Matt Patton is the RTC correspondent for the Atlantic Coast Conference. You can follow him on Twitter @rise_and_fire.

Reader’s Take

Top Storylines

• Wake Forest’s Dynamic Duo: The Demon Deacons may not be the prettiest team to watch, but CJ Harris and Travis McKie are lighting up the box score. We knew (even if I, in a gaffe of all gaffes, left him off my All-Freshman team last year for Ryan Harrow) Mckie was going to be one of the ACC’s top players this year, but Harris has been a very pleasant surprise. The pair are efficiently combining for nearly 57% of Wake Forest’s points through the first 10 games of the year. Harris has already made as many threes as he made all last season on 18 less attempts, and he’s significantly more effective inside the arc. It remains to be seen how Harris will adapt to the defenses of ACC play, but so far he has to be leading the “surprise of the year” category.
• Duke’s Post Presence: That’s right: after two solid years of berating the Plumlees as overrated and generally poor basketball players, it’s time to give credit where it’s due. Mason Plumlee has developed into a very good big man. No, he can’t make a free throw to save his life, but he’s much better offensively everywhere except the boards than he’s been the last few years. He developed a couple of solid post moves, stopped turning the ball over as much and learned to hold his ground on defense. If he can either learn to crash the offensive glass or hit 60% of his free throws, I’m confident in saying he’ll be one of the top three or four bigs in the ACC this season.
• That’s right, the ACC Digital Network launched this season. Check out JR Reid break down North Carolina‘s softness and the conference power rankings. So far the coverage is fairly limited, but as it expands this could become one of the better sources of information for ACC fans.

Power Rankings

1. North Carolina (8-2) stays atop the rankings with a hard-fought win over Long Beach State, which better get rewarded by the Selection Committee in March for playing such a tough non-conference schedule. The Tar Heels dominated on the inside with John Henson and Harrison Barnes leading the scoring, but it is worth noting that this is  another game where four Tar Heel starters played more than 30 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »

1. C-Ville: Storming The Floor‘s Eric Angevine hits a home run with his profile of Virginia center Assane Sene. Sene is from Senegal and has a very unique story. I don’t want to steal the story’s thunder, but let’s just say burritos, Taylor Swift and football all are discussed.
2. Wilmington Star News: Ty Walker is ready to “walk the walk” after serving a ten-game suspension resulting from an offcourt incident earlier in the year. He’s certainly saying everything right. And I think Jeff Bzdelik achieved his goal, which was “to help the New Hanover (NC) High product, who is on pace for a degree in communications in May, become a better man.” I don’t think that Walker is destined to have a Zoubek-esque turnaround this season, but I think he’ll be very important for Wake Forest’s relative success this season. Even if he doesn’t score a lot of points, if Walker can crash the glass and play solid defense in the middle, he’ll be a hugely important asset for the Demon Deacons.
3. Raleigh News & Observer: John Maddrey is a lawyer but — more importantly — he’s one of the statisticians behind the television broadcasts at ACC games. He’s had his position since 1982, meaning he’s covered 29 straight ACC Tournaments and 56 total Duke-North Carolina games. In a slower stretch of basketball, it’s always interesting to get a peek behind the curtain at how broadcasts work (I just wish Luke DeCock had asked him how the internet has changed doing game stats).
4. Washington Times: Patrick Stevens posts a collage of little nuggets from Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon. In a quick summary, Terrell Stoglin missed practice Thursday and Friday after tweaking his ankle; Pe’Shon Howard is out of his boot and doing some drills; he also praised Berend Weijs. But the most interesting part of the presser, to me at least, was Turgeon’s frustration with his non-stop schedule. It’s easy to forget just how much work goes into being a top-tier coach. In addition to the events and fundraisers he has to attend, Turgeon made it clear he didn’t like the team’s schedule during his last chance to retool before going into ACC play. It won’t lengthen his Christmas break, but I think Turgeon can spend plenty of time working on his own team (based on the quality of opponents the Terrapins face between now and then).
5. Miami Herald: Former Georgia Tech star Kenny Anderson was arrested Sunday for leaving the scene of an accident. But if you read a little closer, it sounds like he might have been charged with a more serious offense (I mean, he admitted to drinking, slurred his speech and crashed his Escalade into a tree… seriously, if you’re slurring your speech, you’re over the limit). Anderson is currently coaching at a private Jewish day school. He played for nine NBA teams during his 15-year career and made the All-Star game in 1994.

