Al Featherston has a long and really good article on the
incoming ACC recruiting class, and the general consensus is that it's one of
the great ones in ACC history. Of course, that means less than it used to, since
half of them will be gone after two years, but it's still nice to see the
conference reload.
There are a lot of smart observations in here, from Clint Jackson's point
that most of the gurus live in the ACC area (if you want to make one of them
mad, call them a guru. Every single one of them hates that term) to Quotin' Bob
Gibbons, who warns against underestimating Lee Melchionni.
Featherston asks this question: "Overall, itÂs probably the most celebrated recruiting classes that Williams has lured at Maryland. The Terps fans are wondering: If Williams can win a national title with such modestly rated recruits as Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter, what can he do with prep superstars such as Gilchrist and Garrison?"
The answer? Obviously not anymore than he did with the graduating class.
It's not like Gary's never had great players. Steve Francis tanked to a
large extent, the Hipp/Rhodes class got worse as they went on, and Joe Smith was
a great college player. For Gary, it's not getting great players, it's
finding guys who buy into what he wants to do. The question for his
program, more than anyone else except for maybe Duke's, is how psychologically
suited to the team his players are. That used to be very true for Dean,
too.
Here's a breakdown
school-by-school. and here's Thad "the Mummy" Mumau with
notes on State recruits. Here's one more on Michael Nardi.