ACC Preview: A Recap of Sorts

This constitutes the conclusion of LCB's ACC preview in which three of our posters took a look at some of the ACC's finest forgotten talents from years past in hope of finding the soul of each team for the upcoming ACC season. We also predicted who would finish where in the standings.

With the conlusion of the BCS football "Championship," NCAA basketball is finally getting the direct coverage it deserves. And like someone has been planning this all along, the ACC and other conferences began their full-on conference schedules over the last couple weeks. When Teach first came up with th idea to preview all of th ACC teams, I was skeptical. "How am I going to figure out who isn't going to suck?" I pondered. "Because on paper, no one looks that good."

Did Gary Williams forget that you have to recruit players taller than 6-7? How is it that Duke, having been guard heavy for what seems like decades, now only has three scholarship guards? And then here's UNC. Last season's Goliath now looks like Goliath's 12 year old cousin, who is just starting a growth spurt. Seriously, UNC is a McDonald's All-American team; a collection of wide-eyed Dorothy's who's house just landed in Oz. It seems everytime they step on the floor every player besides Thompson and Ginyard stare slack-jawed at the glorious colors of Munchkinland. And, because Oz is a land of fantasy, it seems only fitting that UVA is currently the mayor, or maybe it doesn't. Dear God! What happened to the world we knew?

Boston College

Clemson

Duke

Florida State

Georgia Tech

Maryland

Miami

North Carolina

North Carolina State

Virginia

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Virginia Tech

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Dell Curry is one of the best sixth men and sharpest shooters in the history of the NBA., He is also our lens into the successes and failures of the Virginia Tech basketball team. To become a good sixth man, you have to be ready at any given moment. Dell Curry's ability to hit open threes with splinters and a cold body helped him play great off the bench and it became his NBA calling card. All he needed was a couple minutes and a couple inches of space to put his mark on a game and the league.


The problem with being a great role player is you're never the one who gets the credit when the teams successful. You are never "the" guy. In essence, Virginia Tech is Dell Curry while Duke and UNC are Alonzo Morning and Larry Johnson. Of course Dell could hit a big three to win the game and it seems memorable at the moment. But when the season's over and you're looking at the big picture Larry and Alonzo are the ones remembered.


Key Players: G Malcolm Delaney (Jr.), F Jeff Allen (Jr.), and G Dorenzo Hudson (Jr.)
Top Newcomer: G Erick Green and G/F Manny Atkins


Record at Time of Posting: 12-1
Teach's Prediction: 7th in the regular season
Iceman AD's Prediction: 7th in the regular season
Langston's Prediction: 7th in the regular season


Key Games:
L @ Temple 50-61
W @ Iowa 70-64
W Georgia 74-62
W @ Penn State 66-64
W Seton Hall 103-94
@ UNC 1/10
@ Florida State 1/16
UNC 2/4
UVA 2/16
@ Duke 2/21
Maryland 2/27
@ Georgia Tech 3/6

2009-10 ACC Previews: North Carolina

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Strange how the fates of prodigies and workmen can become intertwined, or even reversed. Jeff McInnis came to Carolina with Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace as a holy triumvirate. Pythagoras could only be so lucky to base theorems off these three prodigous talents; they were indeed marked as special. But time with Messiahs tends to be extraordinarily brief. McInnis, Stackhouse, and 'Sheed blasted in and out of Chapel Hill as if they were a Jimi Hendrix guitar solo, overwhelming, awe inspiring, and gone too quickly; however, the buzz from their amps resounded long enough to make impressions on a skinny, freshman role player: Shammond Williams.

In his freshman year, Dean Smith asked Shammond Williams to back up Jeff McInnis at point guard. At times, the idea worked, but the general impression left was akin to watching a chicken learn how to fly. Wings fluttered, but the end result was a ball dribbled off the knee and a flurry of feathers. Still, under the tutelage of McInnis and Donald Williams, Shammond would eventually peck and claw his way into a sharpshooting hawk. This clumsy barn yard bird, turned stealthy bird of prey, went from an afterthought to an ACC Tourney MVP his Junior year and wound up averaging 16.8 ppg as a Senior, and, at the time of his graduation, held all of the following records: Most Career Three Point Field Goals Made (233), Most Season Three Point Field Goals Made (95), Most Three Point Field Goals Made in a game (8), Highest Career Free Throw Percentage (.849), and Highest Season Free Throw Percentage (.911).

