2009-10 ACC Hoops – A Jumbled Freaking Mess

Over the past couple of weeks, things finally settled down enough for me to watch more ACC basketball. I leave my esteemed comrade VaWolf to give you the best ACC analysis by the numbers anywhere, but here’s how I see things.

First, every single ACC team is fatally flawed. Most in multiple areas. Duke is probably the least flawed (iffy depth and athleticism), so in the ACC’s land of the blind, the Devils are the one-eyed king. But does anyone seriously see Duke as a legitimate Final Four contender? I work with several Duke alums, and they unanimously would be less surprised to be upset in the first round. And I agree – this Blue Devil squad has “first weekend exit” written all over it.

Second, the gap between 2nd and 12th is virtually nonexistent. Having watched each school (for at least partial games) at least twice, none of them seem good to me. At all. Even when these teams have their “all cylinders clicking” games, it’s clear they aren’t on sustainable paths to success. This ACCT is going to be hell to predict. I can’t see anybody making it to the finals to get spanked by Duke – but someone kind of has to.

Third, two teams in particular have been very disappointing. I hate to point the finger at my two favorite ACC coaches – but I’m looking at you, Seth Greenburg and Oliver Purnell. Each squad has a bonafide superstar team leader (Malcolm Delaney, Trevor Booker), and enough surrounding pieces (and/or a tested system) that should provide opportunity for upward mobility in a lackluster league year. Clemson has lost 3 consecutive ACC games, including an ugly home loss to Duke (that mojo from last year has completely gone away) and an unforgivable loss to a lousy Boston College team. The Hokies unfathomably needed a last second shot to squeak by the Eagles at home, then lost decisively in Miami today. Next Saturday, these two teams meet in what could be a bubble bursting game for the loser.

Who has positively surprised the most so far? Probably Maryland and Wake Forest (each about 4-5 slots higher than expected). But each of them lost at home to William & Mary. How seriously can we really take them? Virginia has really cooled off after their hot start, and nobody ever really did take them seriously when they were still unbeaten. But Tony Bennett is showing what disciplined play and good coaching can do when conference weakness presents an opportunity.

This reminds me of a Big Ten season in the not-too-distant past. Ohio State and Michigan State were a little down (much like the Holes this year), and nobody else really rose to the top. I believe that 7 teams got NCAAT bids (and the conference SOS was thus fairly strong), but nobody had a seed better than 6th. All but said 6th seed lost in the 1st round, and they lost in round 2.

Even more subjectively, there’s just not a single ACC team that I really enjoy watching play. I suppose we’ve all been spoiled – even when one’s favorite team isn’t so good (uh, we’re pretty used to that here), ACC fans still get treated to watching basketball at its most watchable, enjoyable level. Not this year. I like watching the aforementioned Booker and Delaney, but their teams overall? Ugh.

Notice how little we’ve talked about UNC. Why? They are every bit as inconsequential as the Wolfpack this year. Welcome to our level, guys! Too bad you can’t stay longer.

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 ACC ACC Teams

87 Responses to 2009-10 ACC Hoops – A Jumbled Freaking Mess

  1. transylvania 01/31/2010 at 8:50 PM #

    about the only sure thing right now, IMHO, is that we will finish somewhere near the bottom.

  2. wolfonthehill 01/31/2010 at 8:51 PM #

    Watching UVa destroy the holes in Chapel Hill is so damn satisfying…

  3. Wulfpack 01/31/2010 at 9:04 PM #

    It’s very satisfying but it also reminds me of what a wasted opportunity we let get away. Hopefully our fortune is as good as the Cavs’ when we meet up in Chapel Hill.

  4. BJD95 01/31/2010 at 9:05 PM #

    Ah, sweet, sweet schadenfreude!

    Know what I like about Landesberg? His willingness to look for and take the midrange jumper. Old school.

  5. VaWolf82 01/31/2010 at 9:07 PM #

    UNC has scored 9 pts in the first 12.5 minutes of the 2nd half…at the Dean Dome. It’s no wonder that they are getting killed.

  6. packfan03 01/31/2010 at 9:10 PM #

    Obviously UVA has improved – it’s a testament to their coaching and their players. Sylven Landesberg is an NBA talent, maybe the most ready NBA talent in the ACC at the moment. Anyone want to disagree?

  7. packfan03 01/31/2010 at 9:15 PM #

    I think of Landesberg like Hodge – if we didn’t have him during four years of the HWSNBN’D era, what would our record be? He’s dropped 25 on Carolina at this point, and isn’t done yet. Sometimes coaching is as easy as having the best player on the court – especially when there isn’t another player on the opposing team equipped to guard him.

