It's that time of year again where you all are just coming down from the high of that last great sporting event of the mid-year, the Hot Dog Eating contest where Joey Chesnut won his 10th title and the sports world has come to a lull (OK, so some of you reached that point a month ago.) I decided to bring back my annual ACC picks and discussion since some of you seemed to enjoy this last year. Although I've been writing these for years, this and last year's are exclusive to CavsCorner (oh, lucky you! 
) If you take nothing else from this, I hope you find it a great resource as I've researched the statistical information in the fashion that pre-season basketball magazines do. If you find any statistical errors, please point them out and I will edit them. Last year, I outperformed all the preseason mags despite the fact that these have been done before the unbalanced ACC schedule is released and late-summer additions to teams are finished.
There will be four parts to this write-up. The first part covers the bottom four teams. Enjoy!
#15 Pittsburgh (last season 13th place, 4-14 conference, 16-17 overall)
Panther fans won’t need a Farmers’ Almanac to know that this coming winter is going to be a long one in Pittsburgh. Prophetic were the words of CavsCorner’s own Brad Franklin who, about 4 months ago, wrote that Pitt coach Kevin Stallings sounded like a man who really disliked his team following a regular season-ending thrashing by Virginia. A couple of months later, 9 players from Pitt’s season-opening roster were gone: 3 who used up their eligibility, 5 who transferred, and one who was kicked off the team. So while Stallings won’t have much left of what he inherited last year to dislike, he’ll face a challenging season ahead with over 91% of his points, assists, and rebounding gone. Only one returning player, 6’9” F Ryan Luther, saw any significant minutes last year and he is the leading returning scorer at 5.7 ppg. Additionally, Stallings has struck out to this date in the transfer market and lost one of his top high school commitments who changed his mind. His incoming class of 4 freshmen only contains one Rivals Top 150 player in PG Marcus Carr, who will be counted on right away to play big minutes.
These are sad times at The Zoo. Only time will tell if Stallings can bring in his type of player to have PItt once again competing in the ACC.
Players Lost: (9 scholarship) Jamal Artis, F (18.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg), Michael Young, F (19.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg), Cameron Johnson, G (11.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg), Sheldon Jeter, F (8.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Chris Jones, G (7.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg), Crissan Clark, G Damon Wilson, G, Justice Kithcart, G, Corey Manigault, F.
Players Returning: (4 scholarship) Ryan Luther, 6’9” F (21 games, 19.3 min pg, 5.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg), Roselle Nix 6’11” C (20 games, 6.3 min. pg, 1.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg), Jonathan Milligan, 6’2” G (27 games, 8.4 min. pg, 2.2 ppg), Zach Smith 6’3” G (walk-on awarded scholarship), (8 games, 1.9 min. pg), Ryan Seeleye, 6’6” F walk-on (2.2 min. pg.)
Newcomers: Marcus Carr, PG (Rivals #102), Terrell Brown, C, Peace Ilegomah, C, Shamiel Stevenson, SF.
#14 Boston College (last season 15th place, 2-16 conference, 9-23 overall)
Boston College returns its top two scorers, but most of its talent is not ACC-caliber and therein lies coach Jim Christian’s problem. Christian’s teams have a 3-year conference record of 6 -48 in his time at the helm of B.C. He loses 5 players from last year’s team, one senior, three graduate transfers, and one underclassman that transferred, and all 5 saw significant minutes for the Eagles. To date, though, Christian has only been able to bring in one recruit for the 2017-8 season, unheralded center “They call me”Luka Kraljevic.
The strength of the Eagles will be in the backcourt where Christian has dipped into the talent-rich state of North Carolina to bring in 3 guards that have demonstrated that they can compete in the ACC. Rising sophomore Kyrie Bowman is coming off a stellar freshman season where he averaged 14.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg to compliment rising junior guard Jerome Robinson’s team-leading 18.7 ppg and 3.4 apg. The 3rd North Carolinian is rising sophomore Ty Graves who only played 11 games but played 18.8 minutes per game and averaged 4.8 ppg. Only one other returning player has seen any significant minutes: 6’11” rising sophomore forward Nik Popovic.
B.C. has a new athletic director, Martin Jarmond, the youngest AD of any power 5 conference school at age 39. A former deputy director of athletics at Ohio State, it will be interesting to see how much patience Jarmond has with Christian’s inability to recruit players capable of competing in the ACC. This season’s prospects are not much better than the past 3 years, and, if it wasn’t for the woes that Pittsburgh is facing, B.C. would most certainly be facing another finish in the cellar.
Players Lost: Jordan Chatman, G (8.6 ppg); A. J. Turner, F (transferred, 8.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 apg); Connor Tava, F (5.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg); Mo Jeffers, F (5.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg); Garland Owens, F.
