ACC's Top-25: No. 3, Nolan Smith, Duke

Last year, during Duke’s national championship run, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler received most of the attention as well as first team All-ACC honors. Let’s be clear, though, the Blue Devils don’t even come close to winning the national championship without Nolan Smith.

While Singler and Scheyer had brilliant moments, both had stretches during the season where they struggled. Smith had no such problem.

Nolan Smith was good from smart to finish, something even die-hard Blue Devil fans had to be surprised by last year.

Prior to 2009-10, Smith seemed like a man without a position. He rotated from shooting guard to point guard and back to shooting guard. While he had his moments, he never really looked comfortable in either guard spot. Hell, if it wasn’t for Elliot Williams transferring to Memphis, Smith probably would be coming off the bench again.

Yet, Smith was determined to erase those growing pains and he came out firing last year. After missing the first two games due to an eligibility issue, Nolan scored 44 points in his first two games, taking a team-high 27 shots (hitting 15 of them).

Those two games set the tone.

While Smith was clearly Duke’s most athletic player last year, few would marvel at Smith’s athleticism. However, maybe because he’s the son of a former NBA player, the kid is simply a basketball player.

He moves without the ball better than anyone in the ACC, which means he’s always a step ahead of his defender.  He also has a wicked quick catch and release and never brings the ball down to his hips when he takes a jumper. Yet, two things turned Smith into the ACC’s fifth leading score.

Prior to last year, Smith was decent three-point shooter, hitting roughly 36 percent, but it certainly wasn’t his favorite shot. He only took it 35 percent of the time (a bit low for a shooting guard). Yet as a junior, Smith discovered his stroke and confidence. He threw up 153 threes (more than double the threes he took in his career), hitting a solid 39 percent.

Secondly, and most importantly, Smith developed the conference’s most deadly mid-range shot. To me, it’s the most important and underused shot in college basketball.

With defenders respecting his downtown stroke, Smith was able to sneak into the lane and put up either a solid 15-foot jumper or the prettiest runner that always floated just over the opposing big man.

This is why Smith shot an amazing 44 percent from the floor, eighth-best in the ACC, the second-best for a guard (behind only Virginia’s Sylven Landesberg)...

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