ACC Basketball: Not Ready for Primetime
What a brutal start for the Atlantic Coast Conference. Two weeks in and, as it stands now, only two teams remain unbeaten. Both Duke and Florida State have tasted only victory, but neither has been challenged; instead, both started the season with some cupcakes.
Four teams in the conference have not only dropped one game, but a second game as well. At this pace, I’m not sure the ACC could win a ACC/Mountain West tournament, let along a ACC/Big-10 tournament.
ACC POWER RANKINGS
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No. 1 DUKE
Not only do the Blue Devils have the best guard combo in the nation (my personal opinion), but Duke's two backup guards, Andre Dawkins and Seth Curry, would be better than most back courts.
Coming off the bench, the duo is averaging 26 points a game. Dawkins is hitting 50 percent from the floor, both are hitting 50 percent from three and Curry actually leads the team in free throw attempts with 18. Good thing too, since he’s hit 17 of those 18 free throws.
No. 2 FLORIDA STATE
The Seminoles are the only other team besides Duke to survive the season’s first pair of weeks. Of course, like Duke, they have only munched on cupcakes so far. Unlike the Blue Devils though, two of their four wins came on the road.
Prior to the season, there was a ton of talk about Chris Singleton taking the step up from defensive stud to all-everything star. Personally, I was unsure he could elevate his offensive game to be stud-like. Four games in, I’m wrong. In fact, Singleton looks like an All-American.
He produced a triple double on the road against UNC-Greensboro (22 points, 10 rebounds and a stunning 10 steals). Against Gardner Webb, he hit 10 of 11 shots. He’s produced three double-doubles.
Of course we’ll learn what we need to know about Florida State and Chris Singleton when they face back-to-back top-10 teams (No. 10 Florida, No. 5 Ohio State) starting next Sunday.
No. 3 VIRGINIA TECH
The Hokies really have only lost a half of a basketball and Malcolm Delaney is already in 2009 form, scoring lots of points and living at the free throw line. He’s averaging 21 ppg and he’s second in the ACC in free throw attempts (20).
However, as a team the Hokies have only shot 38 percent, they are last in assists and are averaging 16 turnovers a game. Worse yet, there isn’t much diversity in their offense. Delaney and Dorenzo Hudson have taken 47 of Tech’s 109 shots. That’s fine against UNC Greensboro, but that will cause problems down the road.
No. 4 NORTH CAROLINA STATE
The loss of Tracy Smith is a huge blow and it shouldn’t be underestimated. Still, the Wolfpack managed to pull off two wins without their inside leader, before falling in the second half to an experienced Georgetown team.
So far, senior Javier Gonzalez has been starting at the point for Coach Lowe, but the speedy freshman, Ryan Harrow, actually gets more minutes. The reality is, that it is only a matter of time before he officially becomes the starter. He’s State’s top scorer (13.7 ppg) and he has 17 assists to six turnovers.
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