Currently, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons are sitting on a 6-4 record. It’s not a great 6-4, but it’s not terrible either. Wins against Nebraska and Loyola (Maryland) are nice, and losses against Arizona State and Richmond aren’t impressive, but they aren’t damning. By December 15 of last year, Wake Forest had a 6-4 record, albeit with some ugly losses to the likes of Stetson and Winthrop. After that date, the squad managed only two more wins. Considering the ugliness of last season, it’s understandable if fans feel a bit queasy about the sense of déjà vu. Still, despite the similarity of record and the familiar names on the roster, the Demon Deacons are progressing by leaps and bounds.

Travis McKie And C.J. Harris Are Handling The Offensive Load For Wake

Sophomore Travis McKie’s performance was the highlight of last year’s bleak campaign and the good news is that he has picked up right where he left off. Despite handling a heavier portion of the offensive load, McKie has been able to maintain production at a very high level. I should clairfy what I mean when I say that McKie is handling “a heavier portion of the offensive load.”  No one in the ACC is on the floor as much as this guy. McKie leads the conference by averaging 35 minutes per game. He is on the floor 86.9% of the time. The guy is an iron man, and yet he manages to produce. McKie is second in the league with 18.6 PPG, only beaten by the insane production of Maryland’s Terrell Stoglin, who is averaging 22.5 PPG. McKie is doing it fairly efficiently too with a 59.9 true shooting percentage. Aside from Stoglin and Mike Scott, the sophomore is perhaps the best primary offensive option in the league.

Still, McKie’s role as a first-rate scoring option isn’t what makes Wake Forest so deadly. That distinction belongs to C. J. Harris, a player who has really blossomed this year. Last year, according to Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, Harris posted a 93.6 offensive efficiency rating while taking 15.6% of the team’s shots. This year? Harris has an offensive efficiency rating of 117.7 while taking 25.1% of his teams shots. That’s an insane improvement. So now, not only does Wake Forest have the conference’s second-leading scorer, but it also has the conference’s third leading scorer (17.9 PPG). It might have sounded crazy this time last year, or even two months ago, but Wake Forest easily has the most productive scoring tandem in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Washington Post: Apparently there’s a new book out about the beginnings of ACC basketball. Unfortunately, said book is called ACC Basketball in a stroke of hackneyed inspiration that I imagine is prevalent amongst retired history professors. Despite its title, the book sounds fascinating. Professor J. Samuel Walker wanted “to capture the impressive progress made on both academic and athletic fronts without blinking when discussing more unsavory aspects of ACC basketball,” and was successful, according to this review. So if you’re still shopping for an ACC hoops fan, you might want to check your nearest bookstore (or Amazon).
2. Soaring To Glory: Where does Boston College go wrong? Working with a small sample size, Soaring To Glory tries to answer when the Eagles start to collapse. The general consensus is that it starts in the second half, though based on the first chart from this story, it’s even earlier than that. The Eagles are currently on pace to join Utah as the worst  power conference teams in the history of Ken Pomeroy’s rankings (to be fair, Utah just joined a major conference). They’ve got to beat Wake Forest’s dreadful #251 finish from last season.
3. Testudo Times: Maryland has had an eventful start to the season, even if it hasn’t been littered with success. The next six games should be, with all but two of them being true “guarantee” games (Maryland should still be a heavy home favorite in the other two). In the meantime, keep an eye out for Alex Len, the highly touted international seven-footer, who will finish his ten-game suspension during the upcoming stretch. If nothing else, he’s worth five fouls and a lot of length. Additionally, it sounds like Pe’Shon Howard‘s injury is healing quicker than expected, so his tentative return date may come against Cornell on January 3.
4. Searching For Billy Edelin: Speaking of the Terrapins, SBNation‘s resident national basketball blog took a look at Terrell Stoglin‘s transformation from last year. I want to address a few of the concerns brought up in the article. First, I think Stoglin’s assist rate going down is as much of a product of Jordan Williams leaving as it is Stoglin changing. Becoming the first (and often only) option has also forced Stoglin to be a much more aggressive offensive player. It will be very interesting to see how Maryland’s identity changes with the pending additions of Len and Howard.
5. Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Tech‘s new coach Brian Gregory takes on in-state rival Georgia today. Neither team is off to a particularly strong start, as both lost much of their talent from last season. Georgia Tech hasn’t won at Georgia since 1976 (though for 14 years the game was played at a neutral site). I like Georgia to win this one, but it’ll come down to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Glen Rice, Jr., the best scorers for their respective teams. Even though neither of these teams is at its peak, rivalry games like these in December are always fun.

