Coach K Gets 903: Mike Krzyzewski made basketball history by passing his mentor Bob Knight on the all-time wins list. The record is a testament to Krzyzewski’s consistent excellence over the last three decades. It was an incredible accomplishment and dictated the better part of a week’s coverage.
Eligibility and Injuries Plague ACC: The ACC has five players out with eligibility issues, seven are out with significant injuries, and one is out after violating team rules. Alex Len (Maryland) may have his eligibility after he sits out ten games (he’ll be back in late December), but DeQuan Jones (Miami) is out indefinitely because of the NCAA’s ongoing investigation into allegations of the Nevin Shapiro scandal; ShaneLarkin (Miami) is awaiting word on his eligibility after transferring from DePaul; Thomasde Thaey (NC State) is waiting for his amateur status to be reviewed; and Ian Miller (Florida State) will miss at least first semester due to eligibility issues. On the injury front, JT Thompson and Marquis Rankin (Virginia Tech) are out for the season while Pe’Shon Howard (Maryland), Antwan Space (Florida State), Julian Gamble and Reggie Johnson (Miami), and Leslie McDonald (North Carolina) are out indefinitely with various injuries. Wake Forest’s Ty Walker is suspended for violating the team’s honor code but is expected back against Seton Hall. Yikes.
Virginia Hype Came Too Soon?: Kellen Carpenter hit the nail on the head in his preview of the Cavaliers. He pointed out lack of offensive balance and inability to make twos as the two biggest questions facing Tony Bennett’s squad. The team has had success from inside the arc in its wins, bu looking at the boxscore from their loss to TCU reveals the Cavaliers shot less than 40% on two-point attempts. Mike Scott was still solid, but the rest of the team struggled a lot. The other problem is Virginia’s crawling tempo makes it very difficult to come back from deficits.
Mark Gottfied Can Recruit(and possibly coach, too): Mark Gottfried came into Raleigh with high expectations from the Wolfpack fanbase. So far, he has lived up to all of them. Gottfried has a top-five recruiting class sealed up thanks to signing TJ Warren, Rodney Purvis, and Tyler Lewis in the early period; he has another potential star possibly joining the ranks in Amile Jefferson. He also managed to get NC State its best non-conference win in quite a while with a huge comeback against Texas. One of the biggest problems with last year’s team was it could not come from behind. I generally chalked it up to effort or general pessimism that comes with frequent losses. Gottfried seems to have turned things around at least a little. Read the rest of this entry »
Now that our individual team previews are done, it’s time to look at individual players. With only five all-ACC selections from last season returning there are plenty of open spots to fill, so here are our Preseason all-ACC Teams for the 2011-12 season.
2011-12 Preseason All-ACC Teams
Looking at our projections, North Carolina, Miami and Duke lead the way with eight, six and five selections, respectively. No surprise with Harrison Barnes checking in as the consensus ACC Player of the Year, or Austin Rivers as the ACC Rookie of the Year (though Kellen wants to keep an eye on Maryland’s Nick Faust for the ROY award).
My personal honorable mentions are Virginia Tech’s Erick Green, Maryland’s Sean Mosley and NC State’s Richard Howell. I’m especially surprised Mosley didn’t show up on any of the teams, but his middling campaign last season probably did him in. Green appears to be in the right place to take over for departing Hokies Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen, but he’s got a ways to go based on the Virginia Tech games I went to last season. Finally, Howell had a sneaky good season last year for the Wolfpack and could be a great frontcourt presence alongside CJ Leslie.
My biggest reach was putting Terrell Stoglin on the first team. He was a decent player last year (who averaged over 20 points per game pro-rated at 40 minutes), but he’ll really need to make some waves if he wants to crack the first team this season. Malcolm Grant and Kendall Marshall are the safer choices for that final guard spot. My reasoning is that Marshall will be hidden statistically behind Zeller and Barnes. In general, Roy Williams point guards are under-appreciated because they don’t put up sick numbers, but with Marshall the case is a little different. He’s a very polished player, but I see him as the perfect complimentary player. North Carolina wouldn’t be nearly as good as a team without him, but by himself he’s not spectacular. Thus, I voted him onto the second team in favor of Maryland’s ascendent sophomore.
