Month: May 2022

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Dickie Hemric was ACC Player of the Year in the first two years of the league.  If you count his freshman and sophomore seasons when Wake was in the Southern Conference, his career total of 2,587 points is surpassed only by JJ Redick and Tyler Hansbrough, who played way more games than Hemric. When he graduated, he was the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer until Oscar Robertson broke his record in 1960.

Hemric holds a lot of records:

• ACC – most rebounds in a game, 36
• ACC – most free throw attempts in a season, 403 (fifth-most in NCAA history)
• NCAA – second (to Tyler Hansbrough) in career free throws made, 905
• NCAA – most career free throws attempted, 1359
• NCAA – fifth in career rebounds with 1802

Hemric as a senior averaged 19.1 rebounds per game, and 14.9 free throw attempts per game.  These are mind-boggling numbers.

Maybe I have Hemric too low.  He’s one of only ten players to win multiple ACC Player of the Year awards.  He certainly has a case as a top 20 player. The reasons I don’t have him that high are:

• His eye-popping numbers were to some extent a product of the time and the conditions of the game
• He wasn’t a first team All-American (third team and second team)
• While he did win ACC POY twice, he didn’t run away with it, failing to get a majority both times

Did you ever wonder how guys from the 1950s and 1960s got so many rebounds?  I think it comes down to two things, or maybe three depending on how you count.  1a and 1b are easy to quantify and support with data; #2 is just my theory.

1. There were more missed shots.  More missed shots = more rebounds.
   1. Teams played at a faster tempo, so there were more shots.
   2. Teams shot a lower percentage, so they missed more of the shots they took.
2. Shots were generally closer to the basket than they are today, which means fewer long rebounds.  Short rebounds tend to go to the big men; long rebounds are distributed more randomly.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: Yes

Rod Griffin was one year behind Skip Brown at Wake Forest.  In 1977, which was Brown’s senior year and Griffin’s junior year, the Deacs were ranked in the top 10 most of the season and made it to the regional final before losing to eventual champion Marquette.  Griffin was named ACC Player of the Year.

This will probably strike many as too high a ranking for Griffin, so I should explain my thinking.  A lot of it has to do with how Griffin relates to Phil Ford.  Their careers coincided exactly, so it’s an obvious comparison.  Ford is generally acknowledged to be one of the ten best players in ACC history, and I have no argument with that.  However, if you’re going to say Ford is one of the ten best, then you better have Griffin in your Top 30.  Because in 1977 and 1978, he played Ford to a standstill.

1977 Player of the Year voting: Griffin 89, Ford 31

1978 Player of the Year voting: Ford 86, Griffin 33

Total: Griffin 122, Ford 117

Now I’m not arguing that Griffin is the equal of Ford.  Adding in 1976 gives Ford an edge; he was first team All-ACC and received some consideration for player of the year (won by Mitch Kupchak), while Griffin was second team.  But the biggest difference is their All-America record.  Ford was consensus second team in 1976 and consensus first team in both 1977 and 1978.  Griffin was consensus second team in 1977 and 1978, and that barely.  If you trust the ACC voters more than the national voters, and I do, then you would have to say that at least 1977 there is an injustice to Griffin.

So to summarize my argument for Griffin,

• Phil Ford is a Top 10 player
• Griffin was viewed by ACC voters as being almost as good as Ford
• I trust the ACC voters more than the national voters
• Therefore, Griffin must be a Top 30 player.

Griffin was not included on the 2003 Top 50 list.  He is the highest ranked player on my list who was eligible and did not make that list.