Matt Patton is the ACC correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter @rise_and_fire.

Reader’s Take

Top Storylines

• Kentucky and North Carolina: College basketball’s “Game of the Century” lived up to the hype coming down to the last possession (even if it ended bizarrely) and was fun from start to finish (well, almost finish for Tar Heel fans). The game was a reminder that North Carolina can be the team people thought it would be coming into this season. The Tar Heels were aggressive, knocked down perimeter shots, and controlled a little over half of the game. Harrison Barnes was outplayed by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, but Kendall Marshall was passable on defense [Author’s Note: That wasn’t meant to be a bad pun. He actually played solid defense on Teague most of the game.] and his usual self on offense (though I was very surprised he saw as much time guarding Marquis Teague as he did, considering Teague’s turnover woes). I’m not sure any college basketball fan would mind seeing a rematch this spring.
• Terrell Stoglin Can Score: Unfortunately, his teammates are struggling to keep up their end. Only three BCS-conference teams (Penn State, Washington, and Utah) have players with higher usages, and none have players more likely to take a shot (shot percentage). Stoglin is the only player on the team averaging over 20 points a game with 22.4. His field goal percentage could be a little higher, but right now he’s the best scorer in the conference. For more on Stoglin, check out our post from yesterday on his scoring ability.
• Sportsman of the Year: Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt joined the prestigious ranks of Sports Illustrated‘s “Sportsman of the Year” winners and are only the third and fourth college basketball coaches to be chosen for the honor (Dean Smith and John Wooden are the other two). Both are worthy choices, as they both signify excellence over the course of 73 combined years of coaching.

Terrell Stoglin is Maryland's Offense.

Power Rankings

1) North Carolina (6-2) lost to the #1 team in the country on the road by one point. But it was the second straight game that the Tar Heels were unable to control the tempo. Is this a problem going forward, or is the defense good enough to win ugly?
Ken Pomeroy Fun Fact: The only player in Roy Williams’ rotation that is not averaging over a point per possession? James Michael McAdoo (fellow frosh PJ Hairston leads the team with a 129.0 offensive rating).

