In other news the National Weather Service predicted the sun would rise somewhere along the eastern horizon in the morning.
From the ACC:
2008-09 Predicted Order of Finish
1. North Carolina (40) 480
2. Duke 436
3. Wake Forest 354
4. Miami 344
5. Clemson 306
6. Virginia Tech 298
7. Maryland 192
8. Georgia Tech 186
9. NC State 179
10. Florida State 145
11. Boston College 123
12. Virginia 79
First Place Votes in Parentheses
2008-09 ACC Preseason All-Conference Team
Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina*
Tyrese Rice, Boston College*
Jack McClinton, Miami
Ty Lawson, North Carolina
Gerald Henderson, Duke
* - unanimous selection
2008-09 Preseason ACC Player of the Year
Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina*
2008-09 Preseason ACC Rookie of the Year
Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest
* - unanimous selection
Should this happen the way the media predicts Tyler Hansbrough would be the first player in ACC history to be unanimous first team All-ACC for his entire career. Given the history of this conference that would be incredibly impressive.
The predicted standings seem to be spot on for the most part. The ACC should exist in three tiers this season. Tier One: UNC. Tier Two: Duke, Wake, Miami, Clemson and Virginia Tech. Tier Three: Everyone else and boy do they suck. Perhaps that is a little strong but the only team in the bottom six that could surprise is NC State. I think the Wolfpack got hamstrung last season by chemistry and complaceny issues. The point guard problems also hurt them severely. There is a good chance most of that gets corrected leaving the door ajar for the Pack to make a move. I think Miami could be worse than advertised but Frank Haith is a good coach who will maximize the talent to produce.
Overall the quality of the ACC should be up and there is plenty of good basketball to be had this season.
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I like the sound of Tyler Zeller as ACC Rookie of the year a little better.
I’d like to see Zeller be ROY also, but I’m not sure he’s going to get the minutes that some of the other rookies around the league will get. That’s going to hurt his chances, unless of course he is a total bad ass while he is on the court!
I hate to say it, but I think Duke could surprise some people. I have heard some say they forsee Wake finishing ahead of Duke. If I remember correctly, the ACC regular season came down to the last game between Duke & UNC. Can you believe that! I thought Duke wasn’t that good last year, and I thought we were terrific, and yet the regular season came down to the last game. They will have their inside game tweaked a little. Who knows? Officiating could help in this issue as well. I thought the games that were officiated between UNC & Duke were pretty good. I thougth Duke got the better end on some of those games including both games against State, especially in Raleigh when it was a close game & usually the home team gets the benefit of judgement calls.
I think as far as his minutes are concerned he’ll be first off the bench for Tyler or Deon. I’m thinking around 8-15 min a game.
Can’t wait to see Zeller. I think that Ed Davis might be best served as a red-shirt. He is a Hansbrough clone, setting race aside, that we will need in the coming years in the paint as the Wear boys are mostly wingmen. We need Zeller’s height right now, as we may face some teams with a pretty big inside presence, aka, the Kansas game, where he could have served us well last year. I don’t know how this will pan out, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see one red-shirt.
JB, I don’t think there is any chance Davis gets redshirted. As evidenced by last year, injuries happen. You can get by with 3 big men, but you really need 4 to be safe. I think if anyone is going to redshirt, it’s going to be someone on the wing…probably Watts.
Yes, Watts will be a redshirt. Ed Davis’ role could be that of a shot blocker and let’s not forget, Deon Thompson has never exactly lit things up outside a game here and a game there. If Davis or Zeller impress, Thompson might see a smaller role.
I agree that it is nice, and sometimes necessary, to have 4 big men. The only thing that made me think otherwise is the fact that we are going to be guard loaded over the next few years with Drew, Strickland, Watts, Bullock, and Marshall. It made me think that, while 09-010 will be guard loaded, we might could use Davis’s services most abundantly during that time. Don’t get me wrong, when Hansbrough goes out, it would be nice to see Davis come in and keep the level of intensity up. As a matter of fact, I have no clue how an opposing defense could deal with it. He IS the Tyler 2.0. If you have seen any of his HS games, he goes after rebounds & put-backs like he is going to get a death sentence if he doesn’t get it. That sounds like Tyler to me. If you are looking at this as the best time for us to achieve a national championship, then it makes good sense to go ahead & use his services this year.
Does anyone think that Tyler can catch (the Jet Planes)..(Sorry I refuse to spell his initials). ACC points record? I think he’s a lock for Carolina’s all time point record but the other ACC one I’m not sure of.
Hansbrough needs 602 points to pass Redick. Last season he scored 882, the season before he had 699. There is a good chance he passes that mark. He would need to average 20 ppg in the 30 regular season games to do it. If he averages what he did last season he would do it by the Maryland or GT games in late February.
Hansbrough needs 123 points to pass Phil Ford on UNC’s list. That should happen in Maui or at the very latest versus UNC-A on Nov 30th or Michigan State on December 3rd.
This also gives us the advantage of going small, or big (without sacraficing too much athleticism). Davis, Zeller, and Hansbrough run the floor very very well.