Barry Jacobs On Taking Care Of The Ball!

Improved ballhandling could be a key to an ACC resurgence this season, in NCAA play if nowhere else.

The majority of ACC teams had more turnovers than assists in 2006. This could be taken as a sign of aggressive play, of poor passing, of unpolished guards, or of mediocre offenses. Or of all those factors. But, no matter how you look at it, that statistical profile is not particularly pretty.

Strangely, though, discount 2006, when the league had a plethora of pubescent playmakers, and it turns out the assist-turnover profile was basically the same in 2005. That year the league boasted veteran point guards in Jarrett Jack at Georgia Tech, Maryland's John Gilchrist, UNC's Raymond Felton and Wake Forest's Chris Paul. All but Gilchrist was a first-round NBA draft choice in June 2005.

Unfortunately, a ballhandling trend may be emerging: The majority of ACC teams had more turnovers than assists in three of the past four seasons.

This profile is a distinct change from the period of 2001 through 2004, when two-thirds of ACC squads were on the positive side of the assist:turnover ledger.

A correlation does appear to exist between handling the ball well, and making the NCAA field.

Over the past decade, 36 of 46 ACC teams in the NCAAs (78.3 percent) had more assists than turnovers for the season. In five of those10 years (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2006), every NCAA entrant from the ACC was adept with the ball.

Put another way, since 1997 an average of only one ACC team per year got to the NCAA tournament without a positive ballhandling profile.

The ACC's high achievers in the NCAAs routinely have a positive ratio of assists to turnovers, just as coaches fondly preach. Each of the ACC's recent NCAA championship squads valued the ball - Duke in 2001, Maryland in 2002 and North Carolina in 2005. So did each of the ACC's nine Final Four participants over the past decade.

* Over the past decade, ACC leaders in NCAA appearances tended to have more assists than turnovers: North Carolina (8 NCAA bids and 9 +A:TO seasons), Maryland (8 and 7), Duke (10 and 7), N.C. State (5 and 6). Those four schools combined for 31 of the last 46 NCAA bids for the league, 67.4 percent, and 29 of 49 efforts with more assists than turnovers, 59.2 percent.

* N.C. State began going to the NCAAs under Herb Sendek once its ballhandling moved to the positive side of the ledger.

* Two of three Big East refugees, BC and Virginia Tech, have maintained a positive A:TO balance during brief ACC incarnations.

* Clemson last had more assists than turnovers in 1998, a drought six years longer than any other ACC member. During the Tigers' clumsy years they boasted a second team All-ACC playmaker in Terrell McIntyre (1999), a two-time all-league shooting guard in Will Solomon (2000, 2001), and a first team All-ACC point guard in Edward Scott (2003).