The Post NBA Exodus ACC Landscape [Updated 6/18 + Poll]

09-10 Basketball71

Original June 15th, 2009 entry:
The deadline for withdrawal is 5:00 p.m. today, and ESPN’s Chad Ford is tracking the late deciders’ status. So far today, the ACC is 50/50 – Gani Lawal will return to a loaded Yellow Jacket frontcourt, and Jeff Teague likely knocked the Deacs out of every pre-season Top 25 list. Greivis Vasquez is still on the fence, but Ford expects him to return to Maryland.

UPDATE: Greivis will indeed return to Maryland for his senior season.

UPDATE: Teague not returning to the Weak Florists, joining teammate James Johnson in the draft.

ACCNow has a list and some analysis that calls Wake Forest the biggest loser.

Wake Forest stands as the biggest loser, with forward James Johnson and guard Jeff Teague exiting, although the Deacs kept forward Al-Farouq Aminu. After returning to the NCAA Tournament in 2009, the Deacs are tracking back towards the bottom third of the ACC in ’10.

In the draft
G Jeff Teague, Wake Forest
F James Johnson, Wake Forest
G Gerald Henderson, Duke
G Wayne Ellington, UNC
G Ty Lawson, UNC
F Brandon Costner, N.C. State

Out
G Greivis Vasquez, Maryland
F Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech
F Dwayne Collins, Miami
F Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest

June 18th, 2009 UPDATE:
First, you need to go back two months and read a very good entry that is married to what we are getting ready to share here.

With ^that work in mind, Joe Giglio re-vamps his look at next year’s Atlantic Coast Conference landscape after the winners and losers of the NBA draft exodus have been declared (in this good piece at ACC Area Sports)

1. Duke
2. UNC
3. Boston College
4. Georgia Tech
5. Florida State
6. Maryland
7. Clemson
8. Virginia Tech
9. Virginia:

10. N.C. State: The Sidney Lowe Era hits Phase 2 with his own players. (9)

11. Wake Forest
12. Miami

POLL:

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

09-10 Basketball

71 Responses to The Post NBA Exodus ACC Landscape [Updated 6/18 + Poll]

  1. Wulfpack 06/18/2009 at 1:51 PM #

    I’d say Giglio is right on. But Wake will finish ahead of us.

  2. StateFans 06/18/2009 at 1:54 PM #

    4ever: to be fair, Giglio may or may not follow State as close as most of us…but, I guarantee you that he follows all of the other teams more closely than the most of us.

  3. BJD95 06/18/2009 at 2:08 PM #

    The only things I can really fault in Giglio’s analysis are:

    1) I don’t think there’s any way GT finishes as high as 4th (Paul Hewitt is still coaching, and their guards are still crap).

    2) Losing Terence Oglesby shouldn’t drop Clemson from 3rd to 7th. He isn’t THAT important a player.

  4. packalum44 06/18/2009 at 3:01 PM #

    I don’t follow GT b-ball nor do I interact with any GT alum but I’ve never heard Hewitt was considered a bad coach except from here. He did take a team to the National Championship game with a tall Australian ginger and a really good but not GREAT PG in Jarrett Jack. That squad was NOT the 2nd best team in the NCAA in 2004 so he overachieved in his 4THHHHHHH year. Most would agree since then he’s had crappy luck with recruits bailing early too. He might not be the best coach but he isn’t that horrible…..is he?????????

    Favors seems to be the Ed Davis type. In no big hurry to grow up too fast as he didn’t want to leave his hometown, Atlanta. Unless he’s a lock to be a top-5 pick he might stick around a year or 2. IMO Davis was the best NBA prospect at UNC last year and would have been lottery material. With the departure of hops-a-lot, he’s going to dominate next year, along with Aminou. If Painter can jump and defend as advertised, he’ll get (or should get) significant PT.

    Wake is being severely under-rated by almost everyone. If I was a betting man I’d be taking the spread on them every game!

  5. howlie 06/18/2009 at 3:24 PM #

    I may be ‘wack’, but I really believe [barring injuries] that we have an 8th place ‘floor,’ and a 3rd place ‘ceiling’ for this year.

    Convince me otherwise…

  6. Thinkpack17 06/18/2009 at 3:35 PM #

    I picked our team to finish much higher than 10th…but I’m a fan. For a person on the outside looking in I couldn’t blame JG for thinking otherwise. I think Scott Wood is going to be a monster, but I have had zero luck in convincing any of my UNC/DUKE friends to be afraid of him.

  7. NCSU4ever 06/18/2009 at 3:50 PM #

    howlie
    I agree with the 8th placed floor I don’t know so much about a 3rd place ceiling though.
    I do think JG is way off base putting us at 10th
    Smith is likely to have a monster year, if he would have gotten the minutes Costner was getting last year he would have been leading scorer.
    IMO Lorenzo Brown will be ready to play from day one, he is an explosive gaurd with great ability to penetrate, something we’ve lacked eversince Lowe took over. Scott Wood is money from anywhere on the floor. This squad is going to be much better than a lot of people, even our own fans are ready to admit.

  8. BJD95 06/18/2009 at 3:56 PM #

    Seeing is believing.

