Despite a minor kerfuffle over Andy Glockner dinging Duke‘s schedule for not playing “true” road games, I think that we can all agree that non-conference road games are a thing of beauty. While old conference rivalries are their own distinct joy, and an on-going series between non-conference foes can be reliably entertaining (Kentucky vs. North Carolina, for example), there is something special when a team goes somewhere it has never been before and takes on the challenge of playing in hostile territory. And while prime time showdowns between two big schools in power conferences are entertaining, it is almost always better when Goliath comes to visit David.
This season, we have more than a few of these lopsided showdowns in the ACC. And, again, apologies to schools who scheduled great games at semi-neutral sites, but we will be focusing on the “true” road games. Sorry, Duke. It is great that you are playing Temple, but it’s a shame that it is at the Wells Fargo center. Sorry, Maryland. It’s even cooler that you are taking on Temple at the Palestra, but for now, let us give credit to teams that are willing to go head first into the belly of the (mid-to-low-major) beast.
Coming Off A NCAA Tournament Appearance, UNC Asheville Will Take On North Carolina at Home
After last season’s atrocious showing, a loss to just about anyone would not be too surprising for Wake Forest. That said, the showdown with neighboring High Point University in High Point could spell trouble if the Panthers smell weakness and decide to go for the weakened Deacons’ collective jugular. Fellow ACC basement-dweller Georgia Tech has scheduled a whole host of road games on hostile courts. While they should be able to take on the not-so-terrifying lineup of Tulane, Savannah State, and Fordham, a loss to any one of these teams could put an end to any modicum of momentum Georgia Tech might hope to carry into the conference season. The Citadel gets points for sheer chutzpah by scheduling Clemson for their home opener, and Clemson gets kudos for accepting. Getting the most dominant basketball school in South Carolina to come to your house to open the season is a bold move. There is no doubt that the Bulldogs and their fans will be amped for this game, and the Citadel will certainly give Clemson their best.
The lack of basketball being played right now is upsetting, and though Midnight Madness draws near, the gap between that and actual games is still disconcerting. To add even more heartache, NBA labor talks broke down yesterday making the possibility of at least some professional games soon less likely. The San Antonio Spurs’ French star Tony Parker showed his lack of confidence in the labor process by signing with the French team ASVEL recently. Things are not looking good for basketball fans who want to see their favorite players in action. Desperate times call for desperate measures, so without further adieu, I’d like to present the ACC Fan’s Guide to French Basketball.
The Ligue Nationale de Basketball is actually one of the better international leagues outside of Spain and it has the added benefit of being chock full of former ACC players. The league is divided into two divisions: Pro-A and Pro-B. Each division has eighteen teams and follows a relegation model where the worst two teams in Pro-A are relegated to Pro-B while the winner and runner-up of Pro-B is promoted to Pro-A. For now, let’s just talk about Pro-A, which begins its season on Friday, October 7, conveniently providing the basketball junkie with a quickly delivered fix.
Malcolm Delaney is Gone From Virginia Tech, But For Now, You Can Watch Him In France
The highlight for ACC fans might be seeing recent Virginia Tech standout, Malcolm Delaney playing on Élan Sportif Chalonnais based in Chalon-sur-Saône. Chalon is a talented team and features another ACC veteran in Alade Aminu out of Georgia Tech. For North Carolina fans, Paris-Levallois Basket offers a chance for Tar Heel fans to witness a reunion of 2005 national champions Jawad Williams and David Noel. For those who want to see a reunion of the 2009 national champions, I have to direct you to Slovenia where Danny Green and Deon Thompson play together for Union Olympija.
The Academic Progress Rate, a measure designed to roughly measure the academic performance of student-athletes that was instituted by the NCAA in 2005, has mainly been the scourge of schools that already have insufficient resources. While Southern and Grambling struggle to move beyond the post-season bans brought on by a failure to meet the required APR, the power conferences remain mostly unscathed by the increased academic requirements. The past year was an exception, however, when none other than the national champion, Connecticut, received a two-scholarship penalty and notice that future violations could result in much more severe penalties, including a postseason ban.
