Driesell. That makes last Friday the 40th anniversary of the very first Madness. Terrapin fans turned out in droves for the event, but, sadly, the history of the event and the Maryland program seemed to overshadow the future. The highlight of the event was an alumni game that included many members of the 2002 National Championship squad as well as other famous basketball alumni, like Grievis Vasquez. Fans were happy to see Steve Blake, Chris Wilcox, and Steve Francis, but the largest ovation was for legendary coach and recent retiree Gary Williams. It’s nice that Maryland was able to celebrate and savor it’s proud basketball tradition, but the fact that new head coach Mark Turgeon and the current Maryland squad were overshadowed by the looming legends of the past doesn’t bode well for this season.

Lefty Driesell Invented Midnight Madness 40 Years Ago at Maryland

Meanwhile, at Duke, the focus was squarely on the new guys,  specifically, the highly-touted Austin Rivers. Rivers showed off his range and touch by sinking his first three three-pointers in the intra-squad scrimmage before he began struggling in the second half. Despite this slight letdown, Blue Devils fans have no cause for sadness: Rivers looks like he will be fine. Other highlights of the night? Seth Curry. He absolutely dominated the game, scoring 28 points in 24 minutes to go along with a pair of steals and four assists. Besides the scrimmage, there was also a dunk contest judged by J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, which was won by Miles Plumlee. That said I think Jim Sumner at Duke Basketball Report summed it up best:

The evening concluded with a dunk contest that demonstrated conclusively that seven-footers can dunk a basketball if no one is guarding them and they don’t actually have to dribble the basketball.

Read the rest of this entry »