  9. NCSU4ever 06/18/2009 at 4:09 PM #

    I also do not get Duke at 1

    Without Elliot Williams there is not one player who can put the ball on the floor and create.

    I could easily see Duke struggling this year. I’d say they end up battling for 3rd/4th place.

  10. McPete 06/18/2009 at 4:09 PM #

    Thinkpack,
    scott wood seems to be a steal. i just hope his knee injury isnt severe.

  11. RegularExpression 06/18/2009 at 4:10 PM #

    Back to the topic of offensive execution under Sid, we have finished 2nd, 7th and 3rd in the league in FG% in his 3 years. In points per game we were 9th, 12th and 6th, so there is a disconnect between our shooting percentage and scoring. Most likely that is related to our slower tempo and the fact that we have finished dead last in the league all three years in turnover margin. We waste offensive possessions with turnovers and don’t get easy baskets in return. I don’t believe that can be blamed on Sid’s offense.

    If I find fault with anything it has been defensive effort, but I saw some marginal improvement last year. Hopefully that trend will continue as we get some hungry young players in.

  12. NCSU4ever 06/18/2009 at 4:10 PM #

    Also UNC is razor thin at guard, I believe Drew is capable but with injuries or foul trouble this UNC team could find theirselves in trouble too.

  13. McPete 06/18/2009 at 4:10 PM #

    and the lorenzo brown saga hasn’t ended yet either. i hope he makes it on campus. they need him bad.

  14. NCSU4ever 06/18/2009 at 4:12 PM #

    McPete it’s already been reported that Scott will not need surgery just a few weeks rest. Should be fine and ready to practice soon.

  15. burnbarn 06/18/2009 at 4:25 PM #

    Good WRAL interview with Lowe..
    http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/story/5384204/

    This offseason, coaches like Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith told Lowe this was his season to put his own stamp on the Pack program. “No question about it,” said Lowe, who has yet to make the NCAA tournament as a coach. “They said, ‘This is where you can make your mark and change things.’ One of them said ‘change the culture.’”

  16. hball57 06/18/2009 at 8:12 PM #

    Love how we still want to post psycological analysis of players after they leave the program!

    I think you could say our freshman improved by the end of the year. I see what the coaches saw in CJ for example and I think Mays will end up starting at point. Dennis improved as well as Tracy, and we have some athletic freshman up front. We will definitely be quicker and more athletic and I think we will defend better.

    In regards our offense I remember a podcast on PackPride last year mentioning how every team in the ACC had someone who could create and score – except us. And how it was a tribute to Sid’s offense that we had big leads and were competitive against everyone without a true creative player (McClinton, Landsberg, Vassaillo, Vasquez, Rice, Rivers, Henderson, Teague, Lawson, Douglas, etc., etc). Just a thought.

  17. choppack1 06/18/2009 at 8:41 PM #

    from a purely objective standpoint, there’s no reason to pick the pack higher than 10th. This 6-10 team loses 3 starters and probably about 55% of its offense. It’s easier to make a case for us being the 12th best team vs. 8th best team.

    Still, I do think the good news is that Smith, Javi and Horner finished w/ solid second halves of the season. With Horner and CJ Williams – you add 2 guys who saw very substantial minutes. Between Wood, Brown (if he does the right things so he can actually come to Raleigh), Painter and Howell – we should have some talent to some damage.

    Here’s hoping that the program benefits from a fresh start w/ this group of players, because things definitely haven’t been good the last 3 years.

  18. blpack 06/18/2009 at 10:48 PM #

    If we finish 10th again there will be some upset people and for good reason. Big year for Lowe.

  19. choppack1 06/19/2009 at 8:39 AM #

    blpack – there may be – but from a purely objective standpoint, it’s foolish to predict anything else.

  20. packalum44 06/19/2009 at 10:04 AM #

    Lowe nor his boss seem to have high expectations for next season.

    Lowe:
    “I think we’re going to be better,” “Obviously, winning is the most important thing, but you have to look for progress. You have to look for development.”

    “The expectation is always to win, but you have to be realistic,”

    Fowler:
    “There’s no ultimatum that he has to make the [NCAA] tournament to keep his job,” Fowler said Thursday. “The main thing is to make progress. Like he does, I feel like the program is headed in the right direction.”

    If we do better than 6-10 Lowe has met his boss’s expectations. Spot bonus for 7-9?

  21. NCSU4ever 06/19/2009 at 11:04 AM #

    “lowe nor his boss seem to have expectations for next season”

    Just because he didn’t come out and say this is the year we make the NCAAT dosen’t necessarily equate to having low expectations for next season.

    Lowe has repeatedly said on the Wolfpack Caravans and even in this press conference how excited he is about this squad. At one event he said this years players were the kind of guys he would have wanted as his teamates when he was a player. This team is truly Lowes first team, the first time he has had a roster of players who are dedicated to playing for him.

    Guy are hitting the gym early on thier own and staying late, this squad has commited theirselves to winning. So of course Lowe has high expectations. That doesn’t mean he should come out and say, “We only lose 4 games this season” It didnt work out too well the last time someone predicted our record pre-season. Also keep in mind Freshmen and Sophmores comprise nearly the entire team so there will be a learning curve. I beleive this team can still be called a success even without making the NCAAT this season. IMO only 4-5 ACC teams go this year anyway.

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