ACC Roundup

First, there’s only one game tonight and none last night so there’s no ACC At A Glance today.

The one game is Army at Wake Forest. It’s at 7:00 and on ACCNE.

It’s an interesting game in this sense: Wake started off this season a disastrous 0-3 and has a chance to move to a respectable although less than desirable 6-4. After Army the Demon Deacons get Coastal Carolina, another winnable game, and then a much improved Tennessee.

If things go well, Wake could enter ACC play at 8-4.

It doesn’t sound hugely impressive but after that horrible start it really is. ACC play is another story altogether but it’s an impressive turnaround from where things seemed headed and speaks well of Danny Manning and his staff.

Pitt is another interesting ACC story. The Panthers have almost entirely overhauled their roster and are only 5-4 but have showed some improvement as things get going.

With West Virginia next up, it’s a chance to see just how far Pitt has improved. We’d expect the WVU press to eat an inexperienced team alive but as people say, that’s why they play the games.

The record is one thing. Kevin Stallings has seen crowds of under 3,000 so far this season. That can’t last for very long, or rather his job won’t if it keeps up.

Segue: it occurred to us that with Maryland heading towards mediocrity and for some reason not recruiting home turf very well that Mark Turgeon might be in some trouble too. If we were running things there and were ready to make a change, there’s one guy that we’d go after and go after hard: Wichita’s Gregg Marshall.

First he’s a proven commodity. Second, he could recruit the hell out of the DMV. He’d be like the second coming of Lefty Driesell.

Okay, back to the actual ACC.

Tyler Hansbrough says he’s impressed with Luke Maye and sees a bit of himself in the stocky UNC forward, but there are a few differences: Maye doesn’t rely on bulling his way to the basket, doesn’t have the option of paper classes to allow him more time to concentrate on basketball (unless UNC has figured out other shortcuts) and we don’t think his mom is dating the assistant A.D. and traveling on UNC’s dime to see Luke’s little brother play.

Other than that, yeah, we can see his point.

Who’s the greatest athlete in Louisville history other than Muhammad Ali? The Courier-Journal gets it right - Wes Unseld.

People forget how great he was but the guy was 6-7 and went toe-to-toe with guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Willis Reed. He may have also been the best outlet passer of all time.

He was also both Rookie of the Year and MVP in 1969.

Some small but interesting statistical ACC details:

• Marvin Bagley has hit more baskets than anyone else with 96. UNC’s Maye is second with 80.
• Bagley leads in free throw attempts with 70, well ahead of Virginia Tech’s Kerry Blackshear with 59.
• Here’s something we wouldn't have expected: Bagley, Maye, Wendell Carter and Ryan Luther all have more rebounds than Bonzie Colson.
• Trevon Duval has 77 assists; NC State’s Markell Johnson is second with 63. Duval also leads in steals with 22. Johnson is close behind with 20.
• Anas Mahmoud has 30 blocks with nine coming in a single game. Ben Lammers has been an outstanding shot blocker his entire career but as of now Mahmoud is slightly ahead of his 27.
• Carter unfortunately leads the league in fouls with 34, matching his uniform number.
• Bagley is leading the ACC in scoring and rebounding (21.9/11.2) while Duval and Johnson are tied in assists with 7.0.
• We expected to see Duke’s Gary Trent Jr. high on the free throw percentage list but there may be a mistake here. ESPN lists him as 25-27 on the year for 92.6%. Here though he’s not listed at all in the Top 10. If ESPN is correct, he should be #5. It’s been a great year so far for free throw shooting though with seven guys (counting Trent) above 90%. Nobody is close to Louisville’s Darius Perry though - he’s at 100% (18-18). Rick Barry would be proud.

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