2) Duke (7-1) hasn’t played since last week. My guess is this means a lot of quality time watching film on Ohio State.
Ken Pomeroy Fun Fact: Duke has the third worst free throw defense in the country, as opponents are shooting a whopping 80.6% from the charity stripe against the Blue Devils this year.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. You know those anthologies called the Top Fiction/Non-Fiction/Sportswriting/etc. in America that come out every year around the holidays? Have you ever wondered what the best college basketball sportswriting in America looks like (ahem, other than RTC, of course)? Here”s your chance. The USBWA announced its five winners for its Best Writing Contest in 2011, and each selection is well-received. The top column award went to David Teel of the Newport News (VA) Daily Press for a piece on Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith; the top game story award went to David Woods of the Indianapolis Star for his recap of the Butler vs. Florida Elite Eight game last March; the top enterprise piece award went to Dan Wiederer of the Fayetteville (NC) Observer for his three-part look at Mike Krzyzewski; the top magazine length feature award went to Sean Gregory of Time for his reflection on Princeton’s historic 1996 upset of UCLA; and, the top moderate length feature award went to Luke Winn of Sports Illustrated for his poignant story about Kenneth Faried’s life and passion for rebounding. If you have time, we’ll see you again in a half-hour. If not, just bookmark the page and get back to it later. Think of all the garbage you read (willingly or not) every day — if you’re a true college hoops fan, each of these five articles is well worth your time and energy.
2. Speaking of SI, the magazine released its Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year yesterday and it had a decidedly college basketball theme. The all-time wins leader on the men’s side, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, will add yet another honor to his mantle with his selection, while the all-time wins leader on the women’s side, Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, will do likewise. The duo of coaching titans have combined for a total of 1,982 wins, roughly fifty to seventy wins behind the grand total that schools like Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina have had in their entire histories. In the nearly-60 year history of the award, only three other college basketball personalities have been honored — Ohio State’s Jerry Lucas (1961), UCLA’s John Wooden (1972), and North Carolina’s Dean Smith (1997). They will be honored tonight in Manhattan at a special ceremony.
3. Folks around the college basketball nation are still buzzing about Anthony Davis’ game-winning rejection in the North Carolina-Kentucky game from Saturday, where one of the top storylines involved all the future NBA talent playing in that game. DraftExpress‘ Jonathan Givony (doubling up at Grantland) took a look at the game from an NBA scouting perspective, and here is what he found. Perhaps exhibiting how evenly matched these two teams are, Givony broke down each position and picked a player advantage between each starter — the final tally was a 3-2 advantage. You’ll have to get over to read the piece to see which team “won” the NBA Draft component of Saturday’s blockbuster of a game.
4. Utah is already on its way to an epically disastrous season, having lost six games against Division I competition by an average of over 20 points per game. How bad has it been? So bad that Utah is rated lower than Utah Valley and Southern Utah within its own state in the KenPom ratings… ugh. On Monday it got worse. Starting point guard Josh “Jiggy” Watkins was suspended indefinitely by head coach Larry Krystkowiak for failure to live up to team expectations (reportedly he was late for practice and had fallen asleep in class). Considering the fact that Watkins is the top usage player (39.7%) and seventh-highest shooting player (37.7% of Utah’s possessions) in America through four weeks of the season, but accounts for over half his teams assists (52%), his benching might be a good thing or a bad thing. Then again, how much worse could the Utes get?
5. Seth Davis was back yesterday with his Hoop Thoughts column, and as usual, it’s a must-read. The topic this week is ten sophomores who were not stars as freshmen to keep an eye on this season, and he lists many of the most important names. Here are five more that should most definitely be considered as super sophomores after quieter freshman seasons — Terrell Stoglin (Maryland), Trae Golden (Tennessee), Eric Atkins (Notre Dame), Jamaal Franklin (San Diego State), and Deshaun Thomas (Ohio State). All of these guys have made significant strides in their second seasons on campus.

Yesterday was a lousy day for the conference. Aside from a breakout performance by Terrell Stoglin to lead a struggling Maryland team over Notre Dame, it was losses all round for the other three conference teams in action.  Turnovers did in North Carolina State who otherwise played a very strong game on the road at Stanford. Andre Young went cold and Clemson has now dropped three home games against in-state rivals after hosting South Carolina. Kansas State locked down Virginia Tech’s scorers in the second half and stole one on the road. While none of these losses is particularly “bad,” aside from Clemson’s loss to South Carolina, Virginia Tech needs to find some quality wins this non-conference season if it wants to make the tournament. The Wolfpack’s loss to Stanford is a “quality loss,” considering how close NC State came to getting a high-caliber road win against a Stanford team that has looked very good in the early going. Still, the win would have been that much more impressive.