On the second team Kellen and I differed on power forwards: he chose Mason Plumlee; I chose Travis McKie. Again for me the key was relative importance. Mason Plumlee may be more talented than McKie, but I’ll be shocked if he’s as important for Duke as McKie is for Wake Forest (and really I’m not sold that McKie isn’t more talented). Duke’s bigs are certainly going to be critical this year, but I think the mere fact that there are three of them (Mason, Miles and Ryan Kelly) will dilute each one’s share of the limelight. I did include Miles on my third team because reports from Durham laud him as Duke’s backbone.
However, both of our teams (mine especially) did a lot of projecting for this season. The only locks feel like Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller and Mike Scott (and it’s conceivable Zeller falls to the second team depending on his role). Player and coach turnover left the ACC relatively unknown this season, but Friday players start earning their spots.
Matt Patton of RTC’s ACC Microsite is the RTC correspondent for the ACC. You can find him on Twitter @rise_and_fire.
Reader’s Take I
The ACC looks like it has three tiers this year. The top: North Carolina, Duke and Florida State. The bottom: Boston College, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest. And then there’s everyone else.
Top Storylines
Can North Carolina Win Its Third Ring in the Roy Williams Era?: By all counts, yes. And to this point I haven’t heard any “undefeated” nonsense from anywhere, which means people’s expectations aren’t totally out to lunch. There are several other very good teams this year. Last year’s Tar Heel team wasn’t unstoppable, even at the end of the season (they lost to a #4 seed, remember?); I don’t expect them to be unstoppable this year, either. But if you’re looking for the most complete team with the fewest unknowns, you won’t find it anywhere else in college basketball. My one peeve with the offseason coverage of this team is the idea that four of the five starters should be first team All-ACC (or even All-American). There are only so many possessions in a basketball game. Only so many players can be integral. Part of the intimidating nature of this team on paper is that no one player controls the team’s fate: On any given night, Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller or John Henson are all candidates to blow up the scoreboard (though in Henson’s case, it’s usually keeping opponents off it). It’s the fact that the combination could be more than the sum of its parts that makes the Tar Heels a lock for preseason number one.
Another Season, Another Set of Huge Expectations in Chapel Hill
Will Florida State Challenge Tobacco Road And Make The ACC Interesting Again?: Yes. I was pretty low on Florida State for my summer update, but I’m currently very high on the Seminoles. Specifically, I think Bernard James is the best defender in the country (though John Henson is a significantly better rebounder), and Jeff Peterson will be able to find offense more effectively than Chris Singleton and Derwin Kitchen last season. Oh, and the Seminoles are also hungry after an ugly loss to VCU left them stranded in the Sweet Sixteen last year (and they then had to watch the Rams march on to the Final Four).
How Will This Year’s Batch Of New Coaches Fare?: I think Jim Larranaga will objectively perform the best, but I also think he has the most talent at his disposal. Against my better judgment, I’m warming up to this NC State team and Mark Gottfried’s leadership (at least for the first few years). As for Georgia Tech and Brian Gregory, yikes. There’s been a little recent buzz about the Yellow Jackets being better than people expect (which is a very low threshold), but I don’t see it. Gregory has an undermanned roster full of guys he didn’t recruit with nothing to speak of in the post, and he doesn’t have a dedicated home court. Not the combination for success. In College Park, Mark Turgeon should return Maryland to regular conference title contenders again once he reopens the pipeline to Washington, D.C., talent.
