1. News & Observer: Everyone agrees that Duke is the best basketball team in the nation. As silly as the rankings in the media and coaches poll can be, for many schools, a place at the top of one of these lists is a rare feather in the cap. Yet in Durham, the top of the polls isn’t anything worth getting excited about, a reasonable stance when a team has topped the polls so frequently. Of all the numbers that speak to Duke’s dominance in this area, I think this is the most stunning: During Mike Krzyzewski’s tenure, Duke has played more games as the top-ranked team than they have as an unranked team. That is nothing short of incredible.
2. CBS Sports: In more numbers-related news, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim achieved his 900th win last night against Detroit. Boeheim is in rarefied air, and it seems very likely that the Orange coach will easily retire with the second spot in all-time career wins (Krzyzeski is all but uncatchable at this point). Boeheim, with his incredible win total (and win percentage!), is one of the true living legends of the college basketball world. It’s worth taking a moment to realize what a big deal it is that this man is going to be coaching in the ACC next season and beyond.
3. Washington Post: A short Virginia Tech rotation just got even shorter. Freshman Marshall Wood has broken a bone in his left foot and will be out indefinitely. Wood was in the midst of a fairly successful opening campaign of his college career, playing 18 minutes a game off the bench, and serving as the third big man in the Hokies’ frontcourt rotation. While fellow freshman Joey van Zegeren has seen some playing time at this spot, his propensity for fouling may mean that Virginia Tech embraces a smaller line-up with swingman Jarell Eddie seeing some time at power forward like he did last year.
4. Wilmington Star News: Speaking of impressive freshmen campaigns, it’s time to talk about T.J. Warren‘s impressive start for NC State. Garnering a second ACC Rookie of the Week nod, Warren has barely missed since the beginning of his time with the Wolfpack. Shooting 69.1% from the field, he’s easily been the most accurate player in the conference as well as posting the third best field goal percentage nationally. While it’s unlikely that Warren will continue to shoot the ball at such a torrid pace, right now it’s amazing to watch a forward shoot from all over the court and never expect to miss.
5. Blogger So Dear: Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman recently tried to address the dismal state of Demon Deacons basketball. While Wellman’s defense of coach Jeff Bzdelik reflects admirable loyalty, it also underscores the main issue that has been bothering many Wake Forest fans: It doesn’t seem like anyone employed at the university sees what is so obviously happening to what was once one of the best basketball programs in the nation. Martin Rickman does a great job breaking down the complete failure of leadership in Winston-Salem.

1. Tallahassee Democrat: Yesterday, Michael Rogner suggested Okaro White becoming more aggressive would help the Seminoles. Another thing to consider is that Florida State did very well in transition against Maine. Part of its success was Maine’s strategy, but the Seminoles reportedly wanted “to establish ourselves in transition,” according to head coach Leonard Hamilton. This year’s team isn’t quite the beast defensively inside the arc as the past few Seminole teams, so it makes sense to try to get more turnovers (on paper the team should be lethal in transition). Definitely keep an eye on this as we get closer to conference play.
2. Winston-Salem Journal: Things are getting uglier and uglier at Wake Forest. Jeff Bzdelik will not be taking any more live calls on his radio show. Apparently the move isn’t to “deflect criticism,” but it definitely looks that way. The show’s producers are trying to cut down on long-winded callers wanting to vent instead of ask questions. Host Stan Cotten and some colleagues at IMG College made the call to move to a format of all pre-recorded questions.
3. Charlottesville Daily Progress: Whitey Reid took a look at ranking the “pleasant surprises” for Virginia, but may have forgotten to point out the forest through the trees. It’s true Teven Jones, Akil Mitchell and Darion Atkins have all surprised people, but what about the team as a whole? If you told me Virginia would be 8-2 with wins over Wisconsin and Tennessee at this point in the season and were missing Jontel Evans for most of it, I would have laughed at you. This team has really outperformed my expectations and Jones, Mitchell, Atkins and Tony Bennett all deserve credit.
4. Keeping It Heel: I think Rich Martin really underrates Ty Lawson (who I think everyone underrates because he played with Tyler Hansbrough) and Kendall Marshall in this article when he compares the two former Tar Heels with Marcus Paige. It’s true they had more cohesive pieces surrounding them when they showed up in Chapel Hill, but they were two of the best point guards in college basketball of the last decade. Paige shows flashes of brilliance — much like Quinn Cook last season for Duke — but he really feels a year or two away from being an ACC-caliber frontman. It will be really interesting to see over the next month how Roy Williams trims his rotation. Paige is probably the best offensive option and he (again, like Cook) has to be the guy for this team to be great, but he’s not starting from the same place as Marshall or Lawson.
5. The Examiner: Miami is a team we could learn a lot about over the next couple of weeks. The Hurricanes picked up an ugly loss early (without Durand Scott), but looked great in their ACC/Big Ten Challenge win over Michigan State. They have a good chance to find themselves ranked if they beat undefeated Charlotte, coming out of a 13-day hiatus for exams. Especially with North Carolina and NC State looking vulnerable early, Miami could find itself in a good position to challenge for the runner-up position in the league. Also Garrius Adams and Bishop Daniels should be rejoining the team sometime next semester, which will help with depth.