  8. MA Wolfpack 01/31/2010 at 9:19 PM #

    This is a very big week for NCSU. We’ll be underdogs in both road games, but we can get one of these games if we play well. UVA is a good match up for us….GT is not, but there is always a chance that we’ll knock downn open jumpers.

  9. VaWolf82 01/31/2010 at 9:25 PM #

    UVA is a good match up for us

    In what sport?

  10. tuckerdorm1983 01/31/2010 at 9:38 PM #

    those tarholes, I feel so sorry for them. It really couldn’t happen to a nicer group of guys. You heart has to go out to Ole Roy and the boys.

  11. Wolfy__79 01/31/2010 at 10:11 PM #

    okay, i’ll retract part of my earlier statement.. uva is solid. but shooting lights out against the tarholes helps a little. they did what we failed to do when we went up five. that is exactly what could have transpired, instead we were the team that was rattled.. its a shame. but very glad for the unx loss.. they are not good.. and saved the top two five from another overrated ranking. landesburg looks like a better shooter than hodge. hodge was just a very determined, confident player. how he got it done i don’t know, but he’d slash & drive.. and take over the game. we are definetly lacking in that player dept to date. as far as coaching, i’ll tip my hat to the uva coach… he inherited some talent yes, but has been able to pick it up in stride and win some games. but they played really solid defense, whereas we don’t even know the meaning it seems. unc-ch should have gone to a smaller lineup at the half in this game, roy is stubborn and won’t admit that his bigs suck. i’m ashamed we allowed them to do so well at home. perhaps we can right the ship over there? everyone’s hot on uva’s coach right now.. they’ll likely maintain a decent run the rest of the year, next year.. things might not be so easy. but he looks pretty sharp right now. another wtny situation. i would be suprised to see uva only five pt favorites for our matchup. they should be atleast by ten?? we can beat them. you are right, we don’t matchup with gt all that well.. perhaps we can just play some tough basketball and get a couple of our next games…

  12. Wolfy__79 01/31/2010 at 10:14 PM #

    during the uva/unc-ch game, early on.. they were talking about ed davis’s “presence” during our game. and also the four block shots (2 goal tendings) by that skinny kid… can’t remember his name.. and i was just sick. that was a slap in the face to me, considering they occurred during our scoring drought!! unc disgusts me. early on in tonight’s game, they were getting some nice calls,, but the tide turned a bit when they went down big.. if i played on the NCSU basketball team, there would be plenty of examples for me to draw motivation to kick their asses from! that’s one thing i don’t see enough of.

  13. MA Wolfpack 01/31/2010 at 10:15 PM #

    UVA does not have a dominant PG, their overall talent is in the lower 1/3 of the league, and Smith should be able to work inside against them. Landesburg will be a huge problem for us, but we have less talent than every team we play so I consider the gap with UVA to be less than most of the league (BC and Miami are in the lower 1/3 too). We may lose big if we cannot contain SL, but I think we have a really good chance to win @ UVA.

  14. packer74 01/31/2010 at 10:20 PM #

    As flawed as the ACC is, the Pack is very likely to finish dead last as many of the media predicted in pre-season. Heck of note for us to be in such sad shape with Chapel Hill stinking the place up this year. How many nights is State going shoot 58% like they did against the Dookies? Looking at the remainder of the schedule, there might be 2 more wins but against what opponent is a total guess.

  15. Wolfy__79 01/31/2010 at 10:20 PM #

    ah, uva doesn’t have a dominant pg.. but all together they have a good backcourt. yes tracy should be able to operate.. but he can’t dominate a game by himself down low.. we need that mid range penetration and scoring. perhaps sid found some motivation from the bench players saturday that can come in and “energize” the team. really, the main problem i see against uva is their hustle, and our lack of! landesburg can cause some problems, but there perimeter shooting is a little more of a concern to me. they made alot of them tonight.. if we just had solid backcourt play.. alot would be solved……..

  16. blpack 01/31/2010 at 10:51 PM #

    Good job UVa! I think the holes are in trouble and we had better get our act together to avoid an embarrassing 11 or 12th place finish. The league is down and overall the level of basketball the last couple years is not as good as maybe 10 years ago. Can Sidney coach this team to the NIT and can some leaders be developed on the floor?

