Mudville Analytics

2003 Top 50 List: Not eligible

Dan Collins List: Not eligible

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what to do with Zion Williamson.  In terms of peak value, he’s probably one of the ten greatest players in ACC history.  In terms of career value, he’s probably not in the top 300.

One of the many things I learned from reading Bill James is that in sports, greatness is associated with uniqueness.  The greater a player is, the more unique he is.  Let me illustrate what I mean.  I’m going to give you statistical records of two players.  Pause for a minute and see if you can identify them.

Player 1	G	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
Year 1	35	0.7	1.5	0.462	0.3	0.7	0.391	0.2	0.3	0.778	0.8	0.8	0.3	0	1.8
Year 2	35	2.7	6.2	0.431	1.2	3.4	0.347	1.6	2.2	0.724	2.9	2.4	1.1	0.1	8.1
Year 3	33	3.6	7.2	0.506	2	4	0.496	1.2	1.7	0.719	4.8	2.7	1.2	0.1	10.5
Year 4	32	4.3	10	0.425	2.4	6.1	0.395	1.8	2.5	0.709	4.3	4.2	1	0	12.7
Career	135	2.8	6.1	0.452	1.4	3.5	0.412	1.2	1.6	0.719	3.2	2.5	0.9	0.1	8.1

Player 2	G	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS
Year 1	33	4.5	10.9	0.413	2.9	7.2	0.399	3.1	3.4	0.919	2.5	2	1.2	0.1	15
Year 2	37	4.6	11	0.423	2.8	7	0.395	3.9	4.1	0.953	3.1	1.6	0.7	0.1	15.9
Year 3	33	6.1	15	0.408	3.7	9.1	0.403	5.9	6.3	0.938	3.3	2.6	1.1	0.1	21.8
Year 4	36	8.4	17.9	0.47	3.9	9.2	0.421	6.1	7.1	0.863	2	2.6	1.4	0.1	26.8
Career	139	5.9	13.7	0.433	3.3	8.1	0.406	4.8	5.2	0.912	2.7	2.2	1.1	0.1	19.9

I’m guessing that no one was able to identify Player 1 as Dante Calabria.  Why?  Because it would be fairly easy to find 20 other players with similar statistical profiles.  There is nothing that stands out.  On the other hand, I’m guessing that many ACC fans would be able to identify Player 2 as JJ Redick. 

I say all that to say, Zion Williamson is perhaps the most unique (with apologies for that ungrammatical construction) player in college basketball history.  Who are you going to compare him to?  His stats are unique.  His game is unique.  He’s a uniquely gifted athlete.

Here’s another way I like to think about it in terms of a thought exercise: suppose a wizard cast a spell on you that impaired your vision such that every player on the court looked like a silhouette.  Whom would you be able to recognize?  I suggest that you would be able to recognize the all-time greats instantly.  Jordan, Magic, Bird, Ewing, Olajuwon, Shaq, Barkley, Kobe… after 30 seconds, you would know them by their silhouettes.  Well, Zion is like that.  His silhouette would be instantly recognizable.

He is one of the three greatest freshmen in the history of college basketball; only Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis are at his level.  In his one year at Duke, he accomplished everything it’s possible to accomplish, except win a national championship.  He was ACC Player of the Year, ACC Tournament Most Outstanding Player, unanimous All-American, and National Player of the Year – and only the eighth player in ACC history to accomplish all of those in the same season (Heyman, Laettner, Jamison, Brand, Battier, Redick, Hansbrough).

He’s the only one-and-done player on the list.  I am not generally seeking to reward or recognize Duke’s one-and-done players for their contributions; honestly I can’t keep track of them all.  But I felt that I had to recognize the greatness, and the uniqueness, of Williamson.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: Yes

Al Wood was a consistent, solid-as-a-rock player for the North Carolina teams from 1978 through 1981.  He was the best player on the 1981 team (although James Worthy and Sam Perkins didn’t hurt, either) that won the ACC Tournament and advanced all the way to the national championship game before losing to Indiana.

Wood was a player who steadily, quietly accumulated numbers and accomplishments with one good year after another.  He averaged 18, 19, and 18 points per game in 1979-1981.  He was named first team All-ACC in 1979, second team in 1980, and first team again in 1981.  He is fifth on UNC’s all-time scoring list behind Tyler Hansbrough, Phil Ford, Sam Perkins, and Lennie Rosenbluth.

