Tag: ACC

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Joe Smith was the greatest two-year player in ACC history.  I don’t mean only that he is the best two-and-done player, though he is that.  I mean that if you look at just the freshman and sophomore years of all players in ACC history, Joe Smith is the best ever.

Now of course that’s not fair to players who weren’t freshman-eligible.  David Thompson, for one, might have something to say about that had he been eligible as a freshman.  But among players who played as freshmen and sophomores, I’d pick Smith as the best.  Smith was National Player of the Year as a sophomore, which places him in some seriously rarified air.  The only other ACC players to do that are Ralph Sampson and Elton Brand.  But Smith was better as a freshman than either.

When Smith showed up on campus, the Maryland program was way down.  In the seven long years since Lefty Driesell had departed, the Terrapins had compiled a 25-70 ACC record.  Gary Williams, in his fifth season, was coming off a 12-16, 2-14 year, and was under some pressure to win.  That 12-16 year concealed some potential in the form of freshmen Johnny Rhodes, Exree Hipp, and Duane Simpkins.  When Smith and Keith Booth showed up in 1994, the effect was immediate and electric.  In the first game of the year, the Terrapins went into the Capital Centre and beat 15^th-ranked Georgetown behind 26 from Smith.  Maryland went on to make an unexpected run to the Sweet 16 as a 10 seed, upsetting John Calipari, Marcus Camby and UMass along the way.

I’ve previously written about the 1995 season under the Jerry Stackhouse and Randolph Childress entries, so I won’t go on about that here.  Suffice it to say that Smith was the best player in arguably the best season in ACC history.  Everybody remembers the Randolph Childress show in the epic ACC Tournament final, but not as many people remember the epic semifinal battle between Carolina and Maryland, which the Tar Heels won 97-92 in overtime.  Smith and Rasheed Wallace went it at, and Wallace got the better of him with probably the game of his life – 33 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks.  Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 again before losing to eighth-ranked UConn in Smith’s final college game.

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.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

I wanted to start this post with a list of the greatest freshmen in ACC history.  My preconceived notion was that Kenny Anderson would be second on that list behind Zion Williamson.  But as I’ve looked at it more, Duke has me all confused.

Up until 2014, the list of greatest freshmen would have included Anderson, Joe Smith, Stephon Marbury, and Tyler Hansbrough.  Then you could argue about who was next – Antawn Jamison, or Gene Banks, or Mark Price, or Skip Wise, or somebody else.

Then Duke came along.  And suddenly, something that had never happened before, happened five times in six seasons: an ACC freshman made first team All-American.  Jabari Parker 2014, Jahlil Okafor 2015, Marvin Bagley 2018, Zion Williamson 2019, RJ Barrett 2019.  So are they the five best freshmen in ACC history?

Something seems wrong with that picture, doesn’t it?  Is it possible that the five greatest freshmen in the history of the league all played for one team in the span of six years? 

On one hand, I have to say yes, it is possible.  First of all, we’re talking about Duke here.  The approach they have taken to recruiting in the past decade is unique in the history of college basketball.  They target getting as many of the best freshmen in the country as possible, fully expecting them to be one-and-done.  They build their program on that.  The reason that works is that freshmen are better than they’ve ever been.  I’ve spent a lot of time in this series badmouthing the state of modern college basketball, but let me say this in its favor: the quality of freshman play has never been better.  Kids are more mature physically, they’ve been groomed from an early age, and they’ve faced better competition.

But there is one major counterargument, and it’s one I’ve made several times in this series already: the overall quality of college basketball is lower.  Jabari Parker made first team All-American in 2014; Kenny Anderson made third team in 1990.  Does that mean that Jabari Parker was better than Kenny Anderson?  Not for a minute.  Because if you look at who wasn’t playing in college in 2014, suddenly you realize that maybe Jabari Parker’s year isn’t as impressive as you thought.  Would he have made it over Anthony Davis?  Kyrie Irving?  Trey Burke, Victor Oladipo, Andre Drummond, Bradley Beal, Jared Sullinger, Otto Porter, Tristan Thompson, Ben McLemore, Cody Zeller? 

See, when Kenny Anderson played, all the guys like that were playing in college.  Yes, there were a few (JR Reid, Nick Anderson, Rex Chapman, and Shawn Kemp), but nothing like in 2014.  We have to adjust for the era.

So I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle.  Yes, freshmen are better than they’ve ever been, and Duke’s run of amazing freshmen is real, and as much as I’d like to just ignore them and pretend that Kenny Anderson and Joe Smith are the greatest of all time, I can’t and they aren’t.  But, it’s not a level playing field either, and we do have to adjust our evaluations to account for that.