This year's UNC team promises to be a work in progress, collectively embodying the commitment and the innate ability it takes to go from a humble hen and a victim of foxes to being the actual predator. Feathers must be shed. Sinew and muscle fine-tuned. Teeth and talon hewn and sharpened. Evolutionary steps must be taken. And, of course, none of that promises eternity.

Raw talent can implode on itself and corrode in the veins like a heroine overdose. Remember McInnis left Chapel Hill under a cloud of suspicion, and even the hardest worker can fall victim to unfriendly confines, or a loss of habitat, and go 1 for 13 or 2 for 12, a la Shammond in the two biggest games of his Carolina career. Working for a destiny that does not exist can be a cruel fate indeed, which is what makes this year's Carolina team so difficult to read. The talent that can't help but mesmerize appears to ebb in the veins of an Ed Davis or a Tyler Zeller, maybe even a John Henson, and the nine to five guys are also present in Deon Thompson and Marcus Ginyard. The problem is that the young talent isn't quite a blinding blast of "Purple Haze," but more the steady steps of an indie band battling its way to superstardom--think Kings of Leon's "Knocked Up"--and Ginyard, the would be catalyst, seems to be falling apart physically under the duress of trying to force his own evolutionary steps; his Achilles heel an inability to take the steps from admirable to unforgettable, literally causing the deterioration of the foot needed to shove him and his team into flight.

Shammond Williams' are not forged overnight, and neither are championship teams. My advice for such a young team: "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World."

Key Players: F Deon Thompson (Sr.), F Ed Davis (So.), G Marcus Ginyard (Sr.),

F Tyler Zeller (So.), PG Larry Drew II (So.)

Top Newcomers: G Dexter Strickland (Fr.)

Record at Time of Posting: 11-4

Teach's Prediction: 2nd in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 1st in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 2nd in the regular season

Key Games:

W Ohio St. 77-73

L Syracuse 87-71

W Michigan St. 89-82

L Kentucky 68-66

L Texas 103-90

L College of Charleston 82-79 (OT)

VA Tech 1/10

@ Clemson 1/13

Wake 1/20

@ NC State 1/26

@ VA Tech 2/04

@ Maryland 2/07

Duke 2/10

NC State 2/13

@ GA Tech 2/16

@ Boston College 2/20

@ Wake 2/27

Miami 3/02

@ Duke 3/06

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Miami

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, purveyor of terrible movies. Playing a mean Defensive Tackle in the early 1990's for the U, Dwayne Johnson epitomizes the core of what it means to be tough, nasty, and physical. A knee injury threw his football career to the sideline and propelled Johnson on a path to WWE and Hollywood greatness (full disclosure: this is superfluous hyperbole). His films include such marvels as The Mummy Returns, Walking Tall, and upcoming Tooth Fairy. Cinematic treasures to be sure. "But wait," you say, "Iceman, this is supposed to be about the U of Miami basketball team." And I respond, "It is, oh it very much is."

See the The Rock's movie career is the very essence of the upcoming Miami basketball season. His characters come in exactly two flavors: Tough-gnarly-dude and kid-friendly-wimp. The upcoming ACC season for Miami rests on which character they decide to become. In seasons past, Miami has been at times physically imposing, smacking around other ACC ne'er-do-wells in the paint and pushing the gas pedal down full throttle, letting their less talented roster run, jump, and swat away the competition. But, and this is a big but, when another team decides to be physical back, to push the throttle down and throw the same elbows in the paint, this team of Scorpion Kings whithers and drops out of the Race to Witch Mountain (Aka the NCAA tournament). In short, if the U of Miami wants to make a run on the ACC, their going to need every ounce of bravado and toughness they can muster, because other, longer tenured ACC powers don't easily fall to an eyebrow-raise and a flash of white teeth.

Key Players: F Dwayne Collins (Sr.) (ironic, I know) and G James Dews (Sr.)
Top Newcomer: F Durand Scott (Fr.)

