With basketball approaching before you know it, Gary Parrish ranks his top 20 point guards in America in this column.
The ACC lands three of the top 10 playmakers, but none of the next ten. Obviously Dick Vitale wasn’t doing the list or you could automatically add a Duke player to the list to give the ACC four slots.
4. Sean Singletary (Virginia): Singletary last season became the first Virginia player to be named first-team All-ACC since Bryant Stith in 1992. That’s a long time. That’s impressive. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised when this classic lead guard who can score at a high rate — he averaged 17.7 points per game as a sophomore and put 35 on Gonzaga — has the Cavaliers back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001.
6. Tywon Lawson (North Carolina): Every time you put a freshman on a list like this, people are bound to send e-mails featuring the phrase “but the kid hasn’t even played a game yet.” Please, save the e-mail. Lawson has played lots of games, thousands of games. That he hasn’t yet done so at the college level is inconsequential, and you’ll see that once he’s running Roy Williams’ Tar Heels up and down the court in 30-point victories.
8. Jamon Gordon (Virginia Tech): Gordon is really a combo guard, but one who is good enough with the ball to play the point, evidence being that his assist-to-turnover ratio was better than 2-to-1 last season. If he’s too high on this list, so be it. I’ve always been a sucker for point guards hard enough to average 6.0 rebounds per game.
Additionally, CBS has listed their top 20 shooting guards in the country (Link). “Interestingly”, UNC’s Wayne Ellington – who has never played a second of college basketball – is the 7th best shooting guard in the country. Wow!
7. Wayne Ellington (North Carolina): I’m not sure Ellington is the next Michael Jordan, but he can certainly be the next Rashad McCants. The 6-4 talent just might challenge Tyler Hansbrough for the team’s scoring title, and do so within the flow of the Tar Heels’ offense. With so much depth, North Carolina should play even faster — and score more — than normal. Among others, Ellington will benefit, and he could be the ACC’s Freshman of the Year.
12. J.R. Reynolds (Virginia) 6-3 Sr. 17.0 3.1 Along with Sean Singletary, gives Virginia one of the best backcourts in the nation
15. Gerald Henderson (Duke) 6-5 Fr. NA NA He won’t shoot it as well as Redick, but he’ll dunk a lot better.
18. Anthony Morrow (Georgia Tech) 6-5 Jr. 16.0 4.5 Back injury could sideline him until late November.
