Started a very busy week on Tuesday night up in Durham and watched the Blue Devils unleash a very impressive long range barage against The Beach of Long Beach St. Duke connected on 15-26 threes and admitted they missed a few more that were open looks. Duke has four players in their rotation- Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Andre Dawkins – that can shoot 40% or higher from beyond the arc. That puts huge pressure on opponent’s defenses and gives their bigs plenty of room to operate inside. Brian Zoubek had one of his better games as a Blue Devil with 10 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks off the bench. He looks ready to contribute when ACC play starts.With a stingy defense, Duke is playing the best basketball of anyone in the conference at this point. I can’t wait to call the Duke/Clemson game at Cameron on Sunday.

New Year’s eve will find me in Greensboro for the UNC-G/ NC St. game. The Coliseum was my 2nd favorite venue to play in during my college days. I look forward to reliving some of those memories. It is the 50th anniversary of the Coliseum this year and the first that UNC-G will play it’s home games there.The Spartans will play against 6 ACC teams in their non-conference schedule. ( It is just a rumor that they will be given an invitation to the ACC tournament in March!) Ben Stywall is their best player and he is coming off a double/double performance against Wake. State rebounded from a heartbreaking loss at Arizona to beat Winthrop this week and are looking to keep some momentum going into a tough home game against the Florida Gators on Sunday.

The weekend starts for me in Halton Arena here in Charlotte when Georgia Tech visits the 49ers. I’m looking forward to watching Derrick Favors and Mfon Udofia, two of the most impressive rookies in the ACC, play for the first time.Tech comes in at 10-2 but have already stumbled in the ACC at home against Florida St. Bobby Lutz has his team playing at a high level with good health being a major factor. Shamari Spears has been terrific after sitting out a transfer year from BC, but he will face a physical frontline from Tech. A big key for the 49ers will be shooting a high percentage from 3!

Then I finish with Clemson coming to Cameron. You know the Tigers will press for 40 minutes. This may be Oliver Purnell’s most athletic team and best defensive squad, but they will be hard pressed to match Duke’s prowess from the 3 point line. It should be a great game.

Last random thought- Here are some EARLY player of the year candidates to watch as ACC play begins- Jon Scheyer of Duke, Malcolm Delaney from Virginia Tech, Al- Farouq Aminu from Wake, Greivis Vasquez from Maryland, Gani Lawal from G. Tech and Tracy Smith from State. Let’s see how they do once conference play starts!

Here’s to a safe and healthy New Year to everyone out there and PLEASE be careful on New Year’s Eve!!

The ACC season starts heating up this Sunday with my two top teams in the ACC right now facing off on Sunday in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

David Tucker over at the Maryland Raycom Blog has been compiling a poll of the ACC blogs for an ACC Basketball Power Poll, and here’s my ballot with semi-insightful commentary.

ACC Power Poll Ballot With Commentary

1. Duke Blue Devils

Duke took the week off before they play two out of conference games and an important ACC home opener with Clemson. With memories fresh of an absolute beatdown at the hands of the Tigers last season, I sense the Blue Devils have this one circled on the calendar for Sunday.

2. Clemson Tigers

Right now, Clemson is beating the stuffing out of any team they play. Huge victory margins mark all their victories post-Illinois loss this week as they drilled a solid Western Carolina squad 79-57. Their road trip to Durham this week could be a defining game for their season.

3. Florida State Seminoles

The Noles defeated Tennessee-Martin 95-68 last week coming off the big ACC road win at Georgia Tech. A number of players are stepping up for FSU early on this season and they need it as the ACC season is not too far away.

4. North Carolina Tar Heels

Heels still taking care of business when not playing top 5 teams in the nation. UNC has a couple of fluff games before the ACC season with taking on Virginia Tech at home and Clemson on the road in a couple weeks.

5. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Wake followed up their ACC win with beating the team everybody in the ACC seems to be playing in UNC-Greensboro and by 15. Two interesting out of conference games this week with Richmond on New Year’s Eve and Xavier on Sunday in 2010. They start out on the road in the ACC after a little bit of layoff at Miami next week.

6. Virginia Tech Hokies

The 10-1 Hokies have an early ACC-Big East challenge of a game versus the Seton Hall Pirates at home who are 9-2 and nearly averaging 90 points a game. Hokies get 8 days to prepare for the road trip to Chapel Hill for the ACC opener with UNC.

7. Miami Hurricanes

Much like most of their early schedule, Miami played no one this week(really, no games at all). They have an interesting road game out West at Pepperdine on Sunday.

8. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

The Jackets recovered from the ACC loss to pound Kennesaw State 80-55. Jackets have two big road games at Charlotte and Georgia before another home ACC game with Duke.

9. Maryland Terrapins

The Terps cruised as expected through the Winston Salem State and Florida Atlantic games before this week’s game with William & Mary Wednesday. Maryland also plays UNC-Greensboro this week before taking a week off before opening the ACC season with Florida State at home.