Record at Time of Posting: 14-1
Teach's Prediction: 11th in the regular season
Langston's Prediction: 9th in the regular season
Iceman AD's Prediction: 10th in the regular season

Key Games:

W Tulane 74-54

W UNCW 67-60

W South Carolina 85-70

W Minnesota 63-58

L @ BC 61-60

W FAU 87-69

Wake Forest 1/09

@ Virginia Tech 1/13

@ Virginia 1/16

@ Maryland 1/26

@ FSU 2/06

Georgia Tech 2/10

@ Clemson 2/13

Duke 2/17

NC State 2/27

@ North Carolina 3/02

FSU 3/06

2009-10 ACC Previews: Clemson

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook:

Who is Tom Wideman?

Google images of him, and one finds a gallery of graceful fouls and clumsy put backs. In fact, the only time Mr. Wideman is not flagrantly touching someone is when he's the only one in the picture. At times, he even appears to foul the other Clemson players, their fans, and their coaches. The man is a bumper car, a tugboat, an ox, or a moose. Take your pick from these metaphors and place it in a confined area, to make sure the maximum number of bones and china dishes lie shattered on the floor, such was the career of Tom Wideman, such is the existence of Clemson basketball.

Tom Wideman set a school record by playing in 129 straight games. This streak would make one think he's constructed out of iron, but his best season was one in which he averaged 7.4 ppg and 7.1 rpg; perhaps he was the Aluminum Man, constantly recycled and constantly crushed. After all, most streaks in Clemson basketball are tales of endless futility. The program has lost 53 straight games at North Carolina. The program hasn't finished first in the ACC regular season since 1990, and it's been 70 years since the Tigers roared the loudest at the ACC Tournament, that's correct Adolf Hitler was invading Poland the year Clemson could last call itself ACC champion. For a team that hasn't been to the Sweet Sixteen in a decade, and only past the Sweet 16 once, in 1980, the Tom Wideman's of the world are the equivalent of the Greatest Generation because Tom Wideman never took the beating that comes from wearing the purple and orange sitting down. No, Tom Wideman stood up 129 games in a row to punch, slap, and shove his way into a realm of limbo that no other ACC school can even begin to comprehend, and that area of limbo is why every year Tiger fans begin to purr when they head into ACC play with an immaculate record. Of course, that purr soon pierces the air--mmmeeeeoooowwwwww--like a tire backing over a cat's tail

Last year, the Tigers were 16-0 before finishing the regular season 7-9 in their last sixteen games, including first round losses in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. In 2007, the team started 10-0, but finished the season 24-9. On January 9th, 2006, the Clemson Tigers were 17-0 before going 8-11 to end the season. Every year fine crystal is brought off the shelf, and every year another piece is lost on the cold linoleum floor; so what makes the 2009-10 campaign any different? Hopefully, it's the evolutionary steps the Clemson basketball player has taken to be less like Tom Wideman and more like Trevor Booker, who could be Clemson's first ACC POY since Horace Grant.

Key Players: F Trevor Booker (Sr.), G Tanner Smith (So.), G Demontez Stitt (Jr.)

Top Newcomer: a freshman class of four generically named players playing anywhere from 7 mpg to 14 mpg: Johnson, Hill, Jennings, and the other Booker

Record at Time of Posting: 12-2

Teach's Prediction: 3rd in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 4th in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 3rd in the regular season

Key Games:

W Winthrop 102-66

L Texas A&M 69-60

W Butler 70-69

L Illinois 76-74

W South Carolina 72-61

@ Duke 1/03

UNC 1/13

@ NC State 1/16

@ GA Tech 1/19

Duke 1/23

@ VA Tech 2/06

@ Maryland 2/24

@ FSU 2/28

GA Tech 3/02

@ Wake 3/07

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Florida State

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

(Quite possibly the best youtube ever created for a marginal European player. It's like Matrix Reloaded, but basketball.)

Season Outlook: During the early 2000's Florida State was trying to regain some of the greatness left behind by the likes of Sam Cassell, Bobby Sura and Charlie Ward, desperately drilling holes in the walls of the Tucker Center, hoping some of the blood, sweat, and tears of those early-90's teams would come oozing out. Anthony Richardson was part of the class of 2001, which did not promise to be saviors of a program, but perhaps just another rung on the basketball ladder his early-90's cohorts had climbed. Over four relatively mundane years Richardson constantly flashed bits of the athleticism and talent he had shown in Raleigh's Leesville Road High School. Talented, raw, athletic, and underachieving were the hallmarks of those Richardson FSU teams, continually clawing at the middle of the ACC pack and suckling from the NCAA bubble every March, only to find it run out of air and burst. The 2009-10 Seminoles appear to be very talented and NCAA bound, but once again one has to wonder which ghosts will come pouring out of the Turner Center walls; Sam Cassell's sure handed apparition, or Anthony Richardson's shaky, uneven ghoul.