As rough as yesterday was for conference teams, tonight promises to be a little bit better. The ACC has a very good chance to go undefeated this evening. Of course, there is only one game tonight, so maybe that’s not so impressive. Still, it’s all the Atlantic Coast Conference has going down tonight, so let’s talk about it.

The Only Game

• Charleston Southern at Florida State at 7:00 PM on ESPNU

So this has the making of a rout on paper. Those aren’t all that thrilling generally, but if you can get in the right mindset, this one has the potential to be a defensive masterpiece.  Florida State can play lock down defense on the perimeter and in the paint. They force turnovers and the whole team is pretty tall. Charleston Southern’s average shooting, not particularly good rebounding, and mediocre ball handling points to a low scoring game for the Buccaneers. As mediocre as the team is offensively, they are even worse defensively.

Let’s go back to the height thing for a second. The two tallest starters for Charleston Southern are 6’5″. The two shortest starters for Florida State are 6’5″. It’s a rough match-up.

Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles Should Win Easily Tonight

The one favorable match-up for Charleston Southern comes on the defensive end. Charleston Southern has actually been nearly as good as Florida State in terms of forcing turnovers while the Seminoles have displayed a shocking indifference to taking care of the ball. If the Buccaneers can force turnover and then get made baskets before the defense is set, they have a chance to get some points on the board and get an edge in terms of extra possessions. It’s a slim advantage, but it might be their best chance.

I. Renko is an RTC correspondent.

Coming into the season, Terrell Stoglin wasn’t exactly flying high on the college hoops radar.  He didn’t make the ACC preseason first team.  He didn’t make the 50-person Wooden Award watch list.  Heck, he didn’t even make Andy Katz’s 55-person list of Wooden Award watch list snubs. Even after averaging more than 20 points through the first six games of the season — more than any other ACC player — Stoglin has received little national attention.  On Sunday evening at the BB&T Classic, the diminutive sophomore guard served notice that he is without question one of the best, most exciting players in the ACC and the nation.

Stoglin Was the Difference Maker Against Notre Dame Sunday

Stoglin lit up the Irish for 31 points (one shy of a career high) on 11-20 shooting, including 3-4 from three-point range.  He was “like World B. Free, man,” declared Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, comparing Stoglin to the former NBA player known for his highlight-reel shotmaking abilities.  Brey didn’t stop there with his praise-by-flattering-comparison, adding that Stoglin is “like the microwave of College Park,” an apparent reference to former NBA player and offensive sparkplug Vinnie Johnson. Those in the arena on Sunday knew exactly what Brey was talking about.  While the box score showed just how many points Stoglin racked up, it didn’t show how and when he did it.

