Here we are, on the doorstep of another college basketball season. This is a transition year for the ACC, with Pitt and Syracuse not joining the conference for another year. There was one significant change, as the ACC has now moved to 18 conference games. This cuts down on the non-conference schedule and puts more of a premium on who you beat and who you lose to in the conference.
The ACC's reputation has been not stellar in the past few years (to put it kindly). So what are the things the conference can do to improve on its reputation: perform in their non-conference games and in the ACC Tournament. The non-conference was a struggle for at least a third of the teams in the conference last year, and that showed in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Winning that challenge this year would be a step in the right direction. The ACC did manage to get five teams in the NCAA Tournament, but take a look at how they fared relative to expectations:
North Carolina - underachieved (Elite 8 loss)
Duke - underachieved (shocking second round loss to Lehigh)
Florida State - underachieved (third round loss)
NC State - overachieved (made it to Sweet 16)
Virginia - underachieved (blown out in second round)
That's four out of five teams that did not live up to potential. That has to change this year.
A couple things I will be looking at this year:
1. End of Duke/UNC domination? The media and coaches voted NC State as their preseason #1. It's not very often that UNC or Duke is not #1. UNC in particular lost a ton off last year's team, and with potential risers like Miami and Maryland the Tar Heels could finish outside the top four.
2. Who will the stars be? Most years the ACC has at least three or four lottery picks that you can point to as future NBA stars. Who is on that list this year? C.J. Leslie, certainly. Maybe James Michael McAdoo, if he comes out. Who else?
Stay tuned this week as I will be counting down (or up, depending on how you look at it) my preseason picks for this year, starting with #12.
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