EXTRA: Luke Winn’s Power Rankings are always worth the time, though they’re a little light on ACC meat as of late. This week he looked at Mason Plumlee‘s progression from much-maligned contributor to Player of the Year contender. Essentially, Plumlee’s stats are identical to his sophomore season with a few exceptions: He’s drawing fouls like a mad man, he’s hitting his free throws and he’s not turning the ball over. He’s also involved in a lot more possessions. Regardless, it’s really interesting how something as trivial as free throw shooting can affect the overall perception of a player.

1. As we have said before several times recently the Big East is on the verge of blowing up and now it looks like the only question is how it will be done. According to various unnamed sources, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John’s, Seton Hall, and Villanova have agreed to leave the Big East and conducted a teleconference with Big East commissioner Mike Aresco yesterday morning to discuss the issue. At this point all that appears to be standing in the way is discussion over exit fees and what will probably be some legal wrangling by the schools in the Big East being left behind. The seven schools will be eligible for an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament if they form a new conference together. What happens next is anybody’s guess (other departing Big East schools could be able to bypass exit fees and the waiting period) and this move will probably trigger more poaching and what can best be described as a free-for-all.
2. Louisville center Gorgui Dieng could return earlier than expected from his fractured scaphoid. According to Rick Pitino, Dieng will begin practicing on Sunday and could play as early as December 22 against Western Kentucky. We would not expect Dieng to be on the court much for that game, but should be back at full strength for their December 29 match-up against a disappointing Kentucky team that you know Pitino would love to blow out. While the Cardinals are still a top 10 team without Dieng, his presence on the interior should boost them to another level and into the discussion with Indiana and Duke as the top team in the country.
3. It isn’t just players who get suspended. Sometimes it is the coach as was the case with Rutgers coach Mike Rice as he was suspended for 3 games without pay and fined $50,000 by the school for a violation of the athletic department’s conduct policy. According to the school the punishment is related to the use of inappropriate language. We have no idea what he could have said outside of a game that would have warranted such a penalty (cursing barely even registers compared to what some coaches say to officials and something sexist or racist would most likely result in calls for a coach’s resignation).
4. If you had not already noticed from some of his recent quotes (and his team’s record), things are not going that well for Wake Forest coach Jeff Bzdelik. Things have apparently gotten bad enough for Bzdelik that he and the producers of his weekly radio show have decided to stop taking live callers on the show. While the show’s producers are doing this under the guise of trying to eliminate long-winded callers and preaching, it is pretty clear that this would not happen if the team was a little more successful. If you want to hear how bad things have been on Bzdelik’s show, check out the YouTube clip from last week’s show (the particularly confrontational segments are highlighted in the uploader’s comments if you don’t want to sit through all 30 minutes).
5. Andy Glockner had two interesting columns on a pair of coaches with very different public reputations. The first (by a minute) was on the evolution of Larry Eustachy, the Colorado State coach who is best known for his time at Iowa State (more specifically some pictures of him inebriated with coeds). For those of you who don’t remember the specific incident, Eustachy’s nadir was about as low as a coach can go without having criminal charges. After helping rebuild Southern Mississippi, Eustachy has walked into a Colorado State program that many feel is primed for a NCAA Tournament run, but has to deal with a change in coaching and personality. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Mike Krzyzewski, who is as close to an active coaching deity as there is in any American sport at this time. When he broke Bob Knight’s record for Division I wins last November, plenty of writers penned columns asking which coach was the most likely to match him. The answer: nobody. Now with Krzyzewski approaching 1,000 wins (he could be very close at the end of next season), Glockner asks the question of which coach has the best chance of getting near Krzyzewski and the answer is not one of the young guns you might expect.