Players Returning: Jerome Robinson, G (18.7 ppg, 3.4 apg); Kyrie Bowman, G (14.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg); Nik Popovic, F (6.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Ty Graves, G (4.8 ppg); Mike Sagay, F; Johncarlos Reyes, F/C; Ervins Meznieks, F.
Newcomers: Luka Kraljevic, Center.
#13 N. C. State (last season 14th place, 4 – 14 conference, 15 – 17 overall)
Wolfpack athletic director Debbie Yow struck out in her attempt to make a big splash shortly after being hired by N. C. State by hiring former Alabama coach and ESPN analyst Mark Gottfried. After firing Gottfried before last season ended, Yow may have gotten it right this time by hiring former Hargrave Military Academy (VA) head coach, Rick Pitino assistant, and UNC-Wilmington head coach Kevin Keatts. The new coach had success in his previous stops but has his work cut out for him if he hopes to turn around the Wolfpack’s fortunes anytime soon. It’s not that N.C. State lacks talented players, but Gottfried seemed to recruit players with no rhyme or reason as to how those players would fit together into any particular scheme. N.C. State returns only 39% of its scoring (only 18% of its 3 point FG made) and must start the year with a new point guard after lottery-pick Dennis Smith left early for the NBA.
Keatts will have to figure out which players can play his up-tempo style on both sides of the ball. Some of the best candidates include rising sophomore guard Markell Johnson, junior guard Torin Dorn, and two grad transfers, former Baylor guard Al Freeman and NC A&T leading scorer, Sam Hunt. The Pack have a trio of bigs in F Abdul-Malik Abu, F Ted Kapita, and center Omer Yurtseven that occasionally show flashes of talent, but whether they can play Keatts style remains to be seen. Keatts is a promising hire for N. C. State but he won’t be able to turn this program around over night and will need time to bring in players that fit his schemes on both sides of the ball.
Players Lost: Dennis Smith, Jr., PG (18.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 6.2 apg, 1.9 spg); Terry Henderson, G (13.8 ppg); Maverick Rowan, F (12.0 ppg); BeeJay Anya, F.
Players Returning: Abdul-Malik Abu, F (11.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg); Torin Dorn, G (9.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg); Omer Yurtseven, C (5.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg); Ted Kapita, F (4.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg); Markell Johnson, G (4.0 ppg, 2.3 apg); Darius Hicks, F.
Newcomers: Lavar Batts, G (Rivals # 101); Al Freeman, Grad transfer from Baylor; Sam Hunt, grad transfer from North Carolina A&T (12.7 ppg.)
#12 Clemson (last season 12th place, 6 – 12 conference, 17 – 16 overall)
As long as Clemson keeps winning on the football field, its fans will probably tolerate the fact that Brad Brownell has not had much success in his seven seasons as Tiger basketball coach. Brownell has been given a vote of confidence by Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich for an 8th season, but if he hopes to finish out the remaining 3 years on his contract, he will likely need to turn around the Tigers fortunes on the hardwood soon. With South Carolina making the final four last season, Tiger fans might tire of their in-state rival’s bragging about their basketball superiority.
Brownell has done a good job of getting his teams to play tough defense but, like some of the other ACC’s coaches that have not broken into the upper echelon of the conference, he has been unable to attract enough talent to the South Carolina campus to get the Tigers into the top half of the league. Offense has been a problem at Clemson and they lose their top scorer from the last couple of seasons, Jaron Blossomgame. They do return experienced players, led by a backcourt trio of guards Shelton Mitchell who will be coming off of knee surgery, Marcquise Reed, and Gabe Devoe. Forwards Elijah Thomas and Donte Grantham return as well to give the Tigers a solid core of experienced players. The Tigers welcome a nice class of newcomers, led by Blue Ridge (Virginia) power forward Aamir Simms (Rivals # 91), former UVA players Anthony Oliver and Audra Smith’s son, guard A.J. Oliver, and a pair of graduate transfers in U. of Michigan forward Mark Donnal and Valparaiso forward David Skara. If Brownell can find some consistent scoring in this bunch, the Tigers could be ready to move up in the standings and make some noise about an NCAA tournament run. But that would require someone like Donte Grantham realizing his potential and breaking out like Ben Lammers did with Georgia Tech last season.
Players Lost: Jaron Blossomgame, F (17.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg); Avery Holmes, G (10.3 ppg); Ty Hudson, G (transfer); Sidy Djitte, C (6.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg).
Players returning: Shelton Mitchell, G (10.8 ppg, 3.6 apg); Marcquise Reed, G (10.0 ppg); Elijah Thomas, F (7.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg); Donte Grantham, F (7.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg); Gave Devoe, G (7.1 ppg, 1.9 apg); Legend Robertin, C.
Newcomers: A. J. Oliver, SG; Malik Williams, PF; Aamir Simms, PF; Clyde Trapp, Jr.,
G; Mark Donnal, F, grad transfer from Michigan; David Skara, F, grad transfer from
Valparaiso.