Taking all that into consideration, here’s my list.

Greatest Freshmen in ACC History

1. Zion Williamson, Duke, 2019
2. Kenny Anderson, Georgia Tech, 1990
3. Marvin Bagley, Duke, 2018
4. Jahlil Okafor, Duke, 2015
5. Stephon Marbury, Georgia Tech, 1996
6. Joe Smith, Maryland, 1994
7. Tyler Hansbrough, UNC, 2006
8. RJ Barrett, Duke, 2019
9. Jabari Parker, Duke, 2014
10. Gene Banks, Duke, 1978

Anderson was, of course, sensational in the NCAA Tournament as well, leading the Yellow Jackets to the Final Four as the Most Outstanding Player of the Southeast Region.  In 1991, Anderson, Rodney Monroe, and Christian Laettner made for one of the most difficult ACC Player of the Year choices ever.  Monroe got 54 votes, Laettner 32, and Anderson 21.  The order in All-America was reversed, with Anderson making first team, Laettner second team, and Monroe some second, some third.

My favorite Kenny Anderson stat… as a sophomore, in a span of five games, he had:

• 40 in a win over Georgia
• 50 in a win over Loyola Marymount (one of only nine 50-point games in ACC history)
• 19 in a win over Tulane (an off day)
• 41 in a win over Villanova
• 40 in a win over Howard

40+ points in four out of five games.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Johnny Dawkins is a pretty good comp for Jeff Lamp.  He’s not as good as Dawkins, but he’s not far behind.

Players who made First or Second-Team All-ACC 4 times:

• Tyler Hansbrough
• Johnny Dawkins
• Mark Price
• Jeff Lamp

Players who averaged 17+ points in four seasons:

• Tyler Hansbrough
• Johnny Dawkins
• Jeff Lamp

Players with 2300 points, 250 assists, and 500 rebounds:

• Johnny Dawkins
• Christian Laettner
• Kyle Singler
• Jeff Lamp

After making first team All-ACC as a sophomore, Lamp dropped to second team as a junior, presumably because his scoring dropped from 22.9 to 17.4.  But Lamp was just as good; he simply took fewer shots because of the presence of Ralph Sampson. 

Lamp finished his career as the second all-time leading scorer in the ACC, three points behind Mike Gminski.  They now stand eighth and ninth on the list.

Lamp’s senior year was a memorable one.  The Cavaliers started 22-0 and were ranked #1 before losing back-to-back games in late February and stumbling badly in the ACC Tournament semifinals in a blowout loss to Maryland.  But they managed to pull it together in the NCAA Tournament, winning the East region behind Ralph Sampson and Regional Most Outstanding Player Lamp.  The Final Four was a bitter pill as the Cavaliers lost to Al Wood and North Carolina, a team they had beaten twice in the regular season.  In Lamp’s last college game, he led the Cavaliers to a 78-74 win in the last ever Final Four third place game.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Billy Cunningham and Jeff Mullins represent another group of players who are very difficult to distinguish.  Mullins was one year ahead.  Each made first team All-ACC three times.  Each was ACC Player of the Year as a senior.  Mullins did slightly better in All-America balloting.  There’s just not much to separate them.  Their NBA careers were pretty similar too; Cunningham is a Hall of Famer and Mullins is not, but Mullins was a really good player too.  As I wrote about under the Pete Brennan/Lee Shaffer/Lou Pucillo post, Mullins and Cunningham were the first two ACC players to achieve stardom in the NBA.

Mullins’ teams, of course, were much more successful.  The 1963 and 1964 Duke teams both won the ACC Tournament and went to the Final Four.  In a sense, the most impressive thing about Mullins’ career is the success of the 1964 team after the departure of Art Heyman.  It would have been an obvious time for the program to drop a bit, but they didn’t miss a beat, making it all the way to the national championship game and finishing third in the final poll.  Mullins played in eight career NCAA Tournament games, averaging 25 points and eight rebounds and shooting 54% from the field.  His 43-point outburst against Villanova in the regional semifinal in 1964 is still the most ever scored by an ACC player in an NCAA Tournament game.  (The other ACC players to score 40 in an NCAA Tournament game?  David Thompson, 1974; Rodney Monroe, 1989; Dennis Scott, 1990). One-and-dones aside, Mullins is the only player in ACC history to score in double figures in every game in his career.