1. BC Interruption: The US Department of Education published athletic revenues and profits for athletic departments. A quick note before looking at these numbers: profit can be very misleading. Athletic departments aren’t designed to turn profits, as in many cases, all revenue goes towards paying debts, contracts and travel. The revenue numbers can be misleading too, though less so. Case in point: Louisville’s basketball revenues nearly double those of Duke and North Carolina. How’s it possible for an admittedly strong regional brand to almost equal the sum of two of the three most popular teams in the country? The answer: the Yum! Center. The school’s state-of-the-art downtown arena brings in quite a deal of revenue, which presumably counts towards the basketball numbers. It’s still really interesting stuff.
2. Duke Basketball Report: Ken Pomeroy (and many others) have pointed to Duke’s apparent struggles on the glass as a potential Achilles heel this season. Duke Basketball Report went back into the archives and checked on the rebounding figures from Coach K’s tenure in Durham. The reality is that neither one is wrong. Duke‘s rebounding is at its weakest point this year, but does that mean it will come back to haunt the Blue Devils? Probably at some point. But also remember that Krzyzewski has had great success without great rebounding teams and Marshall Plumlee should help augment the Blue Devils’ board-crashing upon his return.
3. College Hoops Daily: How did Wake Forest go from being a regular contender in the ACC to a perennial conference doormat? Well, Skip Prosser died; Dino Gaudio signed a team full of players with off-court issues and didn’t win enough to merit the exceptions; and athletic director Ron Wellman hired his friend Jeff Bzdelik. Bzdelik hasn’t improved in his three years leading the team and isn’t likable enough to mask his less than stellar results with charm. This season’s freshman class is really his first real step forward, but the product on the court looks largely the same. Bzdelik may be a great basketball coach, but he’s got to start showing progress right now if he wants to stick around much longer (see: Mark Turgeon).
4. Washington Post: Speaking of Turgeon, he’s trying some new ways to avoid turnovers. Now, whenever a Maryland player commits a turnover in practice, he performs five push-ups. One interesting thing about the Terrapins’ turnover problem is that it’s not just one player responsible for all the miscues. Eight — yes, you read that right — Maryland players are averaging at least 1.5 turnovers a game. Do the math, and it’s not hard to see why the Terps are last in the conference in turnover margin.
5. Hartford Courant: Connecticut never really stood a chance in conference realignment. At least not against Louisville. Despite the two schools’ recent head-to-head results, the Cardinals are obviously a football program headed in the right direction. It’s harder to say that is true with Connecticut. Attendance is struggling and strong academics can’t make up for lukewarm fan support. Less importantly, the Huskies don’t share a border with Indiana (Notre Dame, anyone?) or Ohio, a football talent hotbed.

Wake Forest was embarrassed last night, losing by 16 to Nebraska in Winston-Salem — the same Nebraska that just eked out a home win over Tulane before getting blown out by Kent State (also at home). The game was close at the half with the Demon Deacons only trailing by four, but Nebraska came out blazing in the second half and scored on 19 of its first 23 possessions over a span of 15 minutes. In case you prefer advanced stats, Nebraska scored 40 points on those 23 possessions. That’s 1.74 points per possession, for those of you wondering.

Nebraska Manhandled Wake Forest at the Joel Last Night. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

When asked about the game, Jeff Bzdelik offered the Winston-Salem Journal‘s Dan Collins this jewel:

“I’ve tried everything. I’m not going to make any excuses. Tuesday is their toughest day academically. It starts at sun-up. I was aware of that, and I was trying to give them rest. I tried a different approach today, just giving them some rest. I don’t know.”