Wood was named second team AP All-America as a senior.  From the statistical record, it’s not entirely clear that he was better as a senior than he was as a sophomore or a junior.  But sometimes that happens; a senior who has been good for a long time will be rewarded by the voters, as a kind of Lifetime Achievement Award.

Without a doubt, the pinnacle of Wood’s career was his 39-point, 10-rebound, no turnover performance against Virginia in the 1981 Final Four.  The Tar Heels had been swept by the Cavaliers in the regular season, but Wood made sure there wasn’t going to be a hat trick.  He still holds the NCAA record for most points scored in a national semifinal.

2003 Top 50 List: Not eligible

Dan Collins List: Yes

I watched Julius Hodge for four years, and I never quite figured him out.  It didn’t seem like he did anything great, but at the end of the game you’d look up and he had 22 points.  He was a very versatile player, one of those guys who could do a little bit of everything.  Need to get to the rim?  He could do that.  Need a midrange jumper?  He could do that.  Need a three?  He could do that.  Need a rebound?  He could get it.  Need an assist?  He could dish it.  Need a steal or a block?  He could do that too.  He wasn’t great at any of those things, mind you, but he was adequate to good, and somehow the combination of all of it was exponential.

He was great at one thing, and that was getting to the line. I have a theory, totally untested, that getting to the line a lot is a skill that often doesn’t translate well from college to the NBA, because of the differences in officiating.  Julius Hodge, Tyler Hansbrough, Troy Bell… be wary of the player whose offensive value in college is highly dependent on free throw attempts.

Because he did so many things well, you could make lots of career totals lists that would make him look better than he actually was.  Here’s a silly one: Hodge is the only player in ACC history with 2,000 points, 700 rebounds, 400 assists, and 80 blocks.

Through his junior year, he was on a track with some of the all-time greats.  He was first team All-ACC as a sophomore and ACC Player of the Year as a junior.  He made second team All-America as a junior and didn’t miss first team by all that much.  Had he repeated as Player of the Year, we’d be talking about a Top 20 player here.  But his senior year just got weird.  He was still a good driver/slasher, but his shooting tanked.  He was never a great three-point shooter, but his percentage went from 36% to 26%.  His free throw shooting went from 83% to 67%.  How does that happen?  On the other hand, his assists went way up and his turnovers went way down, so his floor game improved.  NC State had a disappointing season as a team, and Hodge wound up dropping to second team All-ACC.  Then the Wolfpack made an unexpected run to the Sweet 16 before losing to Wisconsin.  It was a confusing season for a hard-to-figure out player.

How many players have won ACC POY as an underclassman, then come back the next season?  And how did they do?  Here is the list.

There have been 19 occasions when an underclassman won ACC Player of the Year and then returned the next season.  12 times, he won again.  Of the seven who didn’t, four at least made first team All-ACC (John Roche 1971, Rod Griffin 1978, Mike Gminski 1980, Tyler Hansbrough 2009).  The three who didn’t make first team All-ACC the next year are Hodge 2005, Albert King 1981, and Barry Parkhill 1973.

Year	Player	Next Year
1954	Dickie Hemric, Wake Forest	Won again
1961	Len Chappell, Wake Forest	Won again
1967	Larry Miller, UNC	Won again
1969	John Roche, South Carolina	Won again
1970	John Roche, South Carolina	Finished second
1972	Barry Parkhill, Virginia	Second team All-ACC
1973	David Thompson, NC State	Won again
1974	David Thompson, NC State	Won again
1977	Rod Griffin, Wake Forest	Finished second
1979	Mike Gminski, Duke	First team All-ACC
1980	Albert King, Maryland	Second team All-ACC
1981	Ralph Sampson, Virginia	Won again
1982	Ralph Sampson, Virginia	Won again
1985	Len Bias, Maryland	Won again
1988	Danny Ferry, Duke	Won again
1996	Tim Duncan, Wake Forest	Won again
2004	Julius Hodge, NC State	Second team All-ACC
2005	JJ Redick, Duke	Won again
2008	Tyler Hansbrough, UNC	Finished third

2003 Top 50 List: Yes, both

Dan Collins List: No for both

The class of 1974 had four outstanding big men: Bobby Jones, Len Elmore, Tom Burleson, and Tom McMillen.  All four of them clearly belong in the Top 100, but it’s challenging to differentiate them.  Here’s how they stack up:

1972:

Player	Points	Rebounds	All-ACC	All-America	Other
Burleson	21.3	14.0	178 points (1st)
Elmore	10.8	11.0	69 points (2nd)
Jones	10.2	6.3
McMillen	20.8	9.6	198 points (1st)	3-AP, UPI

