Deacons picked to win ACC
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
November 1, 2004

GREENSBORO, N.C. - There is a running joke in these parts these days. It goes something like this: Where would the [NBA expansion] Charlotte Bobcats finish in the ACC this season?

While the joke perhaps reflects how poorly the Bobcats may be in their initial season, it certainly has more to do with the strength of the ACC.

In the ESPN/USA Today poll released last week, six ACC squads were among the top 25. That’s six teams out of the 11 that will compete in the conference this season.

The ACC often claims to be the nation’s best conference, but this year few would argue.

That was definitely Topic A on Sunday at the annual Operation ACC Basketball at the Grandover Resort. The most popular question among the assembled media? Well, it was of course in regard to just how tough it will be this season.

“I don’t even want to think about how tough it will be in this league this year. In all my years of coaching I’ve never seen a league so talented from top to bottom. It’s not even close,” Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said.

Prosser’s team will have the enviable or perhaps unenviable task of entering as the league favorite. That was at least the decision of the media who may only have a slight inclination of who is actually the best of all these quality teams.

Of the 91 ballots, Wake Forest collected 65 first-place votes (965 overall) and was followed by North Carolina with 13 first-place votes (866) and Georgia Tech, which collected 10 first-place votes. Duke was picked fourth, but the Blue Devils even collected three first-place votes. N.C. State was fifth and was followed by Maryland, Florida State, Virginia, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Miami.

“There are seven or eight teams in this league that are really, really good and probably seven or eight teams that could reach the NCAA tournament. It should be a fantastic season,” said North Carolina coach Roy Williams.

Of course, Virginia coach Pete Gillen had his own comic spin on the state of the league.

“This is the best league dead, alive or yet to be born. The ‘47 Celtics are in trouble,” Gillen said.

Perhaps it is not coincidence that the strength of the ACC is tied directly to the talent the respective teams have at the point guard position.

From North Carolina’s Raymond Felton to Wake Forest’s Chris Paul to Georgia Tech’s Jarrett Jack and Maryland’s John Gilchrist, the ACC is chock full of talented point guards.

It’s a fact not lost on the league’s coaches.

“We have a lot of great point guards. Too many. I’m just glad I have Jarrett,” said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, whose team reached the NCAA title game last season after being picked seventh in the ACC at this same event last year.

If the coaches know it, the players really do.

“We have great point guards but I like to think that I among them,” said Gilchrist.

Virginia senior forward Elton Brown offered that one of his team’s potential point guards, freshman sensation Sean Singletary, is right up there among.

“Sean will be one of the top three guards in this league,” Brown said.

When reporters questioned the loquacious Brown on his statement, he didn’t hedge.

“I don’t [italics] think [end italics] he is one of the best point guards, he is one of the best point guards,” Brown said.

Gillen has not tried to heap the same praise on Singletary in an effort to level expectations. Still, even with the prediction that his team will finish eighth in the conference, Gillen is more than optimistic about his team.

“I feel pretty good about them. I think we have a pretty good team. … We want to be very good or excellent. I think we have a chance to be better this season,” Gillen said.

Virginia Tech Seth Greenberg will guide the Hokies into their first season in the ACC and the coach, who comes close to matching his in-state colleague in terms of wit, had a few complaints.

“Nobody told me we would have to play all these teams. No, we are looking forward to playing in the ACC. It’s a great league with great tradition,” Greenberg said.

Note. The preseason All-ACC team consisted of Paul, Julius Hodge (N.C. State), Rashad McCants (North Carolina), Sean May (North Carolina) and J.J. Redick (Duke). … Paul was picked as the ACC’s preseason player of the year. … North Carolina’s Marvin Williams was picked as the preseason ACC rookie of the year.

ACC hoops packing plenty of punch
With six ACC men's teams ranked in the top 20 in the coaches poll, UVa and Tech know the competition will be stiff.
By Mark Berman
981-3125
The Roanoke Times

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Virginia Tech men's basketball coach Seth Greenberg and his wife were watching the Hokies' football game on television last Thursday when the crawl at the bottom of the screen revealed the USA Today/ESPN coaches' preseason poll.

"This is what I hear in the background: '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Honey, there are six [ACC] teams in the top 20,'" Greenberg said Sunday at the ACC men's basketball media day. Wake Forest, North Carolina and Georgia Tech were ranked 2-3-4 in the poll, respectively. This is one loaded league.

"Compared to the rest of the country, we probably have more teams that are capable of achieving great success this year," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We have a lot of returning guys, which is unusual, I think, in this day and age for this level of conference."