Key Players: C Solomon Alabi (So.) and F Chris Singleton (So.)
Top Newcomer: G Michael Snaer (Fr.)


Record at Time of Posting: 11-2
Teach's Prediction: 10th in the regular season
Langston's Prediction: 10th in the regular season
Iceman AD's Prediction: 8th in the regular season

Key Games:
L @ Florida 68-52
W Iona 54-49
W Alabama 60-51
W Marquette 57-56
L @ Ohio State 77-64
W Auburn 76-72
W @ Georgia Tech 66-59 OT
1/10 @ Maryland
1/12 North Carolina State
1/16 Virginia Tech
1/27 @ DUKE
1/30 @ Boston College
2/06 Miami
2/10 @ Clemson
2/17 @ Virginia
2/24 @ North Carolina
3/03 Wake Forest

2009-2010 ACC Previews: UVA

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Last year Barack Obama inspired the nation with his campaign for hope and change, making people believe that we could all be a part of something bigger than ourselves. For the citizens of Charlottesvile, when it comes to their basketball program, they have been hearing news of hope and change for what must seem like eons. This longing was never more true than in 2001, when the Cavaliers had an incoming class of Roger Mason and Travis Watson. This duo was skilled enough to help UVA stay afloat in the talent rich waters of ACC basketball. But they were missing the extra something to make them truly special. That missing piece was Desagna Diop, who the fans of UVA hoped would bring great change to a struggling program. But that's the problem with hoping for change, sometimes it's not enough. Diop couldn't resist the temptation of the NBA, UVA continued to struggle, and the only change that occurred was the name on the door to the head coach's office. Diop could have made UVA an elite program, but it didn't happen; and now they are back at square one, hoping for change.

Key Players: G Sylven Landesberg and F Mike Scott

Top Newcomer: F Tristan Spurlock

Record at Time of Posting: 6-4

Teach's Prediction: 12th in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 11th in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 12th in the regular season

Key Games:
L Stanford 52-57
L Penn State 66-69
L @ Auburn 67-68
NC State 1/09
@ Wake Forest 1/23
Virginia Tech 1/28
@ UNC 1/31
@ Virginia Tech 2/13
Duke 2/28
Maryland 3/06

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Duke

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Like the few drops of native blood running through his veins, Cherokee Parks was a wild a man plodding through the open plains of the ACC in the mid-1990's. He was big, brash, and sneaky athletic, and if all life in the world is indeed cyclical, as the Cherokee tribe believes, then Duke's cycle must be 15 years in length. Park's sneaky athleticism and pugnacious personality have some how seeped into the Durham water supply and are making a return with the 2009-10 squad. Viewed on paper, and seen walking around campus, this group of McD's All-Americans appears meek and unintimidating. But once the lights come on, and the the inner-Parks is released.....well it's a sight to behold. Thus far, this snails-paced and unimposing group has laid beatdowns on squads considered to be not only above the rim, but above Duke's scrappy gameplan. At the end of the day, this Duke team will not make the Sportcenter top ten, but they will make it to the happy hunting ground, finding smart and defensive oriented play can take you farther then a fade-away jumpshot and a backboard breaking dunk.


Key Players: G Jon Scheyer (Sr.) and G/F Kyle Singler (Jr.)
Top Newcomer: F Mason Plumlee (Fr.)


Record at Time of Posting: 9-1
Teach's Prediction: 1st in the regular season
Langston's Prediction: 2nd in the regular season
Iceman AD's Prediction: 1st in the regular season



Key Games:
W Arizona State 64-53
W Connecticut 68-59
L Wisconsin 73-69
W St. John's 80-71
W Gonzaga 76-41
Clemson 1/3
@ Iowa State 1/6
@ Georgia Tech 1/9
Boston College 1/13
Wake Forest 1/17
@ North Carolina State 1/20
Florida State 1/27
@ Georgetown 1/30
@ North Carolina 2/10
Maryland 2/13
@ Miami (FL) 2/17
Virginia Tech 2/21
@ Virginia 2/28
North Carolina 3/6

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Boston College

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Okay, you're right; Al Skinner is not a player, but since BC joined the ACC, he's been the face of this New England school's basketball program. In fact, he's the face of BC basketball period due to the fact that he's their all-time winningest coach.

