ACC’s Point Guard Situation

07-08 Basketball General127

Caulton Tudor focused on the point guard situation in the ACC in today’s N&O:

State, with four returning starters, is best prepared to deal with the dilemma. If Sidney Lowe can find a solution, his second team could be exceptional. If not, the Wolfpack should still be good enough to win eight or nine league games and get back to the NCAA Tournament.

Some random comments:

* We’ve talked about the impact of Crittenton at GT in the past. This season was supposed to be set up for Paul Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets to make a run. It won’t happen now and the Yellow Jacket fans are closing ranks on Hewitt.

* Greg Paulus got a lot of heat during Duke’s mid-season swoon…but, to be fair…he played a lot better at the end of the season.

* The importance of Sean Singletary’s return to Virginia cannot be overstated. Additionally, Coach Leitao is optimistic about his inside players.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

07-08 Basketball General

127 Responses to ACC’s Point Guard Situation

  1. TNCSU 06/20/2007 at 3:06 PM #

    Courtney has All-ACC talent, too. If you noticed last year, Ellington was a Frosh — yet who took their final shot 80% of the time??? Ellington. He is capable of being an amazing “scorer.” Usually scorers are your POY’s. It’s just my opinion, but he will be one of their best players next year, and could compete for POY. I just don’t think that Lawson or Hansbrough has the type game to be the ACC POY — Ellington, however, could easily average 15-20 points a game, and be their “star” player — remember, he’ll only be a Sophomore. That being said, I’d still put Courtney up against him, and he could shut him down, because I agree, Courtney has more athletic ability (not sure about 10 times, though).

  2. Wulfpack 06/20/2007 at 3:18 PM #

    “Roy is NOT the best coach in the country… If the Pack and Dukies both get a win out of Carolina this year(especially if one is in the ACC tourney) THEN Roy will be on the hot seat the following year.”

    You’ve got to be kidding me. No, he is not the best coach in the country – but he is pretty darn close. If UNC is stupid enough, which they aren’t, to put him on the ‘hot seat’ if he happens to lose to Duke or NCSU then there will be plenty of suitors. He recruits A+ talent year after year and has a national title, a share of the ACC regular season title and an ACC Tourney title in all of two years. Can anybody beat that?

    The argument is not about Roy being good enough for UNC. The argument is about Roy getting the absolute most out of his talent year after year – because there will always be talent if he’s at the helm. When you recruit the best classes in America and coach at UNC, people expect championships. That’s just the way it is. And he’s proven he’s up to the challenge.

  3. TNCSU 06/20/2007 at 3:19 PM #

    ^^^what on earth is the reasoning for this?

    My pick was for ACC POY – not the “best” player on their team. Take a look at the past POY’s:

    1997-98 Antawn Jamison North Carolina
    1998-99 Elton Brand Duke
    1999-00 Chris Carrawell Duke
    2000-01 Shane Battier[1] Duke
    2000-01 Joseph Forte[1] North Carolina
    2001-02 Juan Dixon [2] Maryland
    2002-03 Josh Howard[3] Wake Forest
    2003-04 Julius Hodge[4] N.C. State
    2004-05 J. J. Redick[5] Duke
    2005-06 J. J. Redick[5] Duke
    2006-07 Jared Dudley[6] Boston College

    If you look at the list of the past 11 ACC POY’s, all but one (Elton Brand (PF)) are either Shooting Guards or Small Forwards. Wayne Ellington is the Shooting Guard on the Pre-season consensus #1 ACC team (although I think we’ll challenge that!) Using that logic (coupled with what I mentioned in my previous post), I think he’s got a good chance to be POY – again it’s a guess and it’s my opinion. So, who’s your pick? We’ll refer back to this thread in about 8 months. 🙂

  4. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 3:29 PM #

    Ellington is a great player, but sometimes has blinders on. Like the shot he took in the NCAAT..he had 3-4 seconds left, and rather than set up for a good jumper, like he has the ability to, he pus up a 20+ foot off balance shot that had no chance of going down. That goes to decision making, which comes with experience.