Virginia and Virginia Tech could have plenty of trouble making a dent in the conference. In the ACC preseason media poll conducted Sunday, UVa was picked eighth and Tech 10th out of 11 teams.

"We're going to be a better team" than last year, said UVa coach Pete Gillen, who returns four starters from a team that went 6-10 in ACC play. "We're quicker. We added three athletic freshmen. Our three seniors are improved. ... We can play with anybody."

Wake topped the ACC poll, with UNC second and Georgia Tech third.

"This year's probably the best league that I've ever been involved in," said North Carolina coach Roy Williams, formerly of Kansas. "The Big Eight and Big 12 had some great years ... but I don't think anything compares to what we have in the ACC right now. And I'm not so sure that I can think of any year that the ACC has been as strong as it is right now for the number of teams that can be there in the top 20."

"You could play 12 games against top-20 teams this year in the league, and maybe half of them will be against top-10 teams," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "If you go 9-7 [in the ACC], I'd say you're definitely a contender" for the NCAA title.

Welcome to the ACC, Hokies.

"It's a league, if it's my first time in it, it'd probably be overwhelming," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said.

The Hokies return four starters from last year's 15-14 team but will miss all-Big East forward Bryant Matthews.

"Can our people right now as freshmen and sophomores play against the level of guard that's in this league? That's going to be the challenge," Greenberg said.

Wake returns all five starters, including 2003-04 all-ACC first-team pick Justin Gray and ACC freshman of the year Chris Paul.

"Our will to win, our cohesiveness, that'll take us over the edge," Wake guard Taron Downey said.

North Carolina also welcomes back five starters, including all-ACC first-team pick Rashad McCants and second-team pick Sean May.

"I really do feel like Carolina basketball is back," May said. "We're by far the most talented [ACC] team from top to bottom. ... We're the team to beat."

McCants recently compared playing for UNC to being in jail.

"At first I was very upset" by the remark, said Roy Williams. "What he said and what he meant were a little different. ... Sometimes my job has restrictions that I don't like, but I'm never going to compare it to being in jail. That was a very unfortunate use of terminology."

Georgia Tech returns four starters from a team that lost in the NCAA final last season.

Duke, the defending ACC regular-season champ, is 12th in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 and fourth in the ACC poll. It is the lowest Duke has been in the ACC poll since the Blue Devils were picked last in 1995.

"I don't think it's so much a dis toward us as it is the fact that the league is so deep," said former Cave Spring star J.J. Redick, one of three returning starters on the Blue Devils.

"We have good players. We just don't have the depth we've had in the past," Krzyzewski said.

North Carolina State is 19th in the USA Today/ESPN poll and fifth in the ACC poll. State returns three starters, including 2003-04 ACC player of the year Julius Hodge.

"I see us as the lunch baggers of the ACC," Hodge said. "We continue to go to work every day, try to work the hardest and get the job done."

Maryland, the defending ACC tournament champ, is 16th in the USA Today/ESPN poll and sixth in the ACC poll. The Terrapins return four starters, including ACC tournament most valuable player John Gilchrist.

"We're used to being the underdogs, not getting our respect," Gilchrist said. "Roll the balls out - let's play."

Quality of ACC hoops is on the rise
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© November 1, 2004

GREENSBORO — We interrupt the new, expanded and lucrative ACC football season to bring you the following bulletin:

Basketball is still king of this conference.

Click here Maybe not in terms of revenue, and certainly not in influence, as last year’s football-drive expansion process proved.

But if quality of play is your measure, then basketball, the sport the ACC has hung its hat on for 50-plus years, appears to still be No. 1.

Look at a poll, any poll. The USA Today/ESPN poll has three ACC teams in the top four, four in the top 12 and five in the top 16. The Sporting News has four teams in the top eight; the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook has four in the top 10.

Sure, they are preseason polls. But there was a sense among coaches and players gathered here Sunday for ACC Operation Basketball that with so many teams returning virtually intact from last season, the league is better than it has been in years.

“By far it is the strongest it has been since I’ve been here,” said Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt, who is beginning his fifth season in Atlanta. “In the past, we might have had individual teams that were great. But in my opinion, this is definitely the strongest we’ve been across the board.”

Georgia Tech returns four starters from a team that reached the national title game last year.

Wake Forest and North Carolina return five.

Maryland returns four, Duke and N.C. State three.

Wake Forest, led by point guard Chris Paul, was picked No. 1 in the nation by Blue Ribbon and the Sporting News.