) If you take nothing else from this, I hope you find it a great resource as I've researched the statistical information in the fashion that pre-season basketball magazines do. If you find any statistical errors, please point them out and I will edit them. Last year, I outperformed all the preseason mags despite the fact that these have been done before the unbalanced ACC schedule is released and late-summer additions to teams are finished.There will be four parts to this write-up. The first part covers the bottom four teams. Enjoy!
#15 Pittsburgh (last season 13th place, 4-14 conference, 16-17 overall)
Panther fans won’t need a Farmers’ Almanac to know that this coming winter is going to be a long one in Pittsburgh. Prophetic were the words of CavsCorner’s own Brad Franklin who, about 4 months ago, wrote that Pitt coach Kevin Stallings sounded like a man who really disliked his team following a regular season-ending thrashing by Virginia. A couple of months later, 9 players from Pitt’s season-opening roster were gone: 3 who used up their eligibility, 5 who transferred, and one who was kicked off the team. So while Stallings won’t have much left of what he inherited last year to dislike, he’ll face a challenging season ahead with over 91% of his points, assists, and rebounding gone. Only one returning player, 6’9” F Ryan Luther, saw any significant minutes last year and he is the leading returning scorer at 5.7 ppg. Additionally, Stallings has struck out to this date in the transfer market and lost one of his top high school commitments who changed his mind. His incoming class of 4 freshmen only contains one Rivals Top 150 player in PG Marcus Carr, who will be counted on right away to play big minutes.
These are sad times at The Zoo. Only time will tell if Stallings can bring in his type of player to have PItt once again competing in the ACC.
Players Lost: (9 scholarship) Jamal Artis, F (18.2 ppg, 4.9 rpg), Michael Young, F (19.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg), Cameron Johnson, G (11.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg), Sheldon Jeter, F (8.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg), Chris Jones, G (7.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg), Crissan Clark, G Damon Wilson, G, Justice Kithcart, G, Corey Manigault, F.
Players Returning: (4 scholarship) Ryan Luther, 6’9” F (21 games, 19.3 min pg, 5.7 ppg, 3.9 rpg), Roselle Nix 6’11” C (20 games, 6.3 min. pg, 1.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg), Jonathan Milligan, 6’2” G (27 games, 8.4 min. pg, 2.2 ppg), Zach Smith 6’3” G (walk-on awarded scholarship), (8 games, 1.9 min. pg), Ryan Seeleye, 6’6” F walk-on (2.2 min. pg.)
Newcomers: Marcus Carr, PG (Rivals #102), Terrell Brown, C, Peace Ilegomah, C, Shamiel Stevenson, SF.
#14 Boston College (last season 15th place, 2-16 conference, 9-23 overall)
Boston College returns its top two scorers, but most of its talent is not ACC-caliber and therein lies coach Jim Christian’s problem. Christian’s teams have a 3-year conference record of 6 -48 in his time at the helm of B.C. He loses 5 players from last year’s team, one senior, three graduate transfers, and one underclassman that transferred, and all 5 saw significant minutes for the Eagles. To date, though, Christian has only been able to bring in one recruit for the 2017-8 season, unheralded center “They call me”Luka Kraljevic.
The strength of the Eagles will be in the backcourt where Christian has dipped into the talent-rich state of North Carolina to bring in 3 guards that have demonstrated that they can compete in the ACC. Rising sophomore Kyrie Bowman is coming off a stellar freshman season where he averaged 14.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg to compliment rising junior guard Jerome Robinson’s team-leading 18.7 ppg and 3.4 apg. The 3rd North Carolinian is rising sophomore Ty Graves who only played 11 games but played 18.8 minutes per game and averaged 4.8 ppg. Only one other returning player has seen any significant minutes: 6’11” rising sophomore forward Nik Popovic.
B.C. has a new athletic director, Martin Jarmond, the youngest AD of any power 5 conference school at age 39. A former deputy director of athletics at Ohio State, it will be interesting to see how much patience Jarmond has with Christian’s inability to recruit players capable of competing in the ACC. This season’s prospects are not much better than the past 3 years, and, if it wasn’t for the woes that Pittsburgh is facing, B.C. would most certainly be facing another finish in the cellar.
Players Lost: Jordan Chatman, G (8.6 ppg); A. J. Turner, F (transferred, 8.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.0 apg); Connor Tava, F (5.9 ppg, 5.4 rpg); Mo Jeffers, F (5.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg); Garland Owens, F.
Players Returning: Jerome Robinson, G (18.7 ppg, 3.4 apg); Kyrie Bowman, G (14.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg); Nik Popovic, F (6.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg); Ty Graves, G (4.8 ppg); Mike Sagay, F; Johncarlos Reyes, F/C; Ervins Meznieks, F.