  5. primacyone 06/20/2007 at 3:31 PM #

    My POY Pick. He’s a senior. He will carry the load of two. He’s got something to prove.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b7ypzG9LJk

    In all reality there are many potential candidates that could have very impressive years.

  6. lush 06/20/2007 at 3:35 PM #

    my guess, is Travels Handjobsborough. Because he almost won it last the last two years and i see no signs of refs actually forcing him to play basketball. he will continue to maul anyone who gets in his way and go to the line 20 times a game and score 20ppg. imagine if he actually learns how to shoot a jumper and pass out of triple teams…..

  7. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 3:46 PM #

    Pass??? Not unless he really learned something from Big Ben McCauley last year!! My Favorite highlight from the UNx game was Ben showing Travels Hopsbrough (we like to call him ‘shuffles’) how the pivot foot and drop step should be used!

    “They call me the bus driver, kid, cuz i’m takin’ you to SCHOOL!”

  8. newt 06/20/2007 at 3:48 PM #

    Time to say again that being a great bench coach, great in-game coach, or able to win with less, is vastly overrated. The “all-time greats” – Wooden, Smith, K, Williams – have never won without superior talent. Putting a talented team together and motivating them to play hard is what being a great college coach is all about.

  9. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 3:55 PM #

    Everyone seems to forget that UNX students hung Dean in effigy, and Duke students and boosters were getting impatient with K during the 80’s. It takes time and persistent recruiting (and sometimes a bit of timely good fortune(Laettner’s shot)) to get the talent needed and the success that follows.

  10. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 3:56 PM #

    Oh, I neglected to mention the timely “steal” in 1982.

  11. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 3:59 PM #

    Follow up…I realize that some may say that Whit’s “pass” in ’83 was “fortunate” or even “lucky”, but as some have written, the Houston game wasn’t as big an upset as people may think.

  12. brickman 06/20/2007 at 4:00 PM #

    my start of year 1st team costner , big ben ,handjob,singletary,t rice any other player will be joke .

  13. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 4:13 PM #

    But you know the baby blue media of (u)nc will, as has been the norm, slant towards ol’ roy and his boys instead of objectively scanning the entire league. Not to mention HYPE’s Stu “its the tarheels and nobody else” Scott.

  14. RabidWolf 06/20/2007 at 4:15 PM #

    Did I ever mention that I got kicked out of his little chat session when I asked him for a reaction to the whipping of roy’s boys at the RBC?? Now THAT’S what I call fair and objective!!! Hell, I wasn’t even my usual smart ass self, I was unusually polite for an Irishman!

  15. primacyone 06/20/2007 at 4:22 PM #

    “The “all-time greats” – Wooden, Smith, K, Williams – have never won without superior talent. Putting a talented team together and motivating them to play hard is what being a great college coach is all about”

    That is exactly why Williams is not yet an “all-time great” with the likes of Wooden, Smith, and K.

    The greatast of all time – they put together talented teams, motivate them to play hard, and are/were awesome bench/in-game coaches. The tri-fecta. I believe the 83 championship run would be a nice point prover. I believe Dean’s two championship runs would be nice point provers.

    That’s what makes them the greatest. Williams is great, really great, but he’s not yet one of the greatest. . Maybe he will be after this year, maybe he won’t.

    Here are the greatest. Everyone else is just honorable mention.
    Name/School/Championships
    John Wooden UCLA 10
    Adolph Rupp Kentucky 4
    Bob Knight Indiana 3
    Mike Krzyzewski Duke 3
    Jim Calhoun UConn 2
    Denny Crum L’ville 2
    Billy Donavan Florida 2
    Henry Iba Okla. A&M 2
    Ed Jucker Cincinnati 2
    B. McCracken Indiana 2
    Dean Smith UNC 2
    Phil Woolpert San Fran. 2

  16. chris92heel 06/20/2007 at 5:05 PM #

    Again, the only UNC fans for whom Roy will be on the hotseat with a less than stellar (say no final four again) season next year are the blithering idiot brigade.

