ACC Roundup - Brooks Skips Draft, Stays At UNC

In ACC news, UNC got a solid break when Garrison Brooks passed on this year’s NBA Draft. With Armando Bacot presumably returning, and Da’Ron Sharpe on the way, UNC’s inside game should be outstanding.

NC State’s NCAA case won't be handled the same way UNC’s was: the NCAA is going to hand it off the the Independent Accountability Resolution Process which was set up after the Rice Commission’s report. Important to note: there is no appeal. That ruling will be final.

Clemson got a major recruit when PJ Hall committed in November. He gives them a big man they can build around and he’s good but probably not good enough to leave for the NBA before he’s a sophomore. He seems to really love what he’s found there.

As you may remember, the ACC has backed the proposal that the NCAA allow a one-time transfer without sitting out a year.

For power conferences, this could be a real boon. When stars emerge at smaller schools and get a chance to prove themselves, they’ll be able to move up to a higher level without penalty. It’ll be a second-level of recruiting once they decide to move up and could push grad students, who can already do this, further back in line. Think Steph Curry or David Robinson, two truly superb players who developed into stars early in their respective college careers. Would they have transferred up if they could have?

How will this affect everyone? It’s uncharted territory. It’s not quite free agency but it certainly would change things enormously. It won't matter to a Ja Morant but for guys who need to prove themselves, it will.

John Feinstein has a piece up on UMBC’s amazing win over Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. The Cavs used that as fuel for their epic 2019 run and it will now be seen in that larger context. Nonetheless, it was one of the great games in NCAA history.

This link is an excerpt from an upcoming book from Feinstein called The Back Roads To March. The last Feinstein book we read was The Legends Club and while it was interesting, it irritated us considerably because it was riddled with errors. Considering he had an editor and proofreaders (who apparently had no feel for the material) it was shockingly bad. Those people basically took money for nothing but Feinstein presumably had the final word. Everyone involved blew it. We hope this one is better.

This is interesting: Notre Dame got a commitment from Tony Sanders, a 6-7 wing out of Miami’s Gulliver Prep, who announced Friday despite never having visited the school. He committed via Zoom.

At first we thought, wow, that’s ballsy, then we realized that of course no one can visit right now due to the pandemic. We might see a lot more of that.

Of course if the proposed transfer legislation goes through, it’ll be much less of a risk.

Alumni note: Former Duke point guard Steve Wojciechowski has hired former State point guard Justin Gainey as an assistant coach.

Etymological note: apparently Wojciechowski means, more or less, Joy in Battle. Go figure.

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