Georgia Tech Has an Academic Progress Rate Problem
The ACC, in the short history of APR, has largely been untroubled by the sanctions that result from this policy. The exception, however, has been Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech had the number of men’s basketball scholarships it could offer reduced by two during the 2007-08 season, and this year will have to work around another scholarship reduction. For a Yellow Jackets team that is coming off a disastrous season, has a new head coach, and that will basically have no true home court for the coming season (splitting time at the Arena in Gwinnett and Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta while awaiting completion of a new home), the scholarship reduction seems like salt in an already significant wound. While new head coach Brian Gregory seems cautiously optimistic, it looks like Georgia Tech may have to juggle far too many problems at once.
On the positive side, the conference as a whole has done very well at meeting the Academic Progress Rate requirements. Outside of Georgia Tech, Florida State is the only school that is dangerously close to missing the APR cutoff, scoring a 926 last year when the cutoff for immediate penalties is at 925. The rest of the conference seems to be in pretty good shape, with Duke , North Carolina State, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech all receiving APR Public Recognition Awards from the NCAA, and the others safely above the cut line (currently, and at the 930 cut line which goes into effect soon).
With the flurry of conference expansion that has taken place since the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament, the biggest focus has been upon two subsets of teams: those that would be taken to new conferences, and those whose conferences would be dismantled around them. The former teams — a collection of powerful programs such as Syracuse and Pittsburgh, and basketball also-rans like TCU and Nebraska, and schools in between — have understandably been analyzed because they are the institutions affecting the change throughout the collegiate sports landscape. The latter programs — Big 12 litigious ursines Baylor chief among them — fear being left behind and have received plenty of attention about the prospect of falling out of the upper echelon of big-time, big-money college athletics. But there’s a third subset of programs affected by the changing composition of the conferences: the teams already within them. For the average team in an expanding major conference — teams like Oregon, Arkansas, or Georgia Tech — the impact of the expansion is one that hasn’t been looked at with the same level of scrutiny.
What Happens to Teams Like These in Conference Realignment? (AP/G. Broome)
So what is in store for these programs after this time of transition? The primary theme of uncertainty permeating the entire expansion process is just as applicable to these schools, and given the lack of coverage, it may actually be a more uncertain path. They possess similar conference structures, budgets and players, but they will face two fundamental problems exacerbated by the potential (or actual) growth of their conferences.
The first problem is likely to be the decreased amount of available challenging non-conference scheduling for teams. As their conferences grow, the pool of programs with similar statures that are available and willing to play them will diminish, both because teams will be able to play fewer teams as a result of the increased size of their conference and because of schools’ general unwillingness to play too many games against a single conference in one year.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Jeff Hathaway is out at UConn: After a long power battle Hathaway is out and Paul Pendergast is replacing him as the interim athletic director. (The UConn Blog: Part 1 and Part 2)
Lithuania 76, USA 74: “For the second time in less than two months a Lithuanian team eliminated an American team from medal consideration in an international tournament, as the Americans dropped a two point decision, 74-76, to that Baltic Republic in the World University Games held at Shenzhen University.” (Villanova by the Numbers and Kentucky Sports Radio)
USA 94, Romania 73: “A change in the starting five brought a change of fortunes at Shenzhen University Sunday as Team USA posted a 21 point win over fellow quarter final loser Team Romania, and advanced to a showdown with Team Germany for fifth place at the World University Games.” (Villanova by the Numbers)