By contrast, Cunningham’s teams were pretty ordinary.  As pointed out in the Bob Lewis post, it wasn’t until 1967 that the Dean Smith Tar Heels broke out.  But Cunningham was a sensation.  He ranks third all-time in rebounding average and ninth in scoring.  (Len Chappell and Dickie Hemric are the only other players in the top 10 in both categories.)  Cunningham and Chappell are the only players to lead the league in scoring and rebounding twice.  Cunningham, Tom Owens, Dale Davis, and Tim Duncan are the only players to lead the league in rebounding three times.

When did the ACC become an elite basketball conference?  Sports Reference rates conferences via the Simple Rating System, which uses margin of victory and strength of schedule to rate individual teams, then adds up teams to get conference ratings.  Here are the ACC’s ratings year by year:

• 1954 – 12^th of 18
• 1955 – 8^th of 18
• 1956 – 4^th of 18
• 1957 – 6^th of 18
• 1958 – 6^th of 18
• 1959 – 7^th of 18
• 1960 – 5^th of 18
• 1961 – 6^th of 18
• 1962 – 5^th of 18
• 1963 – 6^th of 17
• 1964 – 6^th of 17
• 1965 – 6^th of 17
• 1966 – 2^nd of 18
• 1967 – 3^rd of 18
• 1968 – 7^th of 18
• 1969 – 4^th of 19
• 1970 – 2^nd of 19
• 1971 – 2^nd of 19
• 1972 – 1^st of 19
• 1973 – 1^st of 19

Then the ACC ranks first or second every year until 1991-92.  So something turned a corner in the late ‘60s, and by the early 1970s, the ACC was established the best basketball conference in the country.

Now, I should point out that the ACC still had really good teams in the earliest years.  There was the UNC national championship team in 1957; then there were Final Four teams in 1962 (Wake), 1963, 1964, and 1966 (all Duke).  But the depth of quality wasn’t what it eventually became.

What changed?  Two things.  One, the non-North Carolina schools started to step it up.  In the first 12 years or so of the league, Duke, UNC, NC State, and Wake Forest were good; Clemson, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia were, as a group, pretty terrible.  But South Carolina hired Frank McGuire in 1964; Maryland hired Lefty Driesell in 1969; and even Clemson and Virginia started to be more competitive.

But the second and probably more influential factor was integration.  In the 1950s and most of the 1960s, the ACC and SEC were at a competitive disadvantage compared to other conferences which had already integrated.  In the late 1960s, that started to change with Charlie Scott, Charlie Davis, Ed Leftwich, Bob McAdoo, and Len Elmore, among others.  By 1974, three All-ACC first teamers (Elmore, David Thompson, and John Lucas) were black.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

I found Bobby Hurley to be an extremely difficult player to rank.  Which is ironic, because I probably watched him play more than anyone else on this list except for Rodney Monroe and Julius Hodge.  Hurley is the perfect example of a player whose national reputation was buoyed by the incredible success of the teams he played on.  Now of course, Hurley was a huge contributor to that success – but I think it’s safe to say he had a little help, in the persons of Christian Laettner and Grant Hill.

Hurley’s ACC accolades are good but modest.  He made third team All-ACC as a sophomore, second team as a junior, and first team as a senior, losing a close Player of the Year vote to Rodney Rogers.  He was first team All-Tournament once.  The overall record is comparable to, say, Kenny Smith.

Hurley’s national accolades are way more impressive.  As a junior in 1992, Hurley was named third team All-America by both the AP and the UPI, and first team by the NABC, which is absurd.  As a point of comparison, Hurley finished seventh in All-ACC balloting that same year, behind Tom Gugliotta, Rodney Rogers, Bryant Stith, and Hubert Davis, none of whom sniffed All-America.  As a senior, Hurley was first team All-America across the board.  Rogers, who nipped Hurley in ACC POY voting, was second team.  The All-America record is comparable to a Len Bias, Antawn Jamison, or Larry Miller.

So the question really is, which do you believe?  Is Hurley closer to Kenny Smith, as the ACC voters seemed to think, or is he close to Len Bias, as the national voters seemed to think?

I come down somewhere in the middle. In my heart of hearts, I seriously doubt that Hurley was a better player than Kenny Smith.  Had Kenny Smith been the point guard of those Duke teams, I think they would have been just as good, maybe better.

But having said that, I have to give Hurley some credit for what he actually accomplished.  While I don’t think he was a better player than Kenny Smith, he accomplished a lot that Kenny Smith did not.  He played in 20 NCAA Tournament games.  He played on two national championship teams.  He was Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament.  He’s the all-time assist leader in all of college basketball.  Maybe Smith would have the same accomplishments had he been on those teams; I don’t know.  But Hurley’s teams made Final Fours and won championships, and Smith’s didn’t, and that’s a fact.  We have to apportion some credit for all that winning, and Hurley deserves a generous share, even if less than Laettner.