1973:

Player	Points	Rebounds	All-ACC	All-America	Other
Burleson	17.9	12.0	238 points (1st)	2-USBWA; 3-NABC, UPI	ACC Tourney MOP
Elmore	10.0	11.2	84 points (2nd)
Jones	15.0	10.5	163 points (2nd)
McMillen	21.2	9.8	212 points (1st)	2-NABC, UPI; 3-AP

1974:

Player	Points	Rebounds	All-ACC	All-America	Other
Burleson	18.1	12.2	163 points (2nd)	2-UPI; 3-AP, NABC	ACC Tourney MOP
Elmore	14.6	14.7	195 points (1st)	2-AP, USBWA, NABC, UPI
Jones	16.1	9.8	209 points (1st)	2-AP, USBWA, NABC, UPI
McMillen	19.4	10.0	160 points (2nd)	2-NABC, UPI; 3-AP

If you’re interested in the results of their head-to-head matchups during those three years, that goes like this:

• NC State vs. Maryland: 6-2
• NC State: vs. UNC: 7-2
• Maryland vs. UNC: 4-4

(Of course, Burleson had a little help…)

While it’s all very close, I think you have to give McMillen and Burleson a slight edge over Elmore and Jones, based on what they did as sophomores and juniors.  Picking between Elmore and Jones… there’s just not much to go on there.  Their credentials are really, really similar.  My gut says that Jones was just a hair better.  It seems like his best was a little better than Elmore’s best.

Jones ranks 9^th in career FG% in the ACC.  He and Duke’s Carroll Youngkin are the only players to lead the league in that category three times.

All four were drafted in the first 13 picks of the 1974 NBA draft.  Jones went on to have a Hall of Fame NBA career and is considered one of the greatest defensive players of all time; the other three had OK-but-not-special pro careers.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: Yes

Mitch Kupchak was an outstanding big man who was ACC Player of the Year in 1976.  He was part of the first class to play varsity for four years after the NCAA reinstated freshman eligibility.  After playing a supporting role on the 1973 and 1974 teams, he came into his own in 1975, averaging 18.5 points and 10.8 rebounds on his way to being named first team All-ACC.  And after spending the previous two years in the shadow of David Thompson and NC State, the Tar Heels finally got the best of the Wolfpack in the ACC Tournament final, capping off perhaps the most exciting tournament ever.  Advancing to the NCAAs, the Tar Heels suffered a disappointing loss in the Sweet 16 to a Syracuse team they should have beaten, in a game in which UNC shot 65%.  How do you lose a game shooting 65%? 

(As a side note, the Tar Heels won the regional third place game 110-90 over Boston College, and Kupchak led the way with 36 points.  That was the last year that regional third place games were played.  The Final Four continued playing a third place game until 1981.  I, for one, would be in favor of bringing back the Final Four third place game.  It would be fun to watch.  Start it at 6:00 and get fans warmed up for the championship game.)

The next year, Kupchak was even better. He outpaced NC State’s Kenny Carr and teammate Phil Ford for ACC Player of the Year.  The Tar Heels breezed through the regular season, going 24-2 and winning their last 12 games.  But March proved a disappointment as they were upset by Wally Walker and Virginia in the ACC Tournament final – the first time UVa had ever reached the final, much less won it.  The blow was softened by the fact that the Tar Heels as the regular season champion received the ACC’s second ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But getting the at-large bid rather than the automatic bid meant that the Tar Heels had to play eighth-ranked Alabama in the first round.  That would never happen today, having two top ten teams play in the first round, but at the time, the NCAA did not have a seeding system.  As best I can tell, that started in 1979.  From 1975-1978, they had a predetermined bracket, with the 16 automatic bids matched up with the 16 at-large teams, with matchups determined by conference affiliation.  It was predetermined that the ACC at-large team would match up with the SEC champion in the Mideast region.

Then again, as poorly as the Tar Heels played, it might not have mattered. Ford had 2 points and 5 turnovers, and Kupchak could muster only 8 points on 3-of-11 shooting. Alabama’s Leon Douglas dominated the game with 35 points and 17 rebounds, and Kupchak’s career came to an end in a 79-64 loss.  Despite the disappointing ending, Kupchak was named second team All-American by both the AP and the UPI.  He went on to have a solid NBA career as a player and a long career as an NBA executive which continues to this day as GM of the Charlotte Hornets.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: No

Brad Daugherty was kind of a Tim Duncan Lite, I think.  The fundamentally sound big man.  It may be unfair to call him anything “lite”; he was a great player in his own right.  He wasn’t nearly the defensive player Duncan was, but he was every bit as good on offense, maybe better.  What jumps out at you statistically is the FG%.  For his career, he shot 62%.  And he wasn’t one of those guys that stood around waiting for garbage buckets; he was the focal point of the offense.  That 62% mark is fifth all-time in the ACC.  I’d like to know how many players in college basketball history shot 62+% with over 1200 career attempts.  The only two I can find besides Daugherty are Lew Alcindor (of course) and Steve Johnson of Oregon State, although I suspect I’m missing a couple.

