For the first time in a long time the ACC won’t be discussed as one of the best conferences in the country. This is a very young conference with no real freshman stars, and as of now the ACC has only two locks for the tournament in North Carolina and Duke. After that it is anyone’s guess has who will emerge and who will fizzle out. Clemson and Miami got off to great starts but that was mostly because of their easy non-conference schedules. Wake Forest, N.C. State, Maryland, and Virginia have all showed they can beat anyone at anytime and can lose to anyone at anytime. If Duke wasn’t exceeding expectations then the ACC would be a laughing stock. With that being said, Duke and North Carolina are both in the top five and National Championship contenders. Duke, led by Senior DeMarcus Nelson, are a small team but they can shoot the ball very well. This Duke team is very balanced but young and should continue to do well until their size and inexperience catch up to them. But of course you can’t talk about Duke without talking about North Carolina.
Led by Junior All-American Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina got off to a hot start crushing opponents until backup point guard Bobby Frasor was lost for the season due to a knee injury. This was a crushing blow for this high up-tempo team that wasn’t all that deep to begin with. North Carolina must make sure that Ty Lawson remains healthy and stays out of foul trouble because backup PG Quentin Thomas just won’t cut it. The ACC might be down this year, but don’t count this conference out yet because you can be sure it will make some noise come March.
(Virginia’s Sean Singletary is getting a lot of NBA attention)
First Team All-ACC
G – Sean Singletary – Virginia ( 18.1 Pts, 6.7 Ast, 4.1 Reb )
G – Tyrese Rice – Boston College ( 20 Pts, 5.1 Ast, 3.9 Reb )
G – Ty Lawson – North Carolina ( 13.9 Pts, 5.8 Ast, 1.8 Steals )
F – Tyler Hansbrough – North Carolina ( 22 Pts, 10.1 Reb, 1.4 Streals)
F – James Gist – Maryland ( 15.4 Pts, 7.8 Reb, 2.5 Blocks)
(K.C. Rivers is electric, as long as he’s not on the Free Throw Stripe)
Second Team All-ACC
G – Greivis Vasquez – Maryland ( 16.5 Pts, 5.3 Reb, 6.3 Ast )
G – K.C. Rivers – Clemson ( 15.3 Pts, 6.9 Reb, 1.9 Steals )
G – DeMarcus Nelson - Duke ( 14.8 Pts, 5.9 Reb, 3.0 Asts )
F – James Johnson - Wake Forest ( 14.7 Pts, 8.3 Reb, 1.3 Blocks )
F – J.J. Hickson – N.C. State ( 15.3 Pts, 8.0 Reb, 1.7 Blocks )
(N.C. State’s future is bright, as long as Hickson gets some support)
All-Freshman ACC Team
G – Rakim Sanders – Boston College ( 12.6 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 1.1 Steals )
F – Jeff Allen - Virginia Tech ( 12.5 Pts, 7.9 Reb, 2.1 Steals )
F – J.J. Hickson – N.C. State ( 15.3 Pts, 8.0 Reb, 1.7 Blocks )
F – James Johnson – Wake Forest ( 14.7 Pts, 8.3 Reb, 1.3 Blocks )
F – Kyle Singler - Duke ( 12.9 Pts, 5.9 Reb, 1.3 Ast )
Photos from scout.com and Washington Post, under the Creative Commons License