Georgetown Hoyas Defeat Liaoning Dinosaurs 91-69 in Shanghai: “In their first game since the infamous game ending brawl with the Bayi Rockets, the Georgetown Hoyas got another win against a professional Chinese team, defeating the Dinosaurs of Liaoning by a score of 91-69.” (Casual Hoya)
Cal Men’s Basketball Beats Danes, 81-73: The Bears defeated the Danish National Team behind 21 points from Robert Thurman. (California Golden Blogs)
Cal Men’s Basketball Has Room for Seconds, Polishes off Danish 95-78: “For the weekend re-match against the Danish national team, the Golden Bears would have to get it done without starting big men Harper Kamp (knee) and Richard Solomon (eye). Although both players could probably have made a go of it for a regular season game, it was a great experience for the youngsters to step up.” (California Golden Blogs)
Gonzaga Conference Schedule: A look at the current schedule with times and TV appearances. (The Slipper Still Fits)
Blackshear and Ware good to go, Swop nearing 100%: Rick Pitino offers some updates on the eligibility of several players. (Card Chronicle)
Pac-12 Basketball Tournament May Be Moving: “Larry Scott talked to ESPN.com earlier this week about some of the changes that have come to the conference since he bacame commissioner two years ago. While the conference’s expansion and the two massive media deals were the lead topics of the discussion, Scott teased that he is rethinking how the Pac-12 basketball tournament is organized, including its current home in LA.” (Bruins Nation)
With the the NBA Draft concluded and the annual coaching and transfer carousels nearing their ends, RTC is rolling out a new series, RTC Summer Updates, to give you a crash course on each Division I conference during the summer months. The latest update comes courtesy of our ACC correspondent, Matt Patton.
Reader’s Take
Summer Storylines
New Faces: That’s right, the ACC will be totally different conference this season. Only five of the fifteen players selected as to the all-conference teams will be running the floor this season, namely four of North Carolina’s five starters (with Miami’s Malcolm Grant keeping the group from being only Tar Heels). Somewhat surprisingly, all of the ACC all-freshman squad will be back in action. Duke’s Kyrie Irving was a prominent frosh, but he didn’t play a single conference game before leaving school and UNC’s Harrison Barnes opted to return for his sophomore campaign. Keep an eye on Wake Forest’s Travis McKie and Maryland’s Terrell Stoglin especially. Both should be the stars on their respective teams.
However, the strength of the conference will rely heavily on the incoming players and coaches. Duke, North Carolina, Virginia Tech and Florida State all bring in consensus top 25 classes according to ESPN, Rivals and Scout. To make a long story short, the rich get richer. Duke’s Austin Rivers (ranked 1st by Rivals, 2nd by Scout and ESPNU) will be expected to contribute immediately, while North Carolina’s James McAdoo (8th by Rivals, 4th by Scout and 5th by ESPNU) and PJ Hairston (13th by Rivals, 20th by Scout and 12th by ESPNU) should be given ample time to find roles on an already stacked team.
Arguably more important, at least in the long term, are the new coaches: NC State welcomes Mark Gottfried, Miami welcomes JimLarranaga, Maryland welcomes Mark Turgeon, and Georgia Tech welcomes Brian Gregory to the conference. The only coach I think is a surefire “upgrade” is Larranaga, who comes with some disadvantages (namely, age). While Gottfried experienced some success at Alabama, the Crimson Tide isn’t known as a basketball powerhouse and he didn’t leave the school on great terms. I also don’t think it’s a great sign that Ryan Harrow left for the bluer pastures of Kentucky. Gregory, though, sticks out as the strangest hire of the four. He had a fairly nondescript tenure at Dayton with many Flyer fans happy to see him leave. I know a tight budget hamstrung by Paul Hewitt’s hefty buyout deal probably kept the Yellow Jackets from going after the sexiest candidates, but the choice still surprised me. Gregory’s biggest disadvantage is his ugly, grind-it-out style of play that will eventually make it difficult to attract top recruits and could possibly alienate the entire GT fanbase (see: Herb Sendek).