As a senior, Daugherty averaged 20.2 points per game and shot 64.8% from the field.  I just referred to this in the Horace Grant post, but since 1993, there are only three seasons in all of college basketball with 20+ points per game and 65+% from the field.  Daugherty needed one less miss and he would have been there.  Daugherty also shares (with Zion Williamson) the ACC record for most field goal attempts in a game without missing – 13.

You might remember an interesting fact about Daugherty, that he was 16 years old when he began at UNC.  I don’t remember the backstory; he had an October birthday, so he was young for his class to begin with, and then he must have skipped a grade.  But in any case, all the other outstanding players in that Class of 1986 – Len Bias, Johnny Dawkins, Mark Price, Mark Alarie, John Salley – were all one-and-a-half to two years older than Daugherty. I wonder how much that factored in to the Cavaliers’ decision to take Daugherty with the first overall pick? It’s an important principle when evaluating young players. When you’re comparing two players of similar skill levels, but one is substantially older than the other, the younger player has the higher upside. Daugherty had arguably the fourth-best NBA career of anyone in that draft, behind Jeff Hornacek, Dennis Rodman, and Price. (And I can’t resist throwing in this little tidbit – Wolfpack fans, do you know who was selected in the second round that year, earlier than Hornacek? Pano Fasoulas. I bet the Blazers would like to have that one back.)

Daugherty’s senior year would have been good enough for ACC Player of the Year in some years, but the competition of Bias, Dawkins, and Price was too tough.  Regardless, he was a terrific player.  He had an outstanding NBA career – a borderline Hall of Fame trajectory – before it was cut short by back injuries.

2003 Top 50 List: Not eligible

Dan Collins List: Yes

Greivis Vasquez was the brightest star of the post-national championship Gary Williams era at Maryland.  Williams coached ten more years after that magical year in 2002, and truth be told, the Terrapins didn’t accomplish a whole lot, with the notable exception of winning the ACC Tournament in 2004.  They mostly hung around the middle of the conference standings, won a few first round games in March Madness, and that’s about it.  But they did have one really good year – 2010, Vasquez’ senior year, when he led them to a 13-3 ACC record and a #20 national ranking.  Vasquez was named ACC Player of the Year over Jon Scheyer, and he was a solid second team All-American, finishing eighth in the AP voting.

Vasquez’ career ended in excruciating fashion in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Michigan State.  After Maryland overcame a 16-point second half deficit to take the lead on Vasquez’ runner with 6.6 seconds left, the Spartans’ Korie Lucious hit a buzzer beater to end their season.  It’s coulda/shoulda/woulda of course, but Maryland could’ve made a run that year had the ball bounced differently.  Maryland’s path to the Final Four would’ve been 9 seed Northern Iowa and 6 seed Tennessee.  Michigan State ended up beating both before losing to Gordon Hayward and Butler in the Final Four.

Vasquez piled up a lot of career numbers.  He is 18^th all-time in career points and 6^th in assists.  Vasquez, Johnny Dawkins, and Danny Ferry are the only ACC players with 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists.  He made All-ACC two other times, both second team.  He had a reputation as a loose cannon, capable of the spectacular but turnover-prone and questionable in his shot selection.  But he had skills and he had guts.

All-Time Maryland Team (ACC Only), by position:

First Team

• G – John Lucas
• G – Juan Dixon
• C – Joe Smith
• F – Tom McMillen
• F – Len Bias

Second Team

• G – Greivis Vasquez
• G – Walt Williams
• C – Len Elmore
• F – Albert King
• F – Lonny Baxter or Buck Williams, you decide

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: Yes

I was a pretty good shooter. Coach McGuire and Duke’s coach, Vic Bubas, both called me the best shooter they had ever seen while I was in college. – York Larese in What It Means to Be a Tar Heel.