“It’s a nice sign of respect, but you can’t read too much into it,” Wake guard Taron Downey said.

Wake, 21-10 a year ago, was voted No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN poll. North Carolina was voted No. 3 and Georgia Tech No. 4.

Duke? The Blue Devils, who have won at least a share of the conference title six of the last eight years — and finished second the other two years — are generally considered the fourth-best team in the league.

“It’s just a reflection of how good the league is,” Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said.

How good the league’s guards are, specifically.

Coaches agreed that the strength of the conference is in the backcourt.

Wake Forest returns Paul, the 2004 ACC Rookie of the Year, as well as Downey and Justin Gray, a first-team All-ACC player last season. North Carolina brings back Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants. Duke returns J.J. Redick and Daniel Ewing; Maryland John Gilchrist and Chris McCray; and Georgia Tech B.J. Elder, Jarrett Jack and Will Bynum.

“The ACC today has probably the greatest backcourt collection in the history of college basketball,” said Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg, a self-described basketball historian. “You’re not just playing against guards, you’re playing against backcourts.”

Virginia Tech and Miami, major additions to the league’s football ranks, aren’t expected to enhance the conference’s basketball power ratings — at least not immediately. The Hokies will be breaking in a freshman point guard, Marquie Cooke of Suffolk. Miami returns just two starters from a 14-16 team.

Duke has questions at point guard as well, where Sean Dockery is expected to replace Chris Duhon.

Ewing will play some at the point as well.

Point guard is not Duke’s only concern. The Blue Devils lost forward Luol Deng and recruit Shaun Livingston to the NBA and began practice with just eight scholarship players.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski seemed amused that some people are writing his team off.

“I’ve been asked, 'Well, you’re not on the radar screen anymore?’” Krzyzewski said. “Are you kidding me? We’re always on the radar screen, whether you want us there or not.

“If we stay healthy, we’ll have enough players to be good.”

Good enough to compete with anybody in the country, he added. The same could be said of a half-dozen other ACC teams.

“I really think this year some really good team will finish eighth,” Prosser said. “I just hope it’s not us.”

Notes: In a poll of 91 media members Sunday, Wake was picked to win the league, followed by North Carolina, Georgia Tech, Duke, N.C. State, Maryland, Florida State, Virginia, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Miami. Paul was selected as the pre-season Player of the Year. He was joined on the pre-season All-conference team by McCants, Redick, Julius Hodge of N.C. State and Sean May of North Carolina. Marvin Williams of North Carolina was chosen as pre-season Rookie of the Year.

Bunting's job secure now
Victory against Miami will likely keep UNC coach in place a while
SCOTT FOWLER

North Carolina 31, Miami 28 That was it. That was enough. More than enough, really.

North Carolina football coach John Bunting made sure Saturday night no one is going to fire him this year, and maybe not for a long while, when his team stunned No. 4 Miami 31-28 in a game Tar Heels fans will gush about for years.

The Tar Heels not only aren't going to finish in last place in the ACC this season, but they might end up in the upper half of the league and playing in a bowl game.

How about the Continental Tire Bowl in Charlotte on Dec. 30? Certainly that could be one landing place for a 4-4 North Carolina team that still needs to get bowl-eligible but has managed two thrilling, last-second wins this season -- against N.C. State and now, improbably, the Hurricanes.

What happened Saturday night in Chapel Hill was even stranger than what will happen tonight on Franklin Street, when the whole street morphs into a surreal Halloween party.

North Carolina beating an undefeated Miami team?

C'mon.

This just isn't the sort of game the Tar Heels ever win in football. Usually, they get creamed. Sometimes they come close. Tar Heels football history is littered with the word "almost."

So why would a Bunting team get it done? The coach had a 5-19 record in 2002 and 2003. Would a corner ever be turned in this program, or was it simply limping around in a circle?

Then came Saturday night, when the goalposts fell in Kenan Stadium. Somebody named Chad Scott ran for 175 yards against Miami -- where had Bunting been keeping this guy? -- and the Tar Heels gained 545 total yards against Miami.

Certainly, this isn't the best Miami team we've ever seen. That No. 4 rank was built partly on reputation.

The Hurricanes were indeed unbeaten, but they nearly lost to Louisville (a team that beat North Carolina 34-0).

Miami also had edged Florida State in a nailbiter. Miami's defense had already been exposed as very poor by Hurricanes standards.

But it was still Miami. It was still North Carolina.