For those of you keeping score at home, Bzdelik’s team was embarrassed at home by a Big Ten basketball doormat because the players had a hard class day. It’s really hard to believe that Wake Forest was considered a national contender a few years ago. But Bzdelik isn’t making excuses. Well, other than blaming an abysmal home loss on academics and “rest.” Read the rest of this entry »

1. Fayetteville Observer: The paper has unveiled a nice collection of articles and stories previewing the coming basketball season in the ACC, but my favorite is this listing of “under the radar” players. The list includes those who may not have the fame or star power (yet) of some of their contemporaries, but will nonetheless make a difference this season. The list is a blend of freshmen and players coming off seasons spent on the bench due to injury (Olivier Hanlan of Boston College is an example of the former and Julian Gamble at Miami illustrates the latter), but also highlights a few players who may be poised to grab your attention, notably Malcolm Brogdon of Virginia and K.J. McDaniels from Clemson.
2. CBS Sports: No list of coaches on the hot seat would be complete without Jeff Bzdelik, the coach of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. While Bzdelik’s tenure in Winston-Salem has been filled with all sorts of complicating factors and problems, the fact remains that Wake Forest fans ultimately expect their team to win. After two miserable years of life at the bottom of the conference, this is a pivotal year for the program. Though Bzdelik will rely heavily on freshmen this season, Wake’s record needs to improve if the coach wants to keep his job.
3. Testudo Times: Exhibition games are often fairly meaningless, but that doesn’t stop college basketball fans from trying to see if they can learn something about their team from them. Ben Broman looks at how Maryland performed in an exhibition against Indiana University (PA) and walks away with some interesting observations. Notably, the strong performances by freshmen Seth Allen and Charles Mitchell were unexpected and clear highlights, while mediocre performances by Alex Len and James Padgett offered reasons for concern. Clearly Terrapin fans were hoping for more polished and refined play from their returning frontcourt, but Mitchell’s voraciousness on the glass (15 rebounds in only 18 minutes) and Allen’s poise, ball-handling, and playmaking suggest that the incoming freshman class might make a big difference for Maryland.
4. Wilmington Star News: Mason Plumlee is once again ready to be a featured part of this year’s Duke team. The ultra-athletic power forward come to Durham as a clear NBA lottery pick filled with talent, yet over the course of a mostly excellent college career he has failed to string together consistent performances, often vanishing at key moments. Now a senior, Plumlee is looking at a final chance to take a leading role on a team that has been largely perimeter-oriented in recent years. While there is some mention of how Duke’s lack of a featured true point guard in recent years has relegated the forward to supporting role status, Plumlee is optimistic about Tyler Thornton and Quinn Cook playing a more traditional distribution role.
5. Raleigh News & Observer: Down Tobacco Road, North Carolina has it’s eye on not a senior but a freshman big man. Joel James, however, is not the typical UNC freshman post player. While recent seasons have showcased the acumen of UNC’s strength and training staff in turning post players who look more like “posts” than “players” into more muscular athletes ready to bang down low (see: Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, John Henson and yes this year’s version, Brice Johnson), James arrived at Chapel Hill as big as any freshman in recent memory.  At 6’10” and somewhere around 265 pounds, James offers true center size and muscle. Though relatively inexperienced as a basketball player, the coaches seem to be bullish on James and it looks like he may start his career as, well, a starter.

What was supposed to be an uneventful tune-up trip to Canada took an ugly turn over the weekend for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.  In a scrimmage against Brock University, sophomore starting power forward Daniel Green left the game with an injury. While both scrimmages resulted in wins for Wake Forest, these victories probably now feel a little bit hollow. According to our friends at Blogger So Dear, Daniel Green’s father has confirmed that the younger Green tore his ACL on that trip, an injury that almost certainly will put Green out for the season.

The Loss of Green Means Even More Youth for Wake Forest (credit: SneakinDeacon)

On an incredibly young team, the sophomore Green was going to be the veteran post presence for the Demon Deacons as a projected starter. In his freshman year, Green came off the bench and proved to be very raw on the offensive end and easily bullied due to his slight frame. Still, the forward had a knack for rebounding and his nose for the ball figured to be a real asset to Wake Forest this coming season. After a summer of conditioning that saw Green get more muscular, it seemed he was ready to become a valuable player for his team. Sadly, this step forward has been delayed as Green will have to undergo rehabilitation and conditioning during the course of the season.

