Tag: basketball

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Mike Lewis (not to be confused with UNC’s Bob Lewis, who played at the same time) was an outstanding big man who played at the tail end of the Vic Bubas era at Duke.  He had a monster year in 1968, averaging 22 points and 14 rebounds.  He was unanimous first team All-ACC, received a lot of support for ACC Player of the Year (won by Larry Miller), and made third team All-American.  He had 24 double-doubles (Tim Duncan holds the ACC record in that category with 29 in 1997).

Lewis was a similar player to Randy Denton, who succeeded him as Duke’s big man in residence.  I rate Lewis a bit higher because he achieved a level as a senior that was slightly better than Denton’s best.  Lewis’s 14.4 rebounds per game average in 1968 has been exceeded only three times since then: Tom Owens in 1970 (14.9), Len Elmore in 1974 (14.7), and Tim Duncan in 1997 (14.7).

Lewis played a major role in the two most famous “slowdown” games in the ACC Tournament.  In the 1966 semifinal, UNC held the ball and didn’t shoot unless they got a layup.  It almost worked, as the Tar Heels built a 17-12 lead in the second half, but Duke managed to claw back.  Lewis sank a late free throw to secure a 21-20 win for the Blue Devils, who went on to win the ACC championship and advance to the Final Four for the third time in four seasons.  In 1968, NC State tried it, and this time Duke was not so fortunate as the Wolfpack pulled out a 12-10 win to advance to the final against UNC.  Lewis was Duke’s high scorer with four points. 

If these slowdown games sound like a desperation tactic, that’s because they were.  Duke was the dominant program in the ACC in the 1960s, and their program at the time was known for size and rebounding, kind of like Roy Williams’ North Carolina teams.  Lewis was at the center of that, but Duke had other quality big men as well.  Dean Smith in 1966 and Norm Sloan in 1968 were honest in saying that they didn’t think they could deal with Duke’s size in a normal game, hence the spread out/slow down tactic.  Interestingly, Duke coach Vic Bubas didn’t complain or criticize their tactics at all.  He said in effect, it’s not against the rules, so I don’t have a problem with it.  For some reason, it took the NCAA 18 more years to figure out that this was gimmickry, not basketball, and institute a shot clock.

Lewis was also involved in a fascinating home-and-home series with John Wooden and UCLA.  In December 1965, the Bruins came to North Carolina and played the Blue Devils on back-to-back days; in December 1966, Duke went out to California and returned the favor.  Wouldn’t it be cool if a few of the top teams still did that?  Both the 1965 games were won by Duke; both the 1966 games were won by UCLA.  The difference?  Lew Alcindor.  1966 was Alcindor’s first year on varsity, and not coincidentally, the first year of the Bruins’ 10 year run of dominance.  Poor Mike Lewis, standing at 6’7”, didn’t stand a chance, and nobody else that played Alcindor did either.  That 1966-67 UCLA team is arguably the most dominant team in the history of college basketball, and Alcindor is arguably the greatest player in the history of college basketball.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Charlie Scott was the best player in the class of 1970.  Vann Williford was the second best.  A two-time first team All-ACC selection, Williford received significant support for ACC Player of the Year in 1970, finishing behind Scott and John Roche. He was also named MVP of the ACC Tournament – an exciting tournament won by NC State in a double overtime final over South Carolina.

The Wolfpack then advanced to the NCAA Tournament to take on Bob Lanier and third-ranked St. Bonaventure.  Williford had 35 points and 12 rebounds in a losing effort.  The Bonnies went on to the Final Four.  Williford’s last college game was the regional third place game.  He had 36 points and 11 rebounds in a win over Calvin Murphy and #17 Niagara. 

Looking back at that 1970 ACC Tournament, Williford’s performance really stands out. I did a quick study of ACC Tournament MVPs to see which of them scored the greatest percentage of their team’s points over the course of the tournament. As far as I can tell, only three players have scored 40% or more:

• Lennie Rosenbluth, 1957: scored 106 out of 237, 44.7%
• Randolph Childress, 1995: scored 107 out of 246, 43.5%
• Vann Williford, 1970: scored 73 out of 176, 41.4%

Next in line are Albert King, 1980 (37.9%), James Forrest in 1993 (37.3%), Len Chappell in 1962 (35.4%), and Zion Williamson in 2019 (35.1%).