I also give Hurley credit for his senior year.  I’m not sure that he was a first team All-American, but he had a great year.  Without Laettner, he had to step up his scoring, and he did, averaging 17 points and 8 assists, and shooting 42% from three, 80% from the free throw line.  He wasn’t without help, obviously; Grant Hill, Thomas Hill and Cherokee Parks were all there.  But it wasn’t the same overwhelming talent level of the previous two years.  He had to do more, and he did it, and while I would have flipped Hurley and Rodney Rogers on my All-America ballot, he was far from the worst first teamer we’ve ever seen.

As an aside, in the past 30 years of college basketball, there have been only ten 17+ point, 8+ assist seasons. Notable ones in addition to Hurley 1993: JJ Barea, Northeastern, 2006; Kay Felder, Oakland, 2016; Trae Young, Oklahoma, 2018; Ja Morant, Murray State, 2019.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Wake Forest went through about a ten-year dry spell from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, spanning the coaching tenure of Jack McCloskey and the first few years under Carl Tacy.  The best years of that span were 1969-1971 – the three years of Charlie Davis.

• 1965: 12-15, 6-8
• 1966: 8-18, 4-10
• 1967: 9-18, 5-9
• 1968: 5-21, 3-11
• 1969: 18-9, 8-6
• 1970: 14-13, 6-8
• 1971: 16-10, 7-7
• 1972: 8-18, 3-9
• 1973: 12-15, 3-9
• 1974: 13-13, 3-9
• 1975: 13-13, 2-10

Davis made First Team All-ACC all 3 years that he played and was ACC Player of the Year as a senior.  His career coincided exactly with South Carolina great John Roche, both of whom were one year behind UNC great Charlie Scott.  In 1969, when Roche and Davis were sophomores and Scott was a junior, all three made First Team All-ACC, and Roche was POY.  In 1970, the result was exactly the same.  In 1971, with Scott gone to the NBA, Davis won POY over Roche.  I’ll talk more about the POY votes in the posts on Roche and Scott.

There have been only three ACC POYs who played on a team that did not have a winning ACC record: Davis, 1971 (Wake went 7-7); Len Bias, 1986 (Maryland went 6-8); TJ Warren, 2014 (NC State went 9-9).

Davis is quite possibly the most valuable free throw shooter in the history of college basketball.  I don’t think it’s an overreach to say that.  When I say “most valuable free throw shooter”, I mean he combined tremendous accuracy with getting to the line a lot, thereby creating a lot of value for his team.  Let me give you some numbers to substantiate that.  Davis, for his career, averaged 7.3 free throws made per game.  Think about that for a second. He averaged 7.3 points per game on free throws alone. That’s more than Tyler Hansbrough, more than JJ Redick, more than pretty much anyone else except the early guys like Hemric, Wilkinson, and Rosenbluth.  Not only that, but Davis’ career FT% is 87.3, which is fifth in ACC history.

If that doesn’t convince you, try this.  Since 1993, a span of 30 years, there have been only 16 seasons in all of college basketball in which a player shot 85+% from the line on 8+ free throw attempts per game, and nobody has done it more than once.  Davis did it three times.

Only five players in ACC history have three seasons with 22+ points per game: David Thompson, Billy Cunningham, Lennie Rosenbluth, Art Heyman – and Charlie Davis.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

I loved watching Randolph Childress play.  I remember him probably as fondly as any player who didn’t wear the red and white.  His performance in the 1995 ACC Tournament is something I will never forget.  I remember how disappointed I was when the Demon Deacons were upset by Oklahoma State in the Sweet 16.  I was really pulling hard for them, and I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see Childress play anymore.

Childress and Rodney Rogers came in together for Dave Odom in 1991.  Unfortunately, they only got to play together for two seasons.  Childress missed the 1992 season with a torn ACL; they both played in 1993; then Rogers turned pro.  You can’t help but wonder how good the Deacs would have been in 1994 with Childress, Rogers, and Tim Duncan.  But the stars never quite aligned.

The Demon Deacons weren’t all that highly regarded coming into the 1995 season, and as late as February 10, they stood at 5-4 in the ACC.  But they ripped off seven straight to end the regular season, including wins over Maryland, Georgia Tech, UNC, and Virginia.  It was their February 28 win at the Smith Center over second-ranked Carolina that really got people’s attention.  Childress had 26, Duncan dominated Rasheed Wallace inside, and Scooter Banks put the cherry on top with an incredible alley-oop dunk in the final seconds.  The momentum carried over into the tournament, and you know what happened there for Childress: 40 against Duke, 30 against Virginia, and 37 against the Tar Heels, with highlight plays galore, including the now legendary crossover on Jeff McInnis.