This likely means that Wake’s entire low post rotation will be composed of freshmen. A challenging season for Jeff Bzdelik just got a little bit tougher.

Throughout the preseason, the ACC microsite will release a preview for each of the 12 teams. Today’s victim: the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest basketball took a step back last season under third-year coach Jeff Bzdelik. While Wake was on top of the basketball world in January 2009 (undefeated and ranked #1), the Demon Deacons’ program has fallen on hard times ever since. From October 2010 to April 2012, Tony Woods, J.T. Terrell, Ty Walker, Ari Stewart, Carson Desrosiers, Anthony Fields, Tony Chennault and Melvin Tabb all left the school, either by choice or by force. As a result, the Deacs have won only five ACC games since March 7, 2010. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater is a phrase that comes to mind.

This is Very Much a Make or Break Season For Jeff Bzdelik (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Bzdelik certainly has his detractors. And his record since arriving in Winston-Salem speaks for itself. When a program has as rich of a basketball history (at least over the last three decades) as Wake Forest does, losing records and mass exoduses of players over a two-year period will not be tolerated very long at all. Although athletic director Ron Wellman has put his support thoroughly behind Bzdelik at some point he has to look out for his own job. Fortunately for both of them, help is on the way.

Newcomers

“Baby Deacs” is the name of the freshman class entering Winston-Salem this year to try and turn this program around. Madison Jones, Tyler Cavanaugh, Aaron Rountree, Codi Miller-McIntyre, Arnaud William Adala Moto, Devin Thomas and Andre Washington make up the seven freshmen expected to get Wake Forest basketball back to their winning ways. The class was ranked #21 in the country by ESPN and #23 by Scout.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. ESPN: North Carolina coach Roy Williams has had a fairly quotable week, sounding off on changes in academic standards and his tendency to go “wacko” despite a medical injunction to avoid just that. But yesterday, he had some words on what seems to be a fairly silly situation. The NCAA has a rule about how teams aren’t supposed to travel to an away game more than 48 hours before the game in question. This, unlike some provisions, seems fairly reasonable and well-intentioned: Students shouldn’t miss too much class. However, the realities of flight scheduling are not always cooperative. Apparently, the number of infrequent flights from Raleigh-Durham to the west coast means that without a special waiver, UNC will have to wait until Thursday morning to travel across the country rather than simply flying out after class on Wednesday. In a case where the provision in question is doing nothing to achieve it’s purpose (preventing athletes from missing extra classes), it does seem a little silly to make sure UNC does no traveling before 11 PM on Wednesday.
2. Washington Post: Coach Mark Turgeon is opening the season with a great deal of optimism, despite losing the conference’s most torrid scorer in Terrell Stoglin. Stoglin was suspended from the Maryland Terrapins at the end of the season and subsequently left school to take his chances on the NBA Draft (a move that didn’t pan out so well for the undrafted Stoglin). The cause for Turgeon’s optimism? A wide variety of roster options. Maryland’s primary point guard rotation features guys who are just as comfortable playing shooting guard, opening up the possibility of some guard heavy line-ups with multiple ball-handlers and playmakers. Just as intriguing, Turgeon apparently plans to experiment with freshman swingman Jake Layman at power forward, an interesting option that will give Maryland even more flexibility in cooking up mismatches.
3. Yahoo! Sports: In  other exciting Maryland news, Under Armor has cooked up some cool new uniforms for the Terrapins to wear in their season debut against Kentucky in the newly opened Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Just kidding: I meant ugly and hard-to-explain. Maryland will be donning grey, faux-wool jerseys in order to honor the Brooklyn Dodgers. Who among us can forget the deep connection between the Dodgers and the Terrapins? Aside from the sheer oddity of the tribute, the uniforms serve as an untimely reminder of one of the worst uniform trends of last year: gray uniforms. If I never see a gray uniform again (with obvious exceptions for teams that use gray as one of their main colors), it will be too soon. Already, I’m pretty sure I have seen more than enough games played in these Maryland jerseys.
4. Sports Illustrated: Damarcus Harrison had a rough freshman year playing spot minutes at Brigham Young University. This year, he was supposed to begin serving his mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), but, due to some confusion, this didn’t happen and BYU had already allocated all of their scholarships. It’s an unusual situation that had an unusual outcome: Since Harrison couldn’t go on his mission or return to BYU, he transferred to Clemson. BYU has long scheduled and planned for its Mormon athletes to go on their mission in the middle of their collegiate careers, but when complications arise, as in the case of Harrison, things can get complicated very quickly. However, with the LDS changing the minimum age of their standard mission from 19 to 18, this means that many Mormon athletes may put off entering college until after their mission is complete. While this unsurprisingly has enormous implications for BYU, it also may end up being important to Duke University. Jabari Parker, possibly the top recruit in the country is a devout Mormon also considering Duke.
5. Winston-Salem Journal: While most teams typically are weeks away from playing any kind of public exhibition game, Wake Forest will be squaring off twice this weekend with a pair of Canadian foes. The Demon Deacons will face Brock University tonight and Ryerson University on Saturday. Different teams use the international travel provision differently, but Jeff Bzdelik‘s novel tactic of delaying the trip to mid-October means that his mostly young team will get a couple of extra early opportunities to get some live-game practice in as a part of the ramp up to the regular season. Canada isn’t as glamorous a destination as Spain, for example, but it might be just what Wake Forest needs.