Surprisingly, Skinner is also the third longest tenured coach in the conference, behind Coach K and Gary Williams. This season is Skinner's 13th at the school, and it's that number along with this coach's intense glare that makes the hairs on my neck rise like howls out of a werewolf's throat. I don't know if Al Skinner was bitten under a full moon, whether or not he sleeps in a coffin, or if he just went into the woods one night looking for Captain Kidd's treasure and found the Devil himself, but I do know that only dark magic and blood heavy incantations could contrive the flex offense. Is it mere coincidence that its very name rhymes with the word hex? After all, many a team has travelled into Boston, in midst of winter, and come home, pale and sweating, as if Jared Dudley and Tyrese Rice had no heads but somehow managed to win a basketball game. Something eerie goes on in the house that Skinner's built. I even hear that Robert Johnson is featured in their pregame warm-up music.

Key Players: F Corey Raji (Jr.), F Joe Trapani (Jr.), G Reggie Jackson (So.)

Top Newcomer: N/A

Record at Time of Posting: 7-4

Teach's Prediction: 8th in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 6th in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 9th in the regular season

Key Games:

L St. Joseph's 84-80

W @ Providence 82-77

W @ Michigan 62-58

W Miami 61-60

L Harvard 74-67

L Rhode Island 80-69

UMass 7:00 PM TONIGHT

South Carolina 12/30

@ Clemson 1/09

@ Duke 1/13

Maryland 1/16

@ Miami 1/19

@ VA Tech 1/23

Clemson 1/26

@ Wake 2/09

@ FSU 2/14

UNC 2/20

@ GA Tech 2/27

UVA 3/03

@ NC State 3/07

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Wake Forest

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: According to sports cliches, every Batman needs a Robin, but Wake Forest's masked avenger Tim Duncan was never sinister enough to be the Dark Knight. He was always more of a stoic reindeer braving the arctic cold, seeking a companion with which to munch on permafrost. Yeah, Duncan was definitely more Bullwinkle than Batman, and, with his chipmunk smile, Tony Rutland seemed destined to be Duncan's Rocky. Then Boris and Natasha dynamited Rutland's knee and Duncan never saw the other side of the Sweet 16, like a Mountie who never rides south. Now, Wake has another NBA talent in sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu, who is currently averaging a double double, but no Rocky. Of course, Duncan and Aminu are not the only Demon Deacons whose college hoops dreams were thwarted by the lack of a squirrel in a blue flying helmet--Josh Howard and Chris Paul were left with the role of Mr. Know-It-All also. In fact, this plot line should feel as similar as syndication to all those wearing black and gold tie dye.

Key Players: F Al-Farouq Aminu (So.), PG Ishmael Smith (Sr.),

Top Newcomer: G C.J. Harris (Fr.)

Record at Time of Posting: 8-2

Teach's Prediction: 6th in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 8th in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 4th in the regular season

Key Games:

L @ Purdue 69-58

W @ Gonzaga 77-75

W @ UNC-Wilmington 80-69

W NC State 67-59

Xavier 1/03

@ Miami 1/09

Maryland 1/12

@ Duke 1/17

@ UNC 1/20

@ GA Tech 1/28

Boston College 2/09

@ VA Tech 2/16

@ NC State 2/20

UNC 2/27

@ FSU 3/03

Clemson 3/07

2009-2010 ACC Previews: Georgia Tech

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: With a red, wispy bob of hair and a lean, sinewy frame, Luke Schenscher waltzed his way into the National Championship game and ACC fans' hearts forever. This Australian ex-pat was little more than a 7-foot disappearing act during certain big moments in his career, and yet in other, less important games he was something akin to a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reincarnate; tossing goofy sky hooks with a childish grin splashed across his pan flat face. I watched Paul Hewitt don his finest Schenscher face last spring, grinning ear to ear, as top big man Derrick Favors signed with his home state school in what is promised to be a job saving one-and-done season. But this team will have it's Schenscher moments nonetheless, varying wildly from game to game and possession to possession, never quite maintaining the momentum and consistency to get back to the National title game. Derrick Favors comes in like a primed depth charge, ready to blow the roof off ACC competition. But at 18 years old, and with NBA dollar signs glistening in his eyes, let's hope Favors doesn't eat too many Vegemite sandwiches this season, sending an upside-laden team back to the Georgia swamps with a belly ache.

