BASKETBALL SEASON STARTS IN 2 DAYS aka ACC preview

HOLY GOD ITS BASKETBALL SEASON!!

This is the most exciting time of the year for me. At least until Thanksgiving when we have Feast Week, and later on in March when the Madness begins (even though they came perilously close to ruining with their greed). It's college basketball season, and nothing brings the scrillas together like some good, all-american college hoops. This post will not examine the end of Greivis' career, either in general or speficially how it ended. That's still far too touchy a subject, and I will need some time to reclaim my soul before ever discussing that at length.

What this blog post will be is a preview of the upcoming ACC season, with my exclusive, 100% correct picks for things. So let's get to it, in reverse order this time!

12. Virginia Cavaliers - The Cavs started strong last year at 5-2 in the conference despite a bunch of early season non-conference losses, and it looked like Tony Bennett was going to perform a miracle and get his team into NCAA tournament, and possibly even league title contention. But the team started losing, and then kept on losing, a stretch of nine straight to close out the season before beating Boston College in the ACC Tournament. The big story in the late season fallout saw Sylven Landesberg miss most of the stretch before eventually declaring for the NBA Draft. The Cavs also lost fourth leading scorer Jeff Jones, who trasnsferred to Rider. If those two had stayed, Virginia could have used its solid recruiting class to make at least a little noise in the conference, but now they're destined for the cellar. Mike Scott is a pretty solid big man, good enough to make an All-ACC team if he played for a better team, but after that it's pretty bleak. Sammy Zeglinski is the second leading returning scorer, and the other contributors back include Jerome Meyinsse and Mustapha Farrakhan, none of whom are good enough to start for a tournament caliber team. Tony Bennett's first recruiting class is...disproportionately white, to say the least, although it does feature two solid big men (James Johnson and Will Regan) that the Terps recruited. I guess the good part is that if last year's season finale is any indication, the fine* folks in Charlottesville have a good chance at some shitty but free Raising Cain's chicken after the games.

11. Wake Forest Demon Deacons - Dino Guadio made a good sauce, but alas his olive oil skin and guinea charm weren't enough to keep him employed. Instead, Wake Forest elected to go with Jeff Bzdelik of Colorado who had been a pretty spectacular failure (10-38 in conference games) at that school. But even though he's almost 60, he's an old pal of the Wake AD so he got the job. To make matters worse, the team lost a lottery pick in Al-Farouq Aminu as well as the reliable Ish Smith, plus defensive stalwart LD Williams, HOF neanderthal Chas MacFarland, and Tony Woods (to legal trouble). As freshmen, CJ Harris and Ari Stewart were reliable (albeit inefficient) scorers at the guard spots, and Wake does bring in a decent class, headed by forward Travis McKie. But while there may be some promise for the future, the future is not now.

10. Georgia Tech - It speaks to the weakness of the ACC at the bottom that Georgia Tech would be ranked even this high. There was plenty of drama in the offseason when, despite making the NCAA tournament last season, most Tech fans seemingly hoped that Paul Hewitt would leave to go home and coach Saint John's. It was not to be, but it's probably hard to blame fans for being restless. Hewitt has been the coach for ten seasons and despite plenty of talent (Jack, Bosh, Young, Favors, Crittendon, Lawal, Morrow), he's only had one season better than 8-8 in the ACC. At 67-93 overall in the ACC, it's amazing that he's been able to keep his job at a program with as much tradition as GT, even despite making 5 NCAA tournaments and a National Championship Game. As for this year's team, well, it doesn't get easier to win without Derrick Favors, not to mention Gani Lawal. Even with Favors gone, there is plenty of potential in the current sophomore class (led by Brian Oliver and Glen Rice, Jr.) to assist the enigmatic Iman Shumpert. That said, Yellow Jacket teams with more talent and experience than this one have failed to do much under Hewitt, so it while the team certainly has the capability of getting at or close to the .500 mark in the ACC, I'd bet that they fall short of that.

9. Boston College Eagles - Al Skinner was very successful during his time in Boston, going to 7 NCAA Tournaments, winning three Big East regular season titles, and coaching guys like Jared Dudley, Craig Smith, Troy Bell, and Tyrese Rice. Apparently the powers that be at the school thought the program had stagnated, leading them to replace Skinner and his turtle neck with up and comer Steve Donahue from Cornell. The good news for the team is that everyone returns, including Joe Trapani and the emerging Reggie Jackson. The bad news, of course, is that those everyones were rather mediocre last season. The recruiting class doesn't hold much promise for immediate help, although most of Skinner's didn't either and he had his share of success. Jackson was borderline all-conference quality last year (averaging 12.9/5.7/4.5) so he could be the team's next star if he continues improving in his final two seasons. Al Skinner is like a bloodhound finding these diamonds in the rough like Jackson, much as his jowls are like those of a bloodhound.

8. Miami Hurricanes - A year after finishing last in the conference despite a 15-1 overall start, this team seems to be getting more respect than you'd anticipate. They lost their top two scorers, Dwayne Collins and James Dews, so it isn't even a case of a bad team returning everyone. Still, some key guys like JR SF Dequan Jones and SO guard Durand Scott, both of whom were good recruits, have enough experience to drag the team up a few spots. Scott in particular looks like an emerging star after averaging in double figures last season. On a related note, the Fighting Frank Haiths have now dropped two straight to the Terps after dealing us a series of horrific defeats over the past few seasons (see e.g. 2007 at Miami where the Terps shot below 0%, 2007 in the ACC Tournament first round 5/12 game, and 2009 in Miami with a great comeback). Good times!

7. North Carolina State - C'mon! It's Sid Lowe! You didn't really expect that I was going to go with the crowd and pick the friggin Sid Lowe-led Wolfpack to finish in the top half of the division, did you? Sid is great at wearing a garish red jacket to the games, but I'm not sure that anything more complicated than that is within his scope of competence. Tracy Smith is great, but what will the team do without the incomparable Dennis Horner (Kevin Pittsnoggle Memorial White Trash Award winner, 2010) and Farnold Degand (Olu Babalola Memorial Name of the Year Award, 2010)? Plus Sid doesn't know how to use Smith, and I've got the feeling that former-Terp target CJ Leslie is going to be less Shawn Kemp-in-training and more Terrence Jennings (former Maryland commit now at Louisville). I'd say nice things about Javy Gonzalez, but I remember about two years ago when Greivis absolutely abused him for the duration of the game. I think it may possibly have been the epic post-600 win game where he came a rebound short of getting a triple double. (Remember that time Greivis DID get a triple double against UNC and we had an insane OT comeback win!? HOLY COW ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I miss Greivis.)

I'm tired of writing. Top half...later. SPOILER: The Terps figure prominently.