So if you combine the stellar ACC Tournament with the two monster games in the NCAAs, that’s a pretty strong finish to a college career. I wonder if Williford would have received some All-America support if the vote had been held after the season.

Williford was a high school teammate of Carolina’s Rusty Clark at Fayetteville (NC) High School. He was not highly recruited but wound up at NC State in a roundabout way. Pistol Pete Maravich was the son of NC State coach Press Maravich but was unable to make the ACC’s minimum SAT score. As a result, Press and Pete moved on to LSU and left the cupboard somewhat bare for new coach Norm Sloan. Williford had signed with Pfeiffer but was hoping to get an better offer. When he got one from Sloan, he jumped at the chance.

20+ point, 10+ rebound average in a season since 1970:

• Vann Williford, 1970, 23.7/10.0
• Randy Denton, Duke, 1971, 20.4/12.8
• Tom Burleson, NC State, 1972, 21.3/14.0
• Kenny Carr, NC State, 1976, 26.6/10.3
• Rod Griffin, Wake Forest, 1978, 21.5/10.0
• Mike Gminski, Duke, 1978, 20.0/10.0
• Mike Gminski, Duke, 1980, 21.3/10.9
• Joe Smith, Maryland, 1995, 20.8/10.6
• Tim Duncan, Wake Forest, 1997, 20.8/14.7
• Antawn Jamison, UNC, 1998, 22.2/10.5
• Tyler Hansbrough, UNC, 2008, 22.6/10.2
• Marvin Bagley, Duke, 2018, 21.0/11.1

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Bob Sura’s freshman year was Florida State’s first year in the ACC.  They had been a pretty good program in the old Metro conference, but nobody expected much from them coming into the big, bad ACC.  The schedule didn’t do them any favors; their first ACC game was in Chapel Hill against fifth-ranked UNC, and to make matters worse, FSU was shorthanded, with Douglas Edwards suspended.  No problem.  All they did was breeze in and dominate the Tar Heels in the game that drew the infamous “wine-and-cheese crowd” comment from Sam Cassell.  Sura fit into that team perfectly. He had that Eminem swagger right from the start.  He had a tremendous year and was voted Rookie of the Year over James Forrest of Georgia Tech.

In 1993, everyone was back, and expectations were high.  The Seminoles didn’t disappoint, finishing 12-4 in the ACC and making a run to the Elite Eight, where they were destroyed by Jamal Mashburn and Kentucky.  You could see that kind of beatdown coming; they were one of those teams that tried to outscore you, and that only takes you so far, but it sure was fun to watch.  Sura, Edwards, and Cassell were all great, and all three made second team All-ACC.

That was the end of the glory days for the Pat Kennedy Seminoles.  The next year, Edwards and Cassell were gone, and the Seminoles fell all the way to 6-10 in the ACC.  But individually, Sura had a tremendous year as the focal point of the offense.  He was the third-leading vote getter behind Grant Hill and Randolph Childress for first team All-ACC.  In 1995, Sura’s scoring and FG% were down a bit.  You get the sense that the roster had been thinned out so much at that point that defenses were really able to key on him.  It was also the year of Stackhouse/Duncan/Smith/Wallace, and Sura found himself back on second team All-ACC.  He went on to have a fine NBA career.

Since 1993, there have been only 4 seasons in which an ACC player averaged 15+ points, 5+ rebounds, and 5+ assists.  Greivis Vasquez did it twice, in 2008 and 2009; Grant Hill did it in 1994; and Sura in 1995.

Sura, Julius Hodge, and Danny Ferry are the only ACC players with 2000 points, 700 rebounds, and 400 assists.

All-Time ACC Seven-Letter Name Team:

• Len Bias, Maryland
• Rick Fox, UNC
• Kyle Guy, UVa
• Sean May, UNC
• Doug Moe, UNC
• Bob Sura, FSU
• Joe Wolf, UNC

Random fact: there have been 64 players in ACC history who played 4,000+ career minutes.  Sura (and Duane Ferrell) had 3,999.