North Carolina Navigates Investigation Waters: Finally, it may not be basketball-related, but it’s impossible to mention this offseason without discussing North Carolina’s impending date with the NCAA Committee of Infractions. The story has dominated ACC sports news. To briefly sum things up, the Tar Heels had an assistant coach, John Blake, on the payroll of an agent. If that wasn’t enough, the NCAA investigation unveiled thousands (I’m not kidding) of dollars in unpaid parking tickets and even several cases of academic fraud. The university has come out very firmly saying these infractions only involved the football team** but the scandal has gained national notoriety. (**Author’s note: the one connection with the basketball team is that Greg Little was one of UNC’s ineligible football players. Little was also a walk-on for the basketball team during the 2007-08 season, playing in ten games. North Carolina has said that his infractions occurred after his year with the basketball team, so no win vacations are in the basketball team’s future.)
Somehow, despite academic fraud, ineligible benefits and an agent runner on staff, the Tar Heels failed to get the NCAA’s most serious “lack of institutional control” violation for what appeared to be nothing less thana lack of institutional control. Again, this scandal is confined to football, but it’s one of the many recent scandals that have come to light in big time college athletics in the last couple of years (Connecticut, USC, Ohio State, Oregon, etc). These scandals could force the NCAA to augment its rules somewhat, and even though they may not directly relate to basketball, they may have a very real impact of college sports as we know it over the next few years.
Freshman phenom Austin Rivers is ready for Duke, but how quickly will 2011's top high school point guard perform on the big stage? (Orlando Sentinel)
As a website victim to a similar infringement of trademark, RTC has a particular compassion for other sites and entities subject to cybersquatters and other bottom-feeders around the web. But this example involving Arizona State University is a wee bit funny regardless. It turns out that if you type in thesundevils.com into your browser, you’ll end up where you expected, at the official athletics website of the Pac-12 school located in Tempe. But if you leave off the pronoun “the” and enter (warning: NSFW) sundevils.com, you’ll find something entirely different. Like, as different as Brian Wilson’s leotux at the ESPYs Wednesday night, although equally titillating. ASU has filed suit against the owner for infringement even though the owner claims that he doesn’t know why it is redirecting to his unrelated site and that he’s never heard from anyone at the university about this problem.
Apparently Georgia Tech was under an NCAA investigation in both football and basketball — who knew? On Thursday the NCAA released its report finding GT guilty of several violations, resulting in the football team losing its 2009 ACC football title and the school having to pay $100,000 in penalties. The bulk of the violations involved the football program, but new head coach Brian Gregory on the basketball side will have to endure a slightly lower amount of official recruiting visits (10) for each of the next two seasons as well. The hoops violations related to a handful of impermissible tickets given to recruits, but the bigger issue for the program is that its second major NCAA probation in the last six years. Since Tech found itself in the NCAA’s crosshairs twice in such a short period of time, it was subject to harsher penalties than normal despite the relatively minor initial violation that got the school in trouble in the first place (a football player received some clothing). A cautionary tale, indeed. To read the entire NCAA report, click here.
ACC Sports Journalasks the question: What’s the succession plan for Duke basketball? Everyone knows that Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski is still probably several years, a couple hundred more wins, and perhaps even a fifth national championship away from retiring, but as he turns 65 next season, it’s a fair question. The national pundits believe that Butler’s Brad Stevens is tailor made for the job, and we agree for the most part. But we also think that Stevens, as a Hoosier born and bred, will settle at one or the other destination job — Duke or Indiana — at some point in the next five to seven years. For fans of either school, it may become a bit of Faustian bargain — IU fans rooting for Tom Crean to ultimately fail (hoping the job opens prior to Duke), and Duke fans rooting for Crean’s success (hoping the IU job won’t open until after K retires).