Ballin’ Is A Habit: The gentlemen at BIAH do a great job previewing the ACC for the upcoming season. Nothing super surprising here, except they’ve got John Henson on the all-ACC second team. While it’s tough to distinguish Henson and Tyler Zeller (and I agree only one will make the first team, barring a truly phenomenal year from both), I think Henson’s defense merits first team consideration before Zeller’s offense. The other minor surprise I saw was that Malcolm Grantand Durand Scott make all-ACC teams, but Miami is ranked sixth. Assuming Reggie Johnson is back come January and the back court lives up to its potential, I think Miami could certainly challenge for a top four finish.
SCACCHoops.com: Want the predictions from ACC media day without all of the fluff interviews from coaches and players? Not surprisingly, North Carolina ran away with the team and individual voting thanks to Harrison Barnes (John Henson actually garnered the final two Player of the Year votes). Three players made the all-ACC team for the first time since Duke’s loaded 2001-02 squad that featured Jason Williams, Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy. Austin Rivers nabbed preseason Rookie of the Year. We’ll certainly have some insight on the the more qualitative information from the day later.
Cavaliers Journal – Washington Post: Because of a mediocre season last year, Virginia has been flying under the radar for much of the offseason. But the Cavaliers are in a very good place to finish in the top half of the conference and grab an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Sammy Zeglinski certainly sounds ready to take on the world: “We want to have success this year, but at the same time we need to go out and earn it. Nothing is gonna be given to us.” With Mike Scott back, this is looking like Tony Bennett’s year to make a leap within the league.
Sports Illustrated: Luke Winn has an early look at North Carolina‘s prospects for next season. Initial reaction from the post: Harrison Barnes is not only going to be a great player in college and the NBA, but he’s going to make a great coach one day. His discussion with Winn on his early season struggles last year shows a self-awareness that goes beyond the average “I need to play better” response reporters often accept. As for the Tar Heels’ outlook, Winn’s remarks are short: “I don’t see anyone stopping them.”
ESPN: The Worldwide Leader will be broadcasting more games than ever this season, broadcasting a total of 1,450 games across its many platforms. The best news for hoops junkies is that 1,100 of those broadcasts will be on ESPN3. This is also ESPN’s first year of the new ACC media deal that grants the network exclusive access to all men’s basketball games. And don’t worry Raycom fans, ESPN will be outsourcing many of the conference match-ups to your friendly neighborhood announcers.
BONUS: The Sporting News: [WARNING: NBA related] As you undoubtedly know, Mike Krzyzewski is more than just a college basketball coach. On the side he coaches the US Men’s Olympic team. Unfortunately, the NBA lockout is throwing a wrench into the normally straightforward process for selecting the national squad (watching games and inviting players). The biggest threat to the team is if the NBA decides to extend the 2011-12 season into next summer to account for the earlier missed games, but otherwise Coach K has a plan. If the season is cancelled there will be a training camp-tryout hybrid with 20 of the nation’s top players to assess who’s ready to go.
We all know that lists of top players tend to be very silly. For a sport as big and expansive as college basketball, these lists can quickly become incredibly silly. Strange inclusions and weird snubs are almost inevitable. That said, the latest CBS Sports list of The Top 100 Players in College Basketball is just ridiculous. Still, lists are fun so let’s talk about this one and all the reasons that it’s just goofy.
All Systems Silly (CBSSports.com)
Of the top 100 players in college basketball, twelve are from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Of the twelve best players in the ACC, half of them come from North Carolina, a quarter of them come from Duke, and one player each comes from N.C. State, Miami and Virginia. Here is the list of rankings, players, and schools. Below that, we’ll have ourselves a talk.