Newcomers: Luka Kraljevic, Center.
#13 N. C. State (last season 14th place, 4 – 14 conference, 15 – 17 overall)
Wolfpack athletic director Debbie Yow struck out in her attempt to make a big splash shortly after being hired by N. C. State by hiring former Alabama coach and ESPN analyst Mark Gottfried. After firing Gottfried before last season ended, Yow may have gotten it right this time by hiring former Hargrave Military Academy (VA) head coach, Rick Pitino assistant, and UNC-Wilmington head coach Kevin Keatts. The new coach had success in his previous stops but has his work cut out for him if he hopes to turn around the Wolfpack’s fortunes anytime soon. It’s not that N.C. State lacks talented players, but Gottfried seemed to recruit players with no rhyme or reason as to how those players would fit together into any particular scheme. N.C. State returns only 39% of its scoring (only 18% of its 3 point FG made) and must start the year with a new point guard after lottery-pick Dennis Smith left early for the NBA.
Keatts will have to figure out which players can play his up-tempo style on both sides of the ball. Some of the best candidates include rising sophomore guard Markell Johnson, junior guard Torin Dorn, and two grad transfers, former Baylor guard Al Freeman and NC A&T leading scorer, Sam Hunt. The Pack have a trio of bigs in F Abdul-Malik Abu, F Ted Kapita, and center Omer Yurtseven that occasionally show flashes of talent, but whether they can play Keatts style remains to be seen. Keatts is a promising hire for N. C. State but he won’t be able to turn this program around over night and will need time to bring in players that fit his schemes on both sides of the ball.
Players Lost: Dennis Smith, Jr., PG (18.1 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 6.2 apg, 1.9 spg); Terry Henderson, G (13.8 ppg); Maverick Rowan, F (12.0 ppg); BeeJay Anya, F.
Players Returning: Abdul-Malik Abu, F (11.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg); Torin Dorn, G (9.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg); Omer Yurtseven, C (5.9 ppg, 4.4 rpg); Ted Kapita, F (4.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg); Markell Johnson, G (4.0 ppg, 2.3 apg); Darius Hicks, F.
Newcomers: Lavar Batts, G (Rivals # 101); Al Freeman, Grad transfer from Baylor; Sam Hunt, grad transfer from North Carolina A&T (12.7 ppg.)
#12 Clemson (last season 12th place, 6 – 12 conference, 17 – 16 overall)
As long as Clemson keeps winning on the football field, its fans will probably tolerate the fact that Brad Brownell has not had much success in his seven seasons as Tiger basketball coach. Brownell has been given a vote of confidence by Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich for an 8th season, but if he hopes to finish out the remaining 3 years on his contract, he will likely need to turn around the Tigers fortunes on the hardwood soon. With South Carolina making the final four last season, Tiger fans might tire of their in-state rival’s bragging about their basketball superiority.
Brownell has done a good job of getting his teams to play tough defense but, like some of the other ACC’s coaches that have not broken into the upper echelon of the conference, he has been unable to attract enough talent to the South Carolina campus to get the Tigers into the top half of the league. Offense has been a problem at Clemson and they lose their top scorer from the last couple of seasons, Jaron Blossomgame. They do return experienced players, led by a backcourt trio of guards Shelton Mitchell who will be coming off of knee surgery, Marcquise Reed, and Gabe Devoe. Forwards Elijah Thomas and Donte Grantham return as well to give the Tigers a solid core of experienced players. The Tigers welcome a nice class of newcomers, led by Blue Ridge (Virginia) power forward Aamir Simms (Rivals # 91), former UVA players Anthony Oliver and Audra Smith’s son, guard A.J. Oliver, and a pair of graduate transfers in U. of Michigan forward Mark Donnal and Valparaiso forward David Skara. If Brownell can find some consistent scoring in this bunch, the Tigers could be ready to move up in the standings and make some noise about an NCAA tournament run. But that would require someone like Donte Grantham realizing his potential and breaking out like Ben Lammers did with Georgia Tech last season.
Players Lost: Jaron Blossomgame, F (17.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg); Avery Holmes, G (10.3 ppg); Ty Hudson, G (transfer); Sidy Djitte, C (6.5 ppg, 7.7 rpg).
Players returning: Shelton Mitchell, G (10.8 ppg, 3.6 apg); Marcquise Reed, G (10.0 ppg); Elijah Thomas, F (7.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg); Donte Grantham, F (7.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg); Gave Devoe, G (7.1 ppg, 1.9 apg); Legend Robertin, C.
Newcomers: A. J. Oliver, SG; Malik Williams, PF; Aamir Simms, PF; Clyde Trapp, Jr.,
G; Mark Donnal, F, grad transfer from Michigan; David Skara, F, grad transfer from
Valparaiso.
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