Louisville head coach Rick Pitinoblogged for the first time in over seven months yesterday, and he found time between complaints about playing at West Virginia for the third year in a row to lay out his idea for how to divide the 17-team Big East into an East and a West division. The only thing is, though, is that we’re having a little trouble following the geography of Pitino, as his suggested layout has DePaul, Marquette and Notre Dame in the East, while Syracuse, Rutgers and Connecticut reside in the West. Not sure what’s going on with that. Anyone? Perhaps we’ll have to wait another half-year to find out.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t again express our gratitude for SI.com placing us (well, our Twitter feed) on its list of the Top 100 must-reads for “news, information and entertainment from the sports world.” Considering the talent on its staff and its ongoing reputation as the home of the best sports writers in the world, we are honored. Let’s just hope that the extra attention doesn’t make us all self-conscious the next time we fire up the old TweetDeck apparatus…
The big news yesterday was the death of Armen Gilliam, who starred at UNLV and led the 1987 Rebels to a 37-2 record and a Final Four appearance. Gilliam died while playing in a pickup game near Pittsburgh and although initial reports suggested that he had died of a heart attack in fact the cause of death will not be officially determined until an autopsy is performed at a later date. In addition to his playing career at UNLV and in the NBA, Gilliam also coached at Division III Penn State-Altoona. No announcements have been made yet regarding funeral services for Gilliam, but we expect a big turnout like NC State had for Lorenzo Charles this past weekend if the Gilliam family chooses to do so.
Georgia Tech transfer Brian Oliver announced yesterday that he would be heading to Seton Hall. Oliver, who averaged 10.5 PPG and 4.5 RPG last season as a sophomore including a 32-point outburst against Syracuse. Despite a disappointing end to his season where he missed the last eight games due to a broken thumb, Oliver likely would have remained at Georgia Tech if not for the firing of Paul Hewitt. The Pirates were able to win Oliver’s services over a handful of teams and after he sits out a season they should have a potential All-Big East performer in Oliver.
Apparently one game over .500 in three seasons is enough to get a contract extension in college basketball because Stanford announced late yesterday that they were giving Johnny Dawkins a two-year extension through the 2015-16 season. After a relatively promising 20-14 record in his first season in Palo Alto, Dawkins has seen his Cardinal team fail to break .500 in the past two season and may have worked his way out of one of the top jobs in any sport–head coach at Duke. Perhaps Dawkins can turn things around on The Farm, but he has his work cut out for him in a Pac-10 conference that is no longer as weak as it was a few years ago.
Most of the attention in the US for the U-19 World Championships has been on Team USA and its college stars, but as Luke Winn reports college fans may want to start paying attention to the Australian team as several of their players may be heading to college campuses near you in the very near future. While some schools (St. Mary’s) dominated the Australian recruiting scene in recent years, the players have started to shift their focus to other schools and Winn reports the current favorites for the present group of Australian star U-19 players are Butler, Boise State, and New Mexico.
With the summer circuit heading up Dave Telep has ten major storylines to watch for this month. You will find a lot of talk about all the big names that you are probably familiar with from various recruiting sources online and although we love the big-time showdowns (LeBron James destroying Lenny Cooke is our personal favorite) our favorite part is waiting for the relative unknowns to emerge as major prospects. It was just a year ago when Anthony Davis went from a decent Chicago-area prospect who wasn’t even getting much attention from in-state school to the top prospect in his class in the eyes of many recruiting analysts.
If you are interested in participating in our ATB2 feature, send in your submissions to rushthecourt@gmail.com. We will add to this post throughout the day as the submissions come in so keep on sending them.