The Washington Post published a very nice, but somewhat dispiriting profile of Miami head coach, Jim Larranaga yesterday. I should probably rephrase that: the situation in Miami doesn’t seem great, but Larranaga seems up for the challenge. When the architect of George Mason’s miraculous Cinderella run accepted the job in Miami, he didn’t know the setbacks he was in for: a soon to explode NCAA bomb, a knee injury to Reggie Johnson, and a torn ACL for Julian Gamble are just the highlights of what looks to be possibly the toughest head coaching gig in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Miami opted to go the safe route with Larranaga (Credit: Nick Wass/Associated Press)
That said, Amy Shipley’s take has more than a few whiffs of optimism, mentioning the busy schedule of the coaching staff, the appeals to self-help culture (apparently, Miami will be living by The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People this season), and the somewhat mind-boggling revelation that the coaching staff was sending out a thousand emails a day, three to four days a week. Obviously, the profile is fairly interesting, painting Larranaga as a hard-working guy who is doing his best to help the Miami program turn the corner. The piece ends on an ambiguous note, suggesting that while Larranaga will persevere, it might not be enough to overcome all of Miami’s troubles.
Want to know why North Carolina is number one in nearly all preseason polls? Look no further than the Wooden Award Preseason Watch List, which notes the top fifty returning players in the country, four of whom will be wearing Carolina blue this season. Another surprise is that no other ACC teams are represented. First we’ll look at the four selections:
Harrison Barnes was a lock: face it, even Duke fans know Barnes and Jared Sullinger are the two favorites as far as national player of the year awards are concerned. As soon as he opted to return, the Tar Heels vaulted into the top national spot. Don’t expect another lackluster start out of Barnes this season.
Harrison Barnes Headlined Four North Carolina Players on the Wooden Presesason Top 50 List.
John Henson is a more interesting pick. Henson’s defensive prowess is well-documented. He alters nearly every drive or post-up within his extensive wingspan. Here’s the caveat: Henson is as raw as they come offensively. If it’s not an alley-oop from Kendall Marshall or a put-back dunk, he struggles (though it should be noted, his free throw shooting improved dramatically the second half of last season). Until we see how much Henson has developed, it will be tough to evaluate his chances as a player of the year candidate.
Although we focus primarily (OK, solely) on men’s basketball, we would be remiss if we did not talk about Tennessee women’s coach Pat Summitt, who disclosed yesterday that she was suffering from early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. In addition to announcing the news, Summitt also stated she intended to continue coaching her basketball team next season and for the foreseeable future. We are sure that many members of our audience have either had loved ones or interacted with individuals who suffered from this progressively debilitating condition. Like the rest of the college basketball community, we wish Summitt the best of luck in her battle with Alzheimer’s. Also if you are going to read just one column about Summitt today, we suggest this piece by Sally Jenkins in The Washington Post.
The day’s other big college basketball news also came out of Tennessee, but this time it came from the men’s program where it appears that recently-fired head coach Bruce Pearl will receive a three-year show cause penalty while three of his assistants will receive one-year show cause penalties. Outside of the penalties against these four coaches and the school’s previous self-imposed ones, the school got off with relatively little damage, including the football program and former coach Lane Kiffin. For new coach Cuonzo Martin this means that he has an opportunity to rebuild the program without having to deal with a significant amount of fallout from Pearl’s prior indiscretions. As for Pearl and his assistants, this means that they will have to be away from the game of basketball for a little while. Oh wait, the NBA…
It seems like the athletic department at Miami just can’t seem to catch a break. First there was Reggie Johnson‘s knee injury that will sideline him until at least the start of ACC play. Then there was the small matter of the ongoing Nevin Shapiro debacle. Now there is news that senior Julian Gamble may be lost for the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee. Gamble’s junior year numbers (3.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG) might not make this seem like a big loss, but in the context of losing Johnson’s huge inside presence, the injury to Gamble will make life even more difficult for new coach Jim Larranaga. The way things are going, Frank Martin must be feeling pretty good about being passed over for the Miami job.