2003 Top 50 List: Not eligible

Dan Collins List: No

This one surprised me.  I don’t remember thinking of Jon Scheyer as a great player while he was active.  Since then, I think my brain had subconsciously lumped him in with Steve Wojciechowski and Greg Paulus.  I certainly wasn’t looking for opportunities to heap further recognition on Krzyzewski-era Duke players; I’m as tired of hearing about them as anyone.  But I have to follow where my methods lead; and they lead me to the conclusion that Jon Scheyer deserves to be on this list.

First of all, let’s talk about the year he had in 2010.  He was the best player on the best team in the country – a national championship team, no less.  He was unanimous first team All-ACC.  He was runner up for ACC Player of the Year.  He was a named second team All-America by all the major services.  Like advanced metrics?  According to kenpom, Scheyer had the third highest offensive rating in the nation in 2010 among players who used at least 20% of their team’s possessions.  According to sports-reference.com, he led the nation in win shares.

OK, so he had a great year.  What else did he do?  Well, for one thing, he scored a lot of points.  Would you believe that Scheyer ranks 32nd in ACC history in career points?  He scored more career points than Shane Battier, Grant Hill, and John Lucas.  He is one of just six players (the others are Johnny Dawkins, Greivis Vasquez, Danny Ferry, Bob Sura, and Julius Hodge) with 2000 points, 500 rebounds, and 400 assists.  He was MVP of the ACC Tournament in 2009, when he had 29 in the final to lead Duke over Florida State. 

The biggest argument against him is that he wasn’t named All-ACC, not even third team, prior to his senior year.  And I admit, that’s pretty compelling.  There are going to be very few guys on this list who only made All-ACC once.  But I think he should have been on in 2009.  Gerald Henderson made first team and Kyle Singler second team, but Scheyer was the best offensive player on the team, looking at the advanced metrics.  He just didn’t score quite as many points as they did, and the leading scorers tend to be rewarded in All-ACC voting.  He should have been second team.  Keep in mind also that All-ACC voting happens before the ACC Tournament, which he was the MVP of, so that probably would have changed things too.

When you consider the total package – the great senior year, the national championship, the sneaky good junior year, the ACC Tournament MVP, the advanced metrics, and the impressive career totals – for me, it’s too much to ignore.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Eric Montross is a difficult player to rank.  I always felt that he was overhyped.  A prized recruit from Indiana, he steadily improved through his first three years and had a great year for the 1993 national championship team.  Montross and George Lynch both made first team All-ACC, and they deserved it.  But nationally, Montross got the attention.  He made second team All-American along with Rodney Rogers, while Lynch made nothing.  Montross finished ahead of Rogers in Wooden Award voting.  He wasn’t better than Rodney Rogers on the best day of his life.

The hype train was at full speed heading into the 1994 season.  Montross was the top vote-getter on the preseason All-America team – ahead of Grant Hill, Glenn Robinson, and Jason Kidd.  Instead, he took a step backwards, averaging only 13.6 points and regressing significantly in FG% and FT%.  Late in the season, he had a stretch of nine ACC games in which he scored a total of 82 points.  When the votes were tallied, Montross wound up on second team All-ACC, finishing behind teammate Derrick Phelps and Clemson’s Sharone Wright in the voting, among others.

But nationally, the voters didn’t get the message.  Montross made second team AP All-America, first team (!) NABC All-America, and finished 9^th in Wooden Award voting.  It’s a perfect illustration of the difficulties with national voting, where votes are often cast based on reputation rather than performance.  I’m sure most of the voters take their responsibilities seriously, but their day jobs require them to focus locally.  It’s natural they won’t know players from across the country as well, and so they vote on reputation.