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1. SI, ESPN, CBSSports.com and TSN: In case you were looking for some of the major weekend recaps of college basketball’s version of the “Game of the Century” between North Carolina and Kentucky, here you go. Kentucky may have more talent, but I think North Carolina is better (by a hair) right now. Yes, they lost, but the Tar Heels were a last-second freeze and heroic shot away from beating Kentucky in one of the most hostile environments in the country. Expect to see a more detailed reaction from us later today, but it’s hard to argue that those two teams aren’t evenly matched after that game. However, I do offer these words of wisdom in passing: Don’t let this weekend’s win obscure Ohio State’s dismantling of Duke a few days earlier. The Buckeyes look every bit as good as North Carolina and Kentucky right now. But, like all college basketball fans, I was thrilled that the game at Rupp Arena lived up to all of the hype.
2. Boston Globe: Boston College has reached a place it hasn’t been in 37 years: one that’s lower than local “rival” Boston University. The Terriers beat the Eagles for the first time in nearly four decades by 14 on Saturday. The win was also BU’s first against a major conference opponent since it beat Michigan in 2004. Steve Donahue sounds frustrated, but is sticking with his team: “I just can’t evaluate my team based on the scoreboard at this point. It’s just not fair to those kids.” For anyone keeping score at home, Boston College is now ranked #271 by Ken Pomeroy and #306 by Jeff Sagarin (in a closely contested battle with Utah for the worst power conference team).
3. Washington Post (and the follow-up): Mark Turgeon wanted more scoring balance from his team looking forward to its weekend game against Notre Dame. What’d he get? Terrell Stoglin dropping 31 points in the team’s best win of the season. What Turgeon really wanted was for Stoglin not to force things, but it’s abundantly clear that the Terrapins don’t have any other consistent scoring threats (for instance, Notre Dame started the game on an 8-1 run before Stoglin put up 11 straight for Maryland). The good news for Turgeon is Stoglin’s shot selection improved dramatically: Instead of relying solely on jump shots, he took the ball to the rack. The bad news is there probably won’t be a lot of offensive balance until Pe’Shon Howard gets back from his injury.
4. Burlington Times-News: In another prophetic (this time more accurately) preview, Mark Gottfried tempered fans’ expectations, summing up NC State perfectly: “I wouldn’t get real excited just yet, but I think we’ve shown at times we can be very competitive with just about anybody.” Yet again at Stanford, the Wolfpack were very competitive most of the game but couldn’t sustain the momentum during the second half. Both of the team’s other games against likely NCAA Tournament competition (Indiana and Vanderbilt) played out in similar fashion. It’s hard to tell if the team will be able to develop winning ways this season, or if it’s still a year away.
5. The Mikan Drill: Virginia has a very mediocre offense. Luckily the Cavaliers back it up with an elite (top ten according to Ken Pomeroy) defense. Just how are they so effective? The Mikan Drill looks at Bennett’s “packline” defense that helps hide what the team lacks in athleticism by controlling dribble-penetration as a group effort (in a way, think of a very help-oriented man-to-man). As always, informative screenshots and video clips here help explain Bennett’s unique system.

This Weekend’s Lede. Every Week a Playoff… Until It Isn’t. No matter your opinion on whether Oklahoma State or Alabama should have the right to play LSU for the BCS national championship next month, can we at least come to an agreement that college football’s tired meme of “every week a playoff” has once again been blown out of the water as farcical? Look, we all know that the NCAA Tournament system is far from perfect in terms of anointing the best team as the champion, but like every other major American sport, at least every team that has a reasonable claim to the crown gets a chance to prove its worth on the hardwood. The old saying goes, “in order to be the best, you have to beat the best,” but as this comical CFB playoff scenario shows, at least one deserving school will get no such chance to do that. On to basketball…

Your Watercooler Moment. Anthony Davis’ Game-Saving Block.

Kentucky vs. North Carolina. North Carolina vs. Kentucky. What else could it be? Saturday afternoon’s tilt in Lexington was one of those rare fulfilling games where the action on the floor not only lived up to the hype, but exceeded it. And the hype for this game was extraordinary, especially considering that it took place on the first Saturday in December rather than sometime deep in March. Our post-game takes on what we’d seen in the one-point Kentucky win are located here, but the long and short of it is this: Carolina should feel as if they were only a play away from winning a difficult road game that didn’t cater to its strengths (61% on threes, but only 33% on twos), while Kentucky should feel that its extremely young but talented team stood toe-to-toe with the other most talented team in America and didn’t blink. Both UNC and UK should be playing in New Orleans next Spring, and if we’re lucky they’ll tip off for the fourth time in just over 16 months with nothing less than the national championship on the line.

Five More Weekend Storylines.

1. Big East Dominates SEC in Challenge. Coming into Friday, the SEC was tied with the Big East at 2-2 in this year’s Challenge. The Big East then won the next six games before dropping the final two Saturday evening to finish at 8-4. The most impressive wins over the weekend were Pittsburgh and Cincinnati’s road wins at Tennessee and Georgia, respectively(the Big East had four roadies), and as we noted in our commentary on Saturday, the Big East appears to be an eight- or nine-team NCAA Tournament conference, whereas the SEC seems to deserve roughly half that. Nothing too surprising here, just further confirmation that the Big East, along with the Big Ten, are the top two conferences in college basketball this season. Read the rest of this entry »