ACC Early Season Appraisal
I like to look at the overall league about once a week to see how teams and individual players are doing. It is very early in the season, but the following is a compilation of the hits and misses so far.
Hits
Duke, FSU, NC State and Clemson have gotten off to good starts. Duke is clearly the class of the conference even at this early date.
Several positive stats for the Devils 41 point scoring margin; 44.7% 3-point shooting; 21.7 apg; and 11.0 turnover margin. These reflect not only the strength of the team but the weaknesses of the opponents so far.
Rebounding margin of 15.3 per game for Miami
Excellent shooting from the field by Clemson (.538) and from the foul line by Virginia (.809)
Several players have gotten off to excellent starts: Singleton (19.3 ppg, 10.3 rpg, .581 From field and 3.8 steals per game); Williams (18.4 ppg, 12.4 rpg and .571 from field); Scott (15.0 ppg, 9.0 rpg and .556 from field); Smith (16.0 ppg and 7.3 apg); Jackson (23.5 ppg); Delaney (21.0 ppg) and Henson (13.0 rpg)
Several freshmen have gotten off to good starts: Irving; McKie; Barnes; Harrow; Terrell; Brown and Stoglin
Misses
Wake, BC and Georgia Tech have ugly losses and UNC lost to a team they were expected to defeat
.575 free throw % by UNC
.175 3-point % by BC
-8.75 turnover margin per game by Wake
Overall
The ACC is 29-10 at this very early stage when only the Terps have played good opponents. This is considerably worse than normal and is probably an indication that the league is either very young or not nearly as good as in the past or both and it is a down year. I expect the league to have a tough time beating the Big Ten this year and playing poorly against OOC teams will have a negative effect on the number of ACC teams invited to the ACCT. Hopefully, a number of the younger teams will develop as the year progresses and the league will be strong come February.
gw67