  17. JeremyH 01/31/2010 at 11:03 PM #

    As someone stated, the league is not down, the NCAA is down from all the early draft jumpers. “The league is down” loses its meaning when the league is consistently down, and since we probably can agree that the league is down several years in a row now, we should accept it as the norm, and say “the league is still not up” each year we think it is down…starting now. Although i will agree that the mystique of the ACC is all but gone now, with UNC and Duke hanging on with fingernail tips on the ledge of relevancy. (Ok, maybe that was a bit much.) Basketball these days is all about money, like the music industry. We are suckers for watching it (*and paying for Arenas to load his chambers*). We should invent our own sport.

  18. 61Packer 01/31/2010 at 11:06 PM #

    I thought we’d already invented our own sport- bass fishing.

  19. Wolfy__79 01/31/2010 at 11:50 PM #

    well, don’t shoot me, but that may be one thing that sidney can possibly restore for us. at our best this year, i’ve seen somewhat of a throwback NCSU version of bball. overall, the ACC has not been the most physical conference out there for several years.. if we can bring this theme back around, much like the big east.. we’ll have a little more promise nationally. here the last few seasons, it seems that basketball is so heavily oriented to the three point basket. which has all but eliminated the 15ft jump shot. inside 15ft is where i like to see the bulk of my team operate. sure i like the three ball, but its never a high percentage shot, even with a jj reddick. it seems even more important in college where young players may even be more comfortable with a closer shot… plus they are that much closer to getting a rebound. one area where i’m sure we all agree NCSU needs more of.. being more physical doesn’t mean losing the finesse that we see on good ACC teams, but just adjusting the approach a little. that too has been evident in a few constests this year, some we came back and nearly won. although we’ve gone away from it over the last two l’s. but we would be down and stick with trying to get the ball inside, over and over. instead of panicking. it worked fairly well. we did it a little versus uva in the second half.. got closer but it wasn’t enough. but with all that said, i’m still scratchin my head about the defensive effort?

  20. Wolfy__79 01/31/2010 at 11:57 PM #

    i won’t say the mystique of the ACC is gone, maybe just a little misguided by the brand of bball unc has been able to get away with… everyone wants to run up and down the court for the entire game.. sure if it works, but look at ol roy now… especially tonight. they got beat soundly.. that run n gun stuff isn’t, IMO, something to hang your entire offense on.. controlling tempo is one thing, their way is different. i never would have thought in 05 or whenever their first nc was that that was going to work..but that’s what a “down league” will do for you.. sean may, “player of the whatever” award. cmon man! nope, control tempo yes, but be able to pound the ball inside for easy buckets when the long ball isn’t working for you… yeap, that’s what i want to see. just need to incorporate javi’s brain into the starting lineup and maybe we can see howell take some of the load off of tracy.

  21. wolfpackattack89 02/01/2010 at 12:03 AM #

    I get tired of people saying the ACC is so special. We’ve been down for the past few years and like this post says, the ACC is just down right horrific this year. Asides from UNC the past few years, nobody has really been able to put it all together. And, I wouldn’t be surprised if we did make the NIT or if we didn’t. But, I hope we do. That would be cool.

  22. Wolfy__79 02/01/2010 at 12:08 AM #

    yeah, trying to get excited about going to the NIT is normally hard to do. but alot of WOLFPACK FAITHFUL consider this a possible good start in the right direction? or progress? we’re all still hopefull of a strong finish to the season and some post season play.. its another hurry up and wait for me, coming into each game i expect to win… and unfortunately get kicked in the goods a little too often this year…

  23. wolfpackattack89 02/01/2010 at 12:22 AM #

    yea, i agree. while i’ve been at state, EVERY time you get excited about them they really tear your heart out. football and basketball. let’s hope sid can get these guys together

  24. wufpup76 02/01/2010 at 5:16 AM #

    Well, that was a lot of fun watching the Hoos smack around the Holes!

    And college basketball can just about be summed up this season by this:

    Some “bracketologists” have Marquette in their field. As of this week.

    The same Marquette that lost to DePaul and N.C. State (at home).

    The same Marquette that is 13-8 with it’s best win over G’Town at home (yeah, they just beat highly overrated UConvict on the road – so?).

    Marquette.

    Needless to say, the door is WIDE OPEN for a great many teams to still make a run at this thing. Keep in mind the Pac 10 may get at most 2 bids, and are actually only deserving of an auto bid at the moment. (Of course the ACC isn’t doing itself any favors either).

  25. fullmoon1 02/01/2010 at 8:41 AM #

    I wouldn’t say the acc is down so much as there is less difference between the bottom and top teams as usual. I would say it is more ugly than down.

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