10. Boston College Eagles

The Eagles got the best win of the week taking down UMass at home 79-67. They also play the hardest out of conference game of the week on Wednesday at home vs. South Carolina.

11. NC State Wolfpack

I stayed up late to watch the Wolfpack take on the Wildcats out in Arizona and the Pack impressed me with how they played down a man to suspension. The 76-74 road loss to a storied program might be a starting point to a strong ACC run in January(though Arizona losing by 30 to BYU subsequently takes a little luster off of it).

12. Virginia Cavaliers

The Cavaliers beat something called “N.J.I.T.” 68-37 and Hampton 80-54 in the prior week and are now 6-4 on the season. They have a huge home game with UAB coming up tomorrow as the Blazers are 11-1 on the young season. UAB has won 10 straight including wins over Butler and Cincinatti after their only loss to Kentucky.

Where do you see the ACC right now? ACC season really gets kicked off this Sunday and it should be a great one!

No, I’m not a former ACC Player of the Year or among the 50 best ACC players ever (though I was a beast in church league basketball), but here’s how I see the ACC in rankings this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/other week.

David Tucker over at the Maryland Raycom Blog has been compiling a poll of the ACC blogs for an ACC Basketball Power Poll, and here’s my ballot with semi-insightful commentary.

ACC Power Poll Ballot With Commentary

1. Duke Blue Devils

Jon Scheyer is ridiculous right now. Averaging 18 points and almost 6 assists a game, he and Nolan Smith are lighting it up for the Devils who smoked Gardner Webb and Gonzaga at MSG this week. The ACC opener comes in a couple weeks at the start of January, but yeah, they are ready.

2. Clemson Tigers

The Tigers feasted on and dominated some cupcakes in their last couple games, but they were most impressive in the 94-55 win over College of Charleston. Coach Purnell debuted a different look with senior David Potter back in his sixth man role he has had for several years at Clemson and freshman Noel Johnson in the starting lineup. Needless to say, it worked and it will be interesting to see how Purnell balances all that quality depth going into their road ACC opener on January 3rd versus the Blue Devils.

3. Florida State Seminoles

And the most impressive conference win is on the board as the Noles took care of business on the road at Georgia Tech. It was a sloppy game with both teams barely cracking the 30 point mark with 12 minutes to go in the second half, but Florida State was able to frustrate the Jackets’ big men enough to cause turnovers and the ‘Noles were able to get just enough on the board to get the win. Forward Ryan Reid breaking out with 17 points in the game is a very positive sign with center Solomon Alabi already having a solid season thus far.

4. North Carolina Tar Heels

Now, the losses are #2 Texas, #3 Kentucky, and #5 Syracuse. UNC playing a tough schedule, eh? What’s funny in the 103-90 loss to Texas at Dallas Cowboys Stadium Saturday was that the Heels had the same amount of 2 and 3 point field goals made as Texas, but were minus 13 in free throws made. Good news out of that is that particular situation will not happen much in ACC play.

5. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

The Demon Deacons won the second of the ACC doubleheader Sunday night with a 67-59 win over the Wolfpack. Aminu’s 18 points/13 rebounds were key in the comfortable victory against the in-state ‘Pack.

6. Virginia Tech Hokies

Hokies fell a couple spots on my ballot because of ACC wins by FSU and Wake Forest–no fault of their own. They and a select group of fans braved the wintry conditions to pummel Charleston Southern 70-53 at Cassell this past weekend.

7. Miami Hurricanes

Miami cruising along with just a little less challenging schedule than UNC.

8. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Was bearish on the Jackets’ preseason for a distrust of the coaching staff’s handling of talent in recent years and a frustrated Georgia Tech fanbase voiced their displeasure to me on Twitter about the overtime loss at home to Florida State. Coach Hewitt does not have much room for error among the faithful, but still 15 more ACC games to go.

9. Maryland Terrapins

No games in a while since the Eastern Kentucky win where Vasquez did not start for disciplinary reasons. This next week should be a breeze for the Terps, but that game next week versus the pesky William and Mary Tribe looms on the 30th.

10. Boston College Eagles

It was not their win over the Bryant University Bulldogs that moved them up a spot, but rather that they are 1-0 in the ACC still and did not feel like NC State deserved to be ahead of them at 0-1 in ACC play.

11. NC State Wolfpack

If it is most any other team, the point guard leading scoring is a good thing, but NC State needs guys like Tracy Smith to be leading the team in that area for wins.  Wake Forest was a tough opener and matchup for the Wolfpack, but like with Georgia Tech, fans are ancy about the coaching and there cannot be many of these ACC losses on the record before grumbling turns into action.

12. Virginia Cavaliers

Did not play and had a game cancelled in the last week so last week’s analysis still works: “The ‘Hoos sit at .500 overall and have been close in the losses outside of being drilled by South Florida in Tampa.”