Childress had a higher profile locally than he did nationally.  He never received All-America consideration until his senior year when he made second team.  He was the sixth leading vote-getter in the AP, finishing just a few points behind Jerry Stackhouse for the last spot on first team (pretty sure those votes were taken before the ACC Tournament).  Wake Forest was not a media darling; they weren’t on the radar nationally until that push late in the 1995 season, and I think that hurt Childress a bit.

I’ve talked about that 1995 ACC season in a couple of other posts. I think 1974 was the best season in ACC history, but 1995 was the second-best. First team All-ACC was Joe Smith, Jerry Stackhouse, Childress, Tim Duncan, and Rasheed Wallace. That’s some team. Travis Best was a tremendous player who I’m not convinced doesn’t belong in the Top 100 – couldn’t crack first team. Bob Sura as a senior – couldn’t crack first team. Cherokee Parks had a tremendous year – couldn’t crack first team. Just incredible depth of talent. The next year, every player I just mentioned was gone except Duncan.

2003 Top 50 List: Yes

Dan Collins List: Yes

Burleson and McMillen, along with #58 Len Elmore and #57 Bobby Jones, are part of the quartet of outstanding big men in the class of 1974.  You can view the post on Elmore and Jones here.  After looking at this for a long time, all I can really conclude is that Burleson and McMillen are a notch ahead of Elmore and Jones.  But each of those pairs is dead even.  It’s impossible to differentiate conclusively.

Looking at All-ACC voting, Burleson had 579 career points; McMillen had 570.

Looking at All-America voting, that was summarized in the Elmore/Jones post.  I suppose, if you look hard enough, you might say that McMillen’s record there was ever so slightly better, but that requires some serious hair-splitting.

I decided to look at head-to-head.  I don’t think that’s a very good way of differentiating players, but I’m grasping at straws here.  They did play head-to-head eight times in their three years, twice in ACC Tournament finals, so there is quite a lot to go on.  Here are the results:

Date	McMillen – FG	Pts	Reb	Burleson – FG	Pts	Reb	Game Winner
1/5/1972	8-14	22	7	7-11	18	8	MD
1/31/1972	8-20	22	4	6-10	18	13	MD
1/14/1973	12-22	29	14	9-17	20	15	NCS
1/31/1973	10-16	25	6	8-15	18	10	NCS
3/10/1973	12-20	24	8	7-13	14	14	NCS
1/13/1974	9-18	24	11	3-19	13	10	NCS
1/30/1974	14-23	28	14	5-13	11	13	NCS
3/9/1974	11-16	22	7	18-25	38	13	NCS

On average, I think you’d have to say that McMillen got the better of those matchups.  But, in the most important game of them all, the 1974 ACC Tournament final, Burleson played one of the great games of all time in leading the Wolfpack to victory in the “greatest game ever played”.  So call that one even.

In terms of career numbers, as of the time they graduated, McMillen was 9^th in career scoring, Burleson 18^th;   Burleson was 6^th in career rebounds, McMillen 14^th.  Call that one even.

These guys are about as even as two players can get.  But I have to put someone ahead, and I’m going to go with Burleson.  Ultimately, he was Most Outstanding Player of the ACC Tournament twice, and McMillen wasn’t.  That’s a fact.  As you can see above, that’s certainly not because McMillen didn’t play well; in fact, he was first team All-Tournament all three years that he played.  It’s simply because Burleson’s team won.  Obviously David Thompson had a lot to do with that, but McMillen’s supporting cast was pretty good too.

McMillen, Jones, and Burleson were all members of the 1972 Olympic team which lost the gold medal game to the Soviet Union in such a controversial manner. Burleson was benched for that game for breaking a team rule – a decision that Burleson still seethes about to this day.

In Tim Peeler’s Legends of NC State Basketball, Burleson comes across as a complex figure. At times, he was plagued with self-doubt. Coming out of high school, he didn’t think he was good enough to play for Duke or North Carolina. But his fierce competitiveness eventually overshadowed his timidity and self-doubt and drove him to be great. He was known as a big game player, and his record bears that out.

One final comment on the Burleson/McMillen/Jones/Elmore group.  I think you would be hard pressed to find a similar quartet of four players in college basketball history – players of this quality, who played the same years, in the same conference, at (roughly) the same position.  I can’t think of one.