General News
Rotnei Clarke Gets His Release: The Arkansas star has been granted a release after a rather complicated discussion with Razorback staff. (Kentucky Sports Radio)
Kevin Broadus Rejoins the Georgetown Staff; Hired as Special Assistant to John Thompson III: The controversial former Binghamton coach will join the Hoyas next season. (Casual Hoya)
Ed O’Bannon and Baron Davis Return to Westwood to Finish Classes: The former Bruin greats are back on campus taking classes. (Bruins Nation)
Tim Hardaway Jr. Makes USA U19 World Championship Team: “USA Basketball announced today that Tim Hardaway Jr. made the cut for 2011 USA U19 World Championship team. That means that Hardaway will spend the next three weeks training in Colorado and traveling to Europe to participate in the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championships.” (UM Hoops)
FIBA Americas Cup 2011 — U16 Americas Cup Field is Set: An overview of Team USA’s competition. (Villanova by the Numbers)
Georgia Tech Transfer Brian Oliver Thinking Big East, Maybe Syracuse: “According to Adam Zagoria, Georgia Tech transfer Brian Oliver is thinking about moving to a Big East school in the Northeast and that puts Syracuse on the list.” (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician)
Keith Urgo Lured to Penn State: “Patrick Chambers has plucked a Villanova coach for his staff at Penn State. Keith Urgowho was an Assistant Coach last year for Villanova will be heading to State College for the same role.” (VU Hoops)
Throughout the summer RTC contributors Zach Hayes and Brian Otskey will discuss the hot topics – or whatever comes to mind – around each major conference in college basketball. The debut edition focuses on the ACC, which has seen plenty of coaching turnover and one program emerge as a potential powerhouse next season. For the entire summer series focusing on each of the six power conferences, click here.
Zach: We’d be remiss if our ACC edition of Get to the Point didn’t begin with North Carolina.
Maybe it’s just me searching for hype and excitement during the doldrums of summer, but there’s absolutely no reason why next year’s Tar Heels outfit can’t rival or even surpass the UNC squad of two seasons ago, not only in terms of win-loss record and winning a title next April, but also how they took teams to the woodshed when they’re able to impose their style of play. Kendall Marshall may not be equipped with a jet pack like Ty Lawson, but he’s more than comfortable pushing in Roy Williams’ preferred secondary break and finding Harrison Barnes on the wing or drawing the defense and dumping in to John Henson for an easy finish. Much like 2009, this Heels squad has the firepower and the talent level to drop 100 points on more than one occasion, to go on 20-2 spurts before the under-16 timeout, to leave your jaw on the floor in amazement at this well-oiled machine.
What’s really scary for the rest of the ACC and college basketball? Kendall Marshall told Andy Katz the other day that there’s going to be an even more concerted effort to lock down defensively. He realizes no team other than maybe Kentucky can match UNC point-for-point next season when they’re firing on all cylinders, so the only facet that can derail Carolina is substandard defense. And this is coming from a team that finished sixth in defensive efficiency last season! There’s first round talent across the board. There’s an assembly line of knockdown shooters on the wings. There’s a budding star in McAdoo to come off the bench. And a Hall-of-Fame coach is directing this dream roster from the bench. Plus, with Duke losing two indispensable seniors and the #1 pick in June and the rest of the ACC mired in a down cycle, it’s shaping up to be a perfect storm for Carolina. Undefeated? No. That’s not happening. 2-3 losses, a #1 seed and a national title? Realistic goals in Chapel Hill, in my opinion.
Carolina’s Barnes spurned the NBA for a title shot
Brian: There isn’t any doubt in my mind that Carolina is the team to beat next season not just in the ACC but nationally as well. Roy Williams has all the pieces in place to win his third title on Tobacco Road. Top quality point guards take you far in this game and Kendall Marshall should be able to carry this team deep into the postseason. With a trip to the Elite Eight already under his belt, Marshall may be regarded as the best point man in the college game by the end of his sophomore season. His court vision and ability to run the break makes him an indispensable asset for UNC. Marshall has a terrific basketball IQ and should even improve with additional experience. As great as Marshall is, I think the key to North Carolina winning a national championship is Harrison Barnes. If he can play at the level he exhibited towards the end of last season, his somewhat surprising decision to return to Chapel Hill this spring could very well result in a celebration on Bourbon Street for the Tar Heel faithful next April. Barnes is the proverbial matchup nightmare possessing height and the talent to fill it up from deep. I can’t really think of any team in the ACC that can match up with this stud sophomore.
