2003 Top 50 List: Yes
Dan Collins List: Yes
Albert King and Barry Parkhill had very similar careers. Each was ACC Player of the Year and All-American as a junior; each regressed as a senior to second team All-ACC. King, Parkhill, and Julius Hodge are the only three players to win ACC Player of the Year as an underclassman, come back, and then fail to make first team All-ACC the following year.
With Parkhill, his supporting cast changed considerably, and that at least partially explains his drop in performance. With King, however, that’s not the case. In fact, Maryland had everyone coming back in 1981. They were ranked fourth in the AP preseason poll. King was expected to compete for National Player of the Year. But the whole thing just fell flat. It wasn’t a disaster – the Terps still went 21-10, made the ACC Tournament final, and finished in the Top 20 – but it left everyone unfulfilled. Instead of taking a step forward, Maryland took a step back, and that included Albert King. Maryland’s season, and King’s career, ended when they got embarrassed by eventual champion Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
I think we are more surprised by regression than we should be. As fans, we tend to assume that the trajectory of young players will always be up. We imagine what our team will be like next year, and in those fantasies, the underclassmen are always getting better. But we forget that these are human beings, young human beings at that, and life isn’t always a straight line of improvement. Flagging motivation, physical problems, emotional difficulties, financial straits, relationship issues… these things knock people back all the time. We shouldn’t be surprised when they affect athletes as well.
Then, too, young athletes can fall into the trap of thinking that getting older = automatically getting better. But getting better never happens by just standing around and watching the calendar. It takes work, no matter your age.
ACC players with 2,000 points, 300 assists, and 700 rebounds:
King in 1980 is the last player to be named Most Outstanding Player of the ACC Tournament on a team that didn’t win as Maryland fell to Duke by a point. Mike Gminski’s tip-in with eight seconds left gave Duke a one-point lead. Maryland got the ball to King in great position for a 15-foot turnaround jumper that would have won the game and the tournament, but it came up short.
Most Disappointing ACC Teams of All Time:
| Rank | Year | Team | Prior Yr Record | Preseason Rank | Final Rank | Final Record |
| 1 | 1995 | Duke | 28-6, 12-4 | 8 | UR | 13-18, 2-14 |
| 2 | 2005 | GT | 28-10, 9-7 | 3 | UR | 20-12, 8-8 |
| 3 | 1981 | Maryland | 24-7, 11-3 | 4 | 18 | 21-10, 8-6 |
| 4 | 1979 | Duke | 27-7, 8-4 | 1 | 11 | 22-8, 9-3 |
| 5 | 1998 | Clemson | 23-10, 9-7 | 5 | UR | 18-14, 7-9 |
| 6 | 1987 | GT | 27-7, 11-3 | 6 | UR | 16-13, 7-7 |
| 7 | 1978 | UNC | 28-5, 9-3 | 1 | 11 | 23-8, 9-3 |
| 8 | 1959 | Maryland | 22-7, 9-5 | 11 | UR | 10-13, 7-7 |
| 9 | 1980 | Duke | 22-8, 9-3 | 3 | 14 | 24-9, 7-7 |
| 10 | 1990 | UNC | 29-8, 9-5 | 9 | UR | 21-13, 8-6 |
You’ll notice that the common theme here is “unexpected NCAA Tournament success the year before”. Beware of the team that makes an unexpectedly deep run and then is ranked highly the next year.