1. Fredericksburg Star: Virginia didn’t wow anyone last season with its athleticism. However, incoming freshman Justin Anderson may. The 6’6″, 226 pound freshman has all of the physical tools to be a great player in the ACC. Anderson, along fellow freshmen Evan Nolte and Mike Tobey will have to master Tony Bennett’s pack-line defensive strategy if they hope to see much time on the court this season. Bennett’s strategy is good at hiding athletic disadvantages, but the more athletic lockdown defenders he puts on the wing, the more effective Virginia’s already stifling defense will be.
2. Washington Post: Alex Prewitt jotted down some “nuggets” from Maryland‘s media day that are pretty revealing. Literally speaking Prewitt noted the offseason weight changes for most of the Terrapin roster. Notably, Nick Faust and Alex Len both added much needed bulk (30 pounds!) which should help both be more effective on the boards. James Padgett also bulked up pretty substantially. On the other side of the scale, Pe’Shon Howard, Shaquille Cleare and Charles Mitchell all lost significant weight. More figuratively, Prewitt’s anecdotes painted a picture of a team with a lot more chemistry than Maryland seemed to have last season. Maybe Cleare and Seth Allen are just more outgoing, but it certainly sounds much more comfortable than the team did last year.
3. Raleigh News & Observer: Speaking of newcomers, Wake Forest has a boatload. There are seven self-proclaimed “Baby Deacs” joining Jeff Bzdelik in Winston-Salem this year. Bzdelik is putting some real pressure on the newcomers, saying, “I need them to perform now. I don’t want [youth] to be an excuse or a crutch for our young guys.” Part of his urgency may be a his seat heating up after two incredibly lackluster seasons (to be kind). With Travis McKie and CJ Harris back and the strong incoming class, the Demon Deacons will be much more talented across the board this season. However, despite Bzdelik’s insistence, nothing makes up for experience.
4. Associated Press (via ACC Sports Journal): Clemson lost top scorers Andre Young and Tanner Smith to graduation. Last season the story read the same way, with Jerai Grant and Demontez Stitt leaving. This year, Brad Brownell needs Devin Booker (ACC phenom Trevor Booker’s younger brother) to increase his consistency and Milton Jennings to tap into his McDonald’s All-American potential. Both players have the talent, but neither has shown the ability to lead night in and night out. That consistency has to improve for Clemson to have a successful season.
5. ESPN.com: Dave Telep reported that Caleb and Cody Martin, twins out of Mocksville, North Carolina, will be joining NC State in 2014. The twins are just another example of Mark Gottfried working hard to get as much in-state talent as possible. This strategy certainly has a history of success, as North Carolina is one of the richest states in terms of its homegrown basketball talent. If Gottfried’s team has a good year this year and CJ Leslie goes in the lottery, look for the Wolfpack to have continued recruiting significance. Gottfried is a very talented recruiter and success breeds more success.