ACC Roll Call: Duke, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech

Granted, it's only November.

It's much too early to start making postseason projections, crowning conference champions, or filling out brackets.

Nevertheless, we've been able to watch enough games to, at the very least, form an idea of what some of the top ACC teams have to offer.

The conference is wide open this season, with several teams sound enough to make a run for the regular season and tournament championship.  It wouldn't shock anyone to see teams like Clemson, Maryland, and Florida State at the top of the conference come March, a spot generally reserved for Duke and North Carolina.

But while the Terrapins, Tigers, and Seminoles will make headlines as the season progresses, it was the Blue Devils, Tar Heels, and Yellow Jackets getting all the attention in the weeks leading up to the start of the season.

The Blue Devils lost Gerald Henderson to the NBA and Elliot Williams to Memphis, but with preseason ACC Player of the Year Kyle Singler surrounded by a solid supporting cast, which features some much improved height, Duke looks poised to successfully defend their ACC championship.

The defending national champion Tar Heels lost just about everybody after last season, but they held onto Ed Davis and Marcus Ginyard (due to a medical redshirt).  Roy Williams brought in a highly-touted recruiting class, and fans and analysts alike have been talking about the Tar Heels as Final Four contenders once again.

Georgia Tech only won two games in the ACC last year, but they brought in one of the best recruits in the nation with Derrick Favors and returned Gani Lawal and Iman Shumpert.  With a talent-laden starting lineup, many believe this team is ready to make a serious run in the ACC this season.

Each team has now played at least four official games.

What have we learned so far?

Duke—Finding the Missing Pieces

The Blue Devils started the season strong with four convincing wins, but with first-round exits in two of the last three NCAA tournaments, it's easy to see why many are skeptical of Duke's legitimacy.

The Blue Devils are a team that has been missing key pieces needed to be Final Four contenders in recent seasons, specifically at the point guard spot and in the paint.

This season could be the first year the Blue Devils have all of the pieces to the puzzle.

While they are still a year away from bringing in an elite, true point guard in Kyrie Irving, Jon Scheyer is doing a remarkable job leading the Blue Devils' offense so far.  He's averaging 16.5 points, 5.3 assists, and he has yet to commit a single turnover in four games, despite averaging 32.8 minutes per game.

The maturation of Miles Plumlee has made a huge difference for Duke's post game thus far.

He's averaging a near double-double with 9.3 rebounds and 11.8 points per game so far this season, which is more than he, Lance Thomas, and Brian Zoubek combined to average last year.

When Mason Plumlee, the more offensively gifted of the two, gets healthy, the Blue Devils will have multiple offensive options in the paint for the first time since Shelden Williams and Josh McRoberts played together in 2005-06.

Singler is living up to his ACC Player of the Year hype so far, averaging 18.3 points and 6.5 rebounds.

But despite solid play from several players, including freshmen Andre Dawkins and Ryan Kelly, Nolan Smith has been the icing on the cake for Duke.  He's averaging 22 points per game and the Blue Devils per game scoring average has gone from 85 to 102.5 since he joined the lineup (he had to sit out the first two games for playing in an unsanctioned summer league).

Question marks still remain for the Blue Devils, specifically athleticism and the wear and tear of the minutes required by their thin backcourt.  They certainly need a healthy Mason Plumlee to have the frontcourt depth needed to hold their own in the ACC.

But if they maintain their current level of play, it's hard to pick another team finishing on top of the ACC this season.

North Carolina—Unrealistic Expectations

After five games, the Tar Heels are 4-1 with victories against Florida International, North Carolina Central, Valparaiso, and Ohio State.

Their only loss came against No. 24 Syracuse in the finals of the 2K Sports Coaches vs. Cancer Tournament, but it was a convincing loss.

Ranking the Tar Heels at No. 4 in the nation when only a few of their players have ever been a significant part of a college team seemed suspect a few weeks ago, and those suspicions look to be valid after their loss to Syracuse.

It's not that this young North Carolina team isn't living up to expectations, it's that the expectations were unrealistic.  They are a good team, but at this point in the season, they are not No. 4 in the nation good.

Defensively, this Tar Heel team will cause a lot of problems for opponents.  

In their victory over No. 15 Ohio State, they held the Buckeyes to under 30 percent from beyond the arc and well under 50 percent from the field.  With their size and length, this could be one of the best defensive teams UNC has had in a while.

The offense is a different story though.  

North Carolina doesn't have the shooters they had in Wayne Ellington and Danny Green, though Ginyard has shot very well so far, and it remains to be seen if they have a player capable of creating his own shot.

To put things in perspective, North Carolina is averaging 82.6 points per game after five games this season; they averaged 92 points per game in their first five games last season, four of which were played with Tyler Hansbrough.

While Ginyard, Davis, and Deon Thompson have played well, combining for 39.8 points per game, no one has shown the ability to take over a game the way that Hansbrough, Ellington, or Ty Lawson have done in recent years.

Many were expecting the Tar Heels highly-touted recruiting class (ranked No. 1 in the nation according to many scouting services) to have an immediate impact in terms of replacing the scoring output left by Hansbrough and company.  So far, North Carolina's freshmen haven't stepped up.

John Henson and Dexter Strickland, the two highest ranked and most talked about recruits in North Carolina's class, are combining for just 5.6 points per game.

Larry Drew II has been better than most anticipated at the point, but turnovers have still been a big problem for North Carolina.  In their transition from the Ty Lawson era of Tar Heels basketball, North Carolina is averaging close 19.4 turnovers per game.

It's hard to predict how good this team will be by the end of the season.

They will certainly develop and get better throughout the season, but they have a ways to go before people should start talking about their return to the Final Four.

Georgia Tech—A Tale of Two Teams

Currently 3-1 with a loss to Dayton, The Yellow Jackets are, as always, somewhat of an enigma.

They only won two conference games last year, but they took it to Clemson in the ACC tournament and nearly beat Florida State the next day.

With Favors joining Shumpert and Lawal in the starting lineup, and with a true point guard in Mfon Udofia, there has been a lot of talk about this being the year the Yellow Jackets finally put it together and hold their own at the top of the ACC, hence their Top 25 ranking to begin the season.

Favors certainly appears to be the real deal, but he hasn't dominated the way most expected him to.  He's currently averaging 13 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

Shumpert and Lawal are also averaging double figures in scoring, at 10.3 and 15 points per game respectively (Lawal is also averaging 11.8 rebounds).

Those stats are nothing to criticize, but Georgia Tech will need a few players capable of scoring near 20 points per game if they are going to compete with the top teams in the ACC.

Consistency will be the key for Georgia Tech if they hope to contend for the ACC title, but it could also be the thorn in their side.

In their opening win against Florida A&M, four players scored in double figures for the Yellow Jackets.  But in their loss to No. 21 Dayton the following week, only Favors and reserve Daniel Miller managed double figures in scoring, and just barely with 10 points apiece.

Against Boston University, Geogia Tech got 32 points from their bench (led by a team-high 22 point performance from Zachery Peacock), but in their previous win against George Mason, the bench only managed six points.

Shumpert, one of the Yellow Jackets three stars, has also struggled with consistency.

In his first game of the season, Shumpert scored a game-high 18 points.  He managed only half that in the next game.  Against George Mason, Shumpert scored 12 points, but followed that performance with a two-point outing against Boston University.

Simply put, Georgia Tech isn't good enough to win in the ACC if any of their big three disappear.

This Georgia Tech team will win more than two games in the ACC this season, but it is premature to put them in the upper echelon of the conference until someone shows that they can be an All-ACC caliber player.