It was still supposed to be a rout.

I try to get to most of the key college football games in the area to cover them for the Observer, but I totally blew this one. I skipped the game and turned on ESPN2 instead, planning only to watch a little bit until it got out of hand.

But North Carolina kept hanging on to a seven-point lead. Even after a few dumb mistakes, like that pass interception just before halftime, the Tar Heels never faltered.

The win was no fluke. Even after Miami tied the score at 28 late in the fourth quarter, Darian Durant got the Tar Heels into scoring position one more time for that 42-yard, final-play field goal by Connor Barth.

The Tar Heels are a weird enough team that they could lose all three of their remaining games -- to Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Duke. But if they play as well as they did Saturday, they will end up with a winning record in 2004.

And no matter what, Bunting will stick around for 2005.

He's earned that.

To close gap on ’Noles, Terps crank up speed
An ever-faster secondary sparked UM's win by negating deep threat
By Kevin Van Valkenburg
Sun Staff
Originally published November 1, 2004

COLLEGE PARK - Midway through the third quarter Saturday night, Maryland's football team seemed to realize something about Florida State. Down 20-10, the Seminoles did not have the patience to run the ball.

"Personally, I was surprised they abandoned the running game so quickly," said Maryland cornerback Domonique Foxworth. "It seemed like when they got down a couple points, it was time to air it out."

For years, game after game, that was the way the Seminoles always beat the Terps. If things weren't going well, if the game was close or if Florida State was just ready to crush the spirits of another plucky Maryland squad, the Seminoles sent someone deep. Their wide receivers were superior athletes, and so once the ball was in the air, they could usually run right past the Terps defenders to get it.

But this time, something was different. Terps defensive coordinator Gary Blackney decided to take away all the short passes and force Florida State to throw deep. In pre-game, it might have seemed like madness. But in the heat of battle, it looked like brilliance.

Foxworth, Ray Custis, Josh Wilson, Gerrick McPhearson, Chris Varner and several other Maryland defenders ran step for step with Florida State's receivers. Blackney even had to juggle his lineup when Custis went down with a groin injury late in the game, forcing Foxworth to play strong safety and Chris Kelley to play Maryland's nickel-back position. But somehow, it worked.

Quarterbacks Wyatt Sexton and Chris Rix kept looking for the big play, the jump ball, the deep pass that would change the game's momentum, but it never happened. In the football equivalent of home run derby, Florida State was swinging for the fences every play - and whiffing each time.

"We tried down the sideline quite a few times," said Florida State coach Bobby Bowden. "Nobody was making any big plays. Somebody has got to go up and catch the ball. We got no big plays. And you say their corners played well. Well, that's probably true, but still, we are supposed to make plays."

One of the things that made Blackney's strategy work was obvious: speed. The Terps clearly don't have as much as Florida State, but they have a lot more than they did during the 1990s, when the Seminoles were consistently putting 50 points on the board against them.

"In years past, they were just throwing it over us," said Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen. "So maybe we're getting a little faster. ... We're closing the gap."

Florida State clearly missed running back Leon Washington, who was out with an injury, but it also seemed to forget about running back Lorenzo Booker, who touched the ball 15 times, only twice on passes.

"[Booker] is incredible," Foxworth said. "He's one of the more elusive backs I've ever faced. I'm surprised their coaching staff didn't find a way to at least throw him the ball a little more."

However, Maryland (4-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) managed to pull it off, ending a three-game losing streak in the process. Friedgen said yesterday he told his players they can't bask too much in the victory, especially if they want to get into a bowl game for the fourth straight year.

"We've got to see this as a beginning, not the end," said Friedgen, who did very little celebrating Saturday night, instead getting up at 7:30 a.m. yesterday for church before going back into the office. "We have to put it behind us and focus on the next opponent. I think we gained confidence and we continue to get better, but we're not where we need to be. This was a big win, and hopefully we'll have another next week."

And make no mistake, Friedgen wasn't afraid yesterday to call this week's game against No. 12 Virginia a rivalry game.

"I think it's a rivalry," Friedgen said. "I think it's been one for a long, long time. It stopped being a rivalry when they were beating us 10 years in a row, but it's back to being one now."

Friedgen said he thought Maryland's win over Florida State could give the Terps a nice boost as they make their final push for their 2005 recruiting class. Rivals.com has the Terps rated No. 8 in the country based on oral commitments so far.

"I'm hoping it [helps]," Friedgen said. "We had a lot of big-time recruits at the game, and I think they saw a lot of the excitement here at Byrd [Stadium]. The fact that we beat a heck of a football team has got to help."