Key Players: F Gani Lawal (Jr.) and G Iman Shumpert (So.)
Top Newcomer: F Derrick Favors (Fr.)

Record at Time of Posting: 8-2

Teach's Prediction: 4th in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 3rd in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 5th in the regular season

Key Games:

L Dayton 63-59
W Siena 74-61
W USC 79-53
L Florida State 66-59
@ Georgia 1/5
Duke 1/9
@ Virginia 1/13
@ North Carolina 1/16
Clemson 1/19
@ Florida State 1/24
Wake Forest 1/28
North Carolina State 2/6
@ Miami (FL) 2/10
@ Maryland 2/20
Boston College 1/27
Virginia Tech 3/6

2009-2010 ACC Season Previews: Maryland

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: What the hell was this guy? Trapped in eternal basketball limbo as neither guard nor forward, neither Steve Francis nor Len Elmore, Nik Caner-Medley was more Terrance Morris than Len Bias and happily pulled off Maine's scrap heap by Coach Williams for four years of scowling, grunting, and bar fights. Nik once even claimed in a fit of passion, "I am from Maryland, and no one can beat me." Under Coach Gary Williams, Maryland has perpetually snagged unknowns from the recruiting world and turned paupers into princes of a rag-tag college town, College Park. At any one point in time Caner-Medley could vasilate between all-out baller and all-out bawler, giving opposing fans as much reason to hate his brash antics as they did his clutch threes. Given that MD is sporting an '09-10 team comprised almost completely of scrappers between 6'4" and 6'8", they will be channelling their inner-Medley's all season. Unfortunately, while I'm sure this team is from Maryland, I'm not so certain they can't be beaten.

Key Players: G Greivis Vasquez (Sr.)and G Sean Mosley (So.)
Top Newcomer: F Jordan Williams (Fr.) (And almost Lance Stephenson)


Record at Time of Posting: 6-3
Teach's Prediction: 5th in the regular season
Langston's Prediction: 5th in the regular season
Iceman AD's Prediction: 6th in the regular season

Key Games:
L Cincinnati 69-57
L Wisconsin 78-69
W Indiana 80-68
L Villanova 95-86
Florida State 1/10
@ Wake Forest 1/12
@ Boston College 1/16
North Carolina State 1/23
Miami (FL) 1/26
@ Clemson 1/31
North Carolina 2/7
Virginia 2/10
@ Duke 2/13
Georgia Tech 2/20
@ Virginia Tech 2/27

2009-2010 ACC Previews: NC State

LCB believes that while teams have been playing games since the start of November the real college basketball season does not begin until conference play is in full gear. Over the next couple of weeks, we will preview each ACC team by remembering some of the conference's past players that may have gone forgotten in some circles.

Season Outlook: Take away Bryant Reeves' broken backboard and Final Four appearance and what one has is N.C. State great Todd Fuller; an ox of a man, with a bad haircut. In fact, that box top crew cut is the perfect symbol for Wolfpack basketball: out of style but always present. This program's existence marches on like a stubborn military operation, and Final Four dates appear like withdrawal dates that are too distant to resonate in the mind of the general public. Wolfpack fans wait patiently for the next Julius Hodge.

Key Players: F Tracy Smith (Jr.) and F Dennis Horner (Sr.)

Top Newcomer: G/F Scott Wood (Fr.)

Record at Time of Posting: 7-1

Teach's Prediction: 9th in the regular season

Langston's Prediction: 12th in the regular season

Iceman AD's Prediction: 11th in the regular season

Key Games:

W Akron 66-45

W Auburn 60-58

L Northwestern 65-53

W Marquette 77-73

@ Arizona 12/23

Florida 1/03

Clemson 1/16

Duke 1/20

UNC 1/26

@ GA Tech 2/06

VA Tech 2/10

Maryland 2/17

Wake Forest 2/20

@ Miami 2/27

Boston College 3/07