Keen On 15s

Sometimes the names on a roster can be just as engaging as the statistics they generate.

Take odd nominal convergences like Boston College’s Jairus Hamilton and Julran Hamilton. Or Clemson’s bookend symmetry of Chase Hunter and Hunter Tyson.

UNC is into Brandon, as in Robinson and Huffman. (Not to be confused with the brandin’ pretentiously embraced earlier this decade by Harrison Barnes.)

Florida State boasts a rare Q score with RaiQuan Grey and RayQuan Evans, variations on a theme. Sort of. Louisville takes things a step farther, if in more conventional form, with Grant Williams and Malik Williams and Samuel Williamson.

As has become the trend, even as nicknames fade away there are plenty of players around the league who go by their initials, nine by our count. (Players, not initials.)

But our favorite group this season is the O-ring, a squad of 11 ACC players whose first or last names, or both in one case, start with the letter “O”. And that doesn’t count guys whose names end in or prominently feature O, as in Virginia’s Francisco Caffaro and Matt Palumbo and Virginia Tech’s Hunter Cattoor.

Note that not every player listed here appears on rosters published by the ACC in its preseason media guide. And not all players included on team rosters will sound familiar even to fans of their respective schools, as they haven’t earned double-digit minutes on the floor so far this year.