NOTES: The game time for Maryland against Virginia will be 3:30 p.m. ... Friedgen said Maryland won't know the severity of Custis' injury until later in the week.

 

ACC NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Nov 1, 2004

WEIGHT WATCHERS: Several of the players who turned out for ACC Operation Basketball yesterday in Greensboro, N.C., were noticeably slimmer than when last seen on the court in 2003-04, including Duke guard J.J. Redick, North Carolina center Sean May and Georgia Tech forward Isma'il Muhammad.

Redick, a junior from Roanoke, is down to 192 pounds after playing at 215 last season, when he made the all-ACC second team.

"I had to kind of cut back on my Bojangles' consumption," Redick said. "I haven't had it in a while. I'm a sucker for doughnuts and a sucker for cookies. I still sneak in cookies every now and then, but I try to stay away from doughnuts."

Grilled chicken has become a staple of Redick's diet, and he tries to avoid red meat and fried food.

Duke's coaches "had been talking with me about shedding some pounds since I got here, since the summer before my freshman year," Redick said. "Basically, the thinking behind that was that I wore down as the season progressed. I just focused this summer on getting into the best shape of my life, and it carried into preseason."

May, who weighed about 275 when he matriculated in 2002, played at 268 as a sophomore. He's down to 258 this season.

"Last year I felt fine physically," May said, "but I felt I needed to be a little more mobile and be able to last the entire season and not fold at the end."

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY: For the first time since 1999-2000, Duke is not the team to beat in the conference, according to media voters at ACC Operation Basketball.

The Blue Devils yesterday were picked to finish fourth, behind No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 2 North Carolina and No. 3 Georgia Tech.

Duke returns three starters from a team that won 31 games and advanced to the NCAA tournament semifinals, where it fell to eventual champion Connecticut. But depth could be an issue for the Devils, who lost forward Luol Deng early to the NBA and saw their marquee recruit, point guard Shaun Livingston, jump from high school to the NBA.

"If we stay healthy, we'll have enough players to be good," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

COLLECTIVE EFFORT: From a squad that lost in the NIT's second round, Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton must replace several players, most notably all-ACC guard Tim Pickett.

Every day in practice, Hamilton said: "Tim gave us tremendous energy. He was relentless. It seems like to me this team, everybody's stepping up a little. No one is necessarily trying to replace Tim, but they're challenged that we had a lot of near-victories, and they don't want to be part of having near-victories again."

The Seminoles dropped their final four regular-season games, a skid that probably kept them out of the NCAA tournament.

"When we went back and analyzed the season," Hamilton said, "we realized that we came up short, and maybe even one of those games could have put us over the hump. And so, with that frame of mind, these guys have been easy to motivate. . . . I think we're all going to step it up a little bit to compensate for what we lost in Tim's energy and the enthusiasm he brought."

BOLD WORDS: Asked about freshman Sean Singletary, a heralded point guard from Philadelphia, Virginia center Elton Brown made no attempted to lower expectations.

"I feel sorry for the rest of the guards in the conference," Brown said. "He can flat-out play."

Reminded that the ACC is stocked with talented guards, Brown answered, "Yeah, and we got one of them."

Singletary and sophomore T.J. Bannister, who moved into the starting lineup late last season, are battling for the title of No.1 point guard. Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser, whose point guard, Chris Paul, is the reigning ACC rookie of the year, said he's familiar with Singletary mostly "by reputation" and praised Bannister's play in 2003-04.

"But having said that," Prosser said, "people that I know that I really respect really have a tremendously high regard for Singletary."

With seven votes, Singletary was a distant second to North Carolina's Marvin Williams (60) in balloting yesterday for preseason ACC rookie of the year.

SIDELINED: Clemson sophomore Vernon Hamilton, who started 17 games at point guard last season, hasn't practiced since suffering a hip pointer in an Oct.22 scrimmage.

Tigers coach Oliver Purnell said he hopes Hamilton, a Benedictine High graduate, can return to practice today. In 2003-04, Hamilton averaged 7.3 points and 3.7 rebounds but had nearly as many turnovers (87) as assists (91).

"He's definitely better," Purnell said. "He's stronger, he's got a year of experience, he understands what I want more and this kind of thing. And he's the guy who we'd be counting on to start the first game of the season, but sitting here right now, I don't know if that's going to happen."

Clemson opens Nov.19 against Hampton at Littlejohn Coliseum. - Jeff White