York Larese was another in the long line of outstanding New Yorkers who migrated to Chapel Hill to play for Frank McGuire.  Lennie Rosenbluth, Tommy Kearns, Joe Quigg, Pete Brennan, Doug Moe, Larese, Larry Brown, Billy Cunningham… I’m probably missing a few.  Basically every good player they had was from New York except for Lee Shaffer, who was from Pennsylvania.  Rosenbluth and Cunningham are the best of the group.  Not far behind is Larese, who might be the best ACC player you’ve never heard of.

Start with this: Larese made first team All-ACC three times.  Only 25 players have ever done that.  And these weren’t particularly close votes.  In 1959, he tied Lou Pucillo for most votes; in 1960, he was fourth, well ahead of the fifth-place finisher; in 1961, he was unanimous along with Len Chappell, Moe, and Art Heyman.  He never won ACC Player of the Year, but all that tells you is that he wasn’t as good as Chappell and Heyman.  Larese made some kind of All-America team (some second team, some third team) all three years.  So he was recognized nationally as an outstanding player.

Larese had an unorthodox free throw routine. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say he had no routine at all. He shot the ball instantly when he received it from the official. Sort of the anti-Alonzo Mourning, you might say. But it was effective; Larese shot 87% as a junior to lead the league.

All three of the 1959-1961 teams Larese played on finished 12-2 in the ACC regular season, but they didn’t fare well in tournament play.  In 1959, the Tar Heels got pounded in the final by NC State.  But the Wolfpack was on probation, so UNC went to the NCAA Tournament anyway, where they promptly lost to Navy.

Then in 1960, the Tar Heels were upset in the ACC Tournament semifinals by Duke, a team they had beaten three times in the regular season by at least 22 points.

In 1961, UNC was ranked in the Top 10 all season, but they were on probation and therefore ineligible for the NCAA Tournament.  For some reason, the Tar Heels elected not to participate in the ACC Tournament, unlike NC State who was in a similar situation two years before.  So Larese and Moe ended their college careers with an overtime win over Duke in the last regular season game.  The only other teams in ACC history not to participate in the ACC Tournament (not counting the 2020 COVID-shortened event) are Maryland in 1991, Syracuse in 2015, and Louisville in 2016.

Bring back the old schedules, I say.  Carolina used to do a December road trip every year, followed by the Dixie Classic.  None of this modern practice of starting the season with a series of games against the Sisters of the Poor.  Here’s what Larese’s teams did.  In 1958, they traveled to Louisville, where they played Notre Dame and sixth-ranked Northwestern on back-to-back nights.  After returning home, they played Yale, #7 Michigan State, and #2 Cincinnati on consecutive days in the Dixie Classic.

In 1959, State and Carolina played Kansas and Kansas State in some sort of contrived little tournament on back-to-back days in Raleigh.  After a short break the Tar Heels traveled to Lexington to play Kentucky and St. Louis.  Finally, they came back home and played Minnesota, Duke, and Wake Forest in the Dixie Classic.

Then in 1960, the Tar Heels went out to the Midwest and played Kansas State, Kansas, and Creighton, three road games in four days.  In the Classic, they played Maryland, Villanova, and Duke.

Wouldn’t it be fun if teams still did this?

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: No

Here is the history of Clemson players in ACC Player of the Year balloting:

• 1987: Horace Grant, 102 votes (out of 140) – winner
• 1990: Dale Davis, 4 votes
• 1990: Elden Campbell, 4 votes
• 2000: Will Solomon, 3 votes
• 2014: KJ McDaniels, 1 vote

That’s it.  Such is the history of Clemson basketball.  Horace Grant had an absolutely monster year in 1987.  He was ACC Player of the Year and led the league in scoring, rebounding, and FG% (Tim Duncan 1997 and Marvin Bagley 2018 are the only other players to do that).  He led the Tigers to a 10-4 ACC record, tied for the best in program history with the 1990 team.  And he wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of other great players.  In another discrepancy between ACC voters and national voters, Grant made second team All-America, while Kenny Smith made first team; but in ACC POY voting, Grant received 102 votes, Smith 27.  So who was really the better player?

Here’s a side note on that 1987 season by Grant.  He averaged 21 points per game on 65.6% shooting from the field.  How good is that?  Well, guess how many seasons of 20+ PPG and 65+% shooting there have been in all of college basketball since 1993?  The answer is three:

• 2001, Michael Bradley, Villanova, 20.8 PPG, 69.2% FG
• 2009, Blake Griffin, Oklahoma, 22.7 PPG, 65.4% FG
• 2019, Zion Williamson, Duke, 22.6 PPG, 68% FG

That 1987 season, and Grant’s career, ended in excruciating fashion.  The Tigers went 25-4 in the regular season, losing twice to North Carolina and twice to Duke, and beating everybody else.  They went into the ACC Tournament as the #2 seed, but the Tigers lost in the first round to Muggsy Bogues and Wake Forest.  Then they were upset by Missouri State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and that was that.  What seemed like the best team and season in Clemson basketball history ended with a thud.