    And before you start, no, thats not all of us. LOL.

  17. redfred2 06/20/2007 at 6:18 PM #

    Unfortunately, the incredible talent levels are already built in over there on the dainty powder blue hill. I’m not slighting Roy’s coaching abilities, but when you can pick and chose from the creme de la creme year in and year out, the job of coaching becomes much easier.

    If Sidney Lowe competes with that in only his second year, which I am certain he will, how then can Roy be one of the greatest of all time. I think getting there is only part of the battle, maintaining over time is what makes a coach great. Roy didn’t have to work that hard, he already had the recruiting world at his doorstep, but he still needs to go a ways to earn the “one of the greatest of all-time” labelling. It’ll be interesting to listen to the rumblings if the Tar HeWels don’t live up to expectations again, but hotseat, no way.

  18. redfred2 06/20/2007 at 6:25 PM #

    “He’s got something to prove.”

    There are also two players on this Wolfpack team with something to prove. The one, who is also a senior like Singletary, I think really wants to badly. The jury is still out on the physically gifted junior’s motivation for the game.

  19. beowolf 06/20/2007 at 8:51 PM #

    Everyone seems to forget that UNX students hung Dean in effigy

    Rabid, trust me, no one here was allowed to forget that. In fact, it appears that to some people, the first SURE SIGN of a coach’s as-yet-unproven Dean-like future greatness was that his own fans wanted to run him out of town.

  20. choppack1 06/20/2007 at 9:50 PM #

    Roy’s not on a hot seat. The only way he ends up on the hot seat is if they miss the tourney. If he doesn’t reach the Sweet16 and loses to use and Duke again and doesn’t win the ACC tournament, the seat may get a little warm – but I think Roy has proven himself as one of the Top 10 coaches in college basketball.

    It comes across as really foolish to assume that Roy will be getting a lot of heat if he loses to State and Duke again. Simply put, no one in Chapel Hill will care if they lose to us but win a national title.

  21. noah 06/20/2007 at 9:56 PM #

    To say Roy Williams just “picks and chooses” the players he wants does a disservice to just how good a recruiter that guy is.

    Dammit, stop making me defend Carolina!!!

    Joey Devine just pitched a scoreless 9th for the Braves. Too bad they were down 11-zip at the time. He keeps leaving that mid-90s fast ball above the waist, but he’s got good movement.

  22. bTHEredterror 06/20/2007 at 10:20 PM #

    The only time Roy’s seat will ever be hot is when he’s in the sauna.

    I think even if Roy gets SWEPT by Us and Dook (highly unlikely), even with a tournament loss, he is teflon. Maybe even if he’s swept two years in a row. As much as I hate to say it, he is at least a very good coach, I would call him great. I hope Sidney gets to as many Elite eights and Final Fours as Ol’ Roy.

    The only time a majority (for you chrisheel) of UNX fans have displayed a lack of patience toward a basketball coach was Do-Hurty, and I can’t say as I blamed them.

  23. bTHEredterror 06/20/2007 at 10:22 PM #

    Of course Dean-O was there for a millenium……but still.

  24. wolfpackbball 06/20/2007 at 10:53 PM #

    Somewhat off-topic, and I don’t know if anyone has posted links to this in past entries, but I had to post the link to a Johnny Thomas vid on Youtube. Again, I apologize if this is a repeat, or if SFN has posted it previously and it is old news.

  25. bTHEredterror 06/21/2007 at 1:05 AM #

    That youtube post was loooong. But it was cool to watch. This one though, is sick. I believe this is our guy, too.

1 2 3 4 … 6

Leave a Reply