If any coach in men’s college basketball is having a worse summer than Larranaga it may be new Texas Tech coach Billy Gillispie. After being caught up in not one, but two high-profile Ponzi schemes, the former Kentucky coach finds himself in the news again after Sports by Brooks reported that he was already causing havoc within the basketball program in Lubbock. In addition to having several members of the staff leave the program, Gillispie was reportedly in “multiple, heated altercations” with an assistant, who eventually left. It is possible that Gillispie might just be the unluckiest guy in college basketball, but at this rate he may develop a reputation bad enough to make him untouchable, even with his stellar resume prior to his arrival in Lexington.
A number of big-time recruits in the class of 2012 announced that their “lists” had shrunk yesterday, but only one — Kris Dunn — is set to make a verbal commitment. According to Adam Zagoria, Dunn, one of the top point guards in this year’s senior class, is set to commit to Providence at a conference at 1 PM today. While this would be a huge pick-up for new coach Ed Cooley it is worth pointing out that the Friars also had a verbal commitment from Ricardo Ledo earlier this year, but he later backed out of the commitment, although Ledo is still considering the Friars in his new final five. The lesson here is that while you should be happy when a recruit commits to your school, don’t get too excited until he signs a letter or, even better, sets foot on campus.
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)
Miami center Reggie Johnsonunderwent surgery last Thursday to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee and is expected to be out 5-6 months. We haven’t heard any updates since Friday on how the surgery went so we are hoping that there were no complications in the acute recovery period. Although Johnson is expected to return for the start of ACC play the injury is a significant setback for the Hurricanes who will be without their top returning player (11.9 PPG, 9.6 RPG, and 1.3 BPG as a sophomore). Still with a veteran squad and a still weak ACC the Hurricanes could make a run at a NCAA Tournament bid if Johnson comes back healthy.
Yesterday, we talked about the new #1 recruit in the class of 2012, Shabazz Muhammad, according to Rivals, but their is another rising senior who is also making a bid for the #1 overall spot in next year’s graduating class, DaJuan Coleman. Right now Coleman is ranked as the 3rd or 4th best center in his class, but as this appears to be a particularly strong year for centers he is actually ranked as highly as 5th overall despite being just 3rd at his position according to one service (ESPN) while he comes in at 18th overall in another (Rivals). According to Coleman’s AAU coach, Kentucky and Syracuseappear to the current leaders for Coleman’s future services. Although Kentucky seems to be landing almost every top recruit these days Syracuse should be a strong contender since Coleman plays for a nearby high school that also produced current Syracuse point guard Brandon Triche.
Justin Clark announced that he would be leaving Illinois State after two disappointing seasons. Coming into his freshman season Clark was considered the top recruit in his class in the Missouri Valley Conference, but has struggled to find his shot at the college level hitting just 23.3% from 3-point range in his two seasons. Clark has not released any information about why or where he was transferring, but there will probably be plenty of mid-major schools willing to give him a chance given his pedigree.
Xavier added some much needed depth yesterday in the form of Vanderbilt transfer Andre Walker. Walker, who battled through injuries including a torn ACL as a sophomore while at Vanderbilt averaged 6.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 2.5 APG as a junior before battling through another injury-riddled season as a senior, will be able to play for the Musketeers next season because he graduated from Vanderbilt in four years and will be enrolling in a degree program not offered at Vanderbilt. If Walker stays healthy he could be the missing piece for a talented, but shallow Musketeer team that could make some noise in the NCAA Tournament.
Billy Gillispie cannot seem to catch a break. The former Kentucky and new Texas Tech coach apparently was involved in a Ponzi scheme that managed to ensnare several prominent coaches including Jim Donnan, Barry Switzer, and Tommy Tuberville. The exact amount that Gillispie had invested (and lost) is unknown at this time, but it would appear that he is at least in better financial shape than the retired Donnan, who has filed for bankruptcy after other investors sued him because Donnan received some money back as an early investor from the $26-29 million that Greg and Linda Crabtree reportedly took from later investors. In any event, Gillispie should be able to recover especially since he actually signed a contract with the school he is coaching this time.