Grant was really good as a junior as well, averaging 16.4 points and 10.5 rebounds and shooting 58% from the field, but he received no recognition, finishing behind the likes of Steve Hale in All-ACC balloting.  The problem was, Clemson finished 3-11 in the ACC, although they were better than that record indicated.  Cliff Ellis was building something, but you couldn’t quite see the results yet.  If Grant had played for a Duke or a North Carolina, he would have been a two-time All-ACC, first team All-American player.

Grant’s teams went 0-4 in the ACC Tournament, part of a nine-year stretch from 1981 through 1989 in which the Tigers lost in the first round every year.  Unfortunately, that isn’t Clemson’s worst stretch; they lost 10 straight first round games from 1965-1974.

The best players in Clemson basketball history are all big men: Grant, Tree Rollins, Elden Campbell, and Dale Davis.  Who are the best guards?  Butch Zatezalo?  Billy Williams?  Vincent Hamilton?  Will Solomon?  Skip Wise, even though he only played one year?  I’m going with Solomon and Zatezalo as my backcourt on the all-time Clemson team.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: Yes

The years between North Carolina’s 1982 national championship team and their 1991 Final Four team were years of unfulfilled promise and frustration.  During this eight-year period from 1983 through 1990, the Tar Heels:

• Finished in the Top 10 seven times
• Were a 1 or 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament seven times
• Finished first (or tied) in the ACC regular season standings five times
• Were ranked #1 in the country at some point in five of those years
• Went 87-25 in ACC play, including two 14-0 seasons
• Advanced to the Sweet 16 all eight times

And what did they have show for all that?  Zero Final Fours, 1 ACC championship.  That’s it.

Kenny Smith’s career sits right in the center of that stretch.  His career was bookended by the two best teams in that group, the 1984 team and the 1987 team, both of which went 14-0 in the ACC regular season.  So Smith experienced a tremendous amount of regular season success, but he lacks the signature postseason moment that you would expect from such a good player in such a great program.  It’s not his fault, of course.  It’s not anybody’s fault; it’s just one of those things that happened.  Starting in 1991, the Tar Heels were in the Final Four six out of the next ten years.  Nothing changed but their luck.

Smith is another one of those players who is difficult to rank because of a major disparity between his ACC honors and his national honors.  In 1987 he was named first team All-American by all the major services.  But in the ACC Player of the Year vote, Smith lost to Horace Grant by a wide margin.  Grant was second- or third-team All-American.  So was Smith one of the five best players in America, or not?  If Smith had been, say, a third-team All-American, I’m not sure his record would be strong enough to be in the Top 100 at all.

This is where it would be great to have insight into All-America voting totals.  This can often shed light on what might seem like a curious decision by the voters.  Unfortunately, the AP lost its mind from 1979-1989.  They drastically changed their voting methodology, going from hundreds of writers to a panel of ten or fewer, and they stopped releasing voting totals.  So there is really no transparency to what happened.

For one thing, I think Smith benefited from being a guard.  1987, for whatever reason, was a year where big name guards were lacking.  Besides Smith and Steve Alford, the only other guard who could have even been considered for first team was Mark Jackson.  The UPI at that time voted by position, so they had to put two guards on first team.  Grant, in contrast, was blocked behind forwards Danny Manning and Reggie Williams who had first team locked down.  I don’t think the AP was voting by position, but because of the lack of transparency into the voting, it’s hard to be sure what they were doing.

Ultimately, I think it was a little bit of all of that.  Smith was legitimately an outstanding player who was worthy of consideration, and he got a little boost from being a guard in a year with weak guard play, and a little boost from that Carolina uniform and the fact that he had played umpteen games on national television as the point guard of the #1 team in the country over the previous four years.

At the time he graduated, Smith was the ACC’s all-time assist leader.  Keep in mind that assists had only been an official stat for 15 years or so at the time.  He has since been passed by six other players.  Also, Smith’s senior year was the first year of the 19’9” three point shot.  He led the ACC with 87 threes that year.  You can estimate that he lost 150-200 career points by not having the three until then.