Where do you see the ACC right now? Duke has looked strong out of the gates, UNC has played an ultra-tough early schedule, BC-Wake-FSU are all on the board at 1-0 ACC, and the rest are trying to build their out of conference resumes or reeling from losses.

Roy Williams ejecting fans? Who is the best in the ACC? What’s up with BC? ACC basketball has been a wild ride so far…

David Tucker over at the Maryland Raycom Blog has been compiling a poll of the ACC blogs for an ACC Basketball Power Poll and here’s my ballot. My thoughts on the Roy Williams situation and the rest of the ACC is below…

ACC Power Poll Ballot With Commentary

1. Duke Blue Devils

>Duke has been the most impressive team in the ACC this season with the lone road loss to Wisconsin being their only blemish.

2. North Carolina Tar Heels

>North Carolina showed the youth issues against Syracuse and Kentucky, but man, those teams are good.

3. Clemson Tigers

>The Tigers have been inconsistent so far, but have played a gauntlet for an early season schedule with not just opponents–but also the road trips.

4. Virginia Tech Hokies

>The Hokies will live and die with Malcolm Delaney, but they escaped with a huge road win at Penn State this week.

5. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

>Quality losses come into play here also as Purdue and William and Mary have been tough so far this season and the Deacs went to Washington and beat Gonzaga.

6. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

>What few quality teams they have played so far–they have beat outside of Dayton. Jury is still out on them to me.

7. Florida State Seminoles

>I was high on Florida State preseason and they have shown some signs positive and also negative early on.

8. Miami Hurricanes

>Miami has an impressive early season record, but few quality wins so far.

9. NC State Wolfpack

>Same as Miami, impressive record, but against who?

10. Maryland Terrapins

>The losses are not bad–the wins are not good.

11. Boston College Eagles

>BC is currently sitting atop the ACC standings–at 6-4. They have some good close wins including the Miami win to be atop the standings, but losses to Harvard, Rhode Island, St. Joes, and Northern Iowa have crippled their OOC tourney resume.

12. Virginia Cavaliers

>The ‘Hoos sit at .500 overall and have been close in the losses outside of being drilled by South Florida in Tampa.

Assessing ACC Basketball in Mid-December

>First of all, what is the deal with UNC Coach Roy Williams and ejecting fans from games? If you have not seen the story, a fan of another team(Duke according to some sources) reportedly said during a UNC forward Deon Thompson free throw shot, “Don’t miss it, Deon” or something like that. Roy Williams answered the heckler with less than friendly words to tell a person to stop talking and then motioned to security to escort the fan out of the Dean Dome. No matter the severity of the fans statement that apparently did not involve any vulgarities, coaches should not have the power to throw opposing fans out, period. It sets a dangerous precedent for traveling/opposing fans to be ejected with no chance to defend themselves with being at the mercy of opposing coaches who dislike what they say.

>On to the actual basketball, the Heels are pretty good, but are not elite. The losses to Kentucky and Syracuse are looking better every game so I would not worry about the Heels and competing for the ACC.

>Duke is the best team in the ACC with their current lineup, but they cannot afford an injury among the guards. And when I mean the guards, that’s Nolan Smith. Duke is one injury to a guard away from being an average team. Not because of talent, but the ability to bring it all together. With the current lineup, Duke can attack an opponent so many ways with talent and relatively good depth. I am still worried about the frontcourt though with solid, but not great players among the veterans outside of Singler and freshman everywhere else. Would not be surprised if Duke loses a couple games that on paper they should not because of this.

>There are a lot of haves and have-nots when it comes to scheduling this season. For several teams in the ACC, the reason nobody in the ACC is under .500 is that they have not played anybody. I just wonder how well these teams will play in the ACC regular season against teams that have played a tough early season like UNC, Duke, Clemson, Florida State, and Virginia Tech among a few others.

>Uh, Clemson, that Booker guy, Trevor, he needs the ball–a lot. The loss to Illinois can basically be pinned on Booker not getting the ball enough, but to their credit, they recovered nicely with a good win over South Carolina and drilled Furman Sunday.

>Boston College is team mystery as they beat Michigan, Providence, and Miami, but have some terrible losses that have staked everything on the ACC regular season and a strong record. BC has had suspension, injury, and other issues early season that are probably leading contributors to the inconsistency. Regardless, once they are at full-strength, the Eagles are dangerous.

>Wake Forest are right about where I thought they would be preseason for their out-of-conference play, but not quite the route I expected. Naturally, you would expect a win over William and Mary and a loss at Gonzaga, but they gave us the opposite. The deal for Wake Forest comes in the coming three months in ACC play and the jury is still out on them.

>Virginia Tech very well could have slayed their out-of-conference demon Penn State last Saturday. For the past few years under Hokies’ coach Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech has suffered a number of close losses that hurt them come March, but defeating Penn State could be a springboard for the Hokies going into ACC play.

Where do you see the ACC at this point? Leave your thoughts in the comments…