“It’s hard to say North Carolina center Eric Montross has had a bad season.  He’s second on the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game and first in rebounding at 8.1.  He’s hitting 54.3% of his shots.  OK, you can say he’s a bad free-throw shooter, courtesy of a 57.3% mark from the line, but that’s about it.  Still, it was more than a mite surprising to see Montross listed as one of the five finalists for the Naismith Award as college basketball’s player of the year.  It made you wonder if they’d been watching film of last year’s NCAA Tournament instead of this year’s games.  Admittedly Montross has battled some oppressive zone defenses, but he has not had an All-American year.  He hasn’t even been the best center in the ACC with Maryland’s Joe Smith emerging for that honor.  It makes you wonder if those nominations are by reputation only.” – Lynn Zinser, The Charlotte Observer, 3/5/1994

In Montross’ defense, the 1994 Tar Heels were not a good perimeter shooting team.  Donald Williams had a disappointing year, and there were some injuries in the backcourt.  Teams did collapse inside and challenge the Heels to make perimeter shots.  Montross’ offensive game lacked the variety to adjust to the way he was being defended.  Additionally, the team had chemistry problems which had nothing to do with Montross.  As the season went on, seniors Brian Reese and Kevin Salvadori found themselves sitting and watching freshmen Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace take more and more of their playing time.  It seemed to create a negative vibe.  The Heels still won the ACC Tournament and received a 1 seed, but somehow it wasn’t that big of a shock when they were upset by Boston College in the second round.

The other thing that happened to Montross in 1994 is that he simply got leapfrogged by younger, better players.  Joe Smith, Tim Duncan, even Cherokee Parks – these guys were more athletic and had more complete games than Montross.

But he was what he was – a two-time All-American and a first team All-ACC player who made huge contributions to a national championship team.  He deserves to be on the list.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Tom Hammonds was a four-year starter for the Georgia Tech teams of the mid-1980s.  He was the bridge between the Mark Price/John Salley teams (Price and Salley were seniors when Hammonds was ACC Rookie of the Year in 1986) and the 1990 “Lethal Weapon 3” Final Four team.  Along with Danny Ferry, Hammonds was a unanimous 1989 All-ACC selection.  He even snuck onto NABC Third Team All-American.  He is one of 14 ACC players with 2000 career points and 800 rebounds (spoiler alert: all 14 are in the Top 100).

In Hammonds’ first ACC Tournament, the Jackets made a great run to the final, losing to Duke 68-67.  After that, Hammonds never won another ACC Tournament game.  And his NCAA Tournament experiences weren’t much better:

• 1986: #2 seed, upset by #11 LSU in the Sweet 16
• 1987: #7 seed, upset by #10 LSU (again!) in the first round
• 1988: #5 seed, upset by #13 Richmond in the second round
• 1989: #6 seed, upset by #11 Texas in the first round

The next year, when Hammonds was gone, the Jackets went to the Final Four.  But I don’t knock him for the tournament results.  He played well in his tournament games.  It was just one of those things.  The 1990 team took a step forward in spite of Hammonds’ departure, not because of it.  In fact, if Hammonds had been on that team, I think they would have been right up there with UNLV as the best team in the country.  As great as their perimeter players were, they were just too weak defensively on the interior.

It’s an interesting observation that of the Top 25 ACC players in career minutes played, six played for Bobby Cremins.  Mark Price, Travis Best, Matt Harpring, Hammonds, Brian Oliver, Bruce Dalrymple, Kenny Anderson – these guys just never came out of the game.  Kenny Anderson in his two years averaged 38.3 minutes per game, the highest career average I’m able to find.  I think it’s safe to say that Cremins didn’t have an equivalent of the Dean Smith “tired signal”… most of the rest of the career minutes played leaders played for Krzyzewski, where it’s more about sheer volume of games played, although he plays his guys a lot of minutes as well.

2003 Top 50 List: No

Dan Collins List: No

Do you remember how good Walt Williams was?  He was the only reason to watch those early Gary Williams teams.  His 1992 season was truly incredible.  Only the greatness of Christian Laettner kept Williams from being ACC Player of the Year, and even then, he still got 23 votes.  Think about that – here’s a guy on a team that finished next-to-last in the ACC up against one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball – and 23 voters said Williams was better.  He just missed being first team All-America, finishing 6^th in AP voting.

On the year, Williams averaged 26.8 PPG, 5.6 rebounds, and 3.6 assists.  Try to find another season in which a major conference player averaged 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists.  I couldn’t.  And lest you think he piled up those points against inferior non-conference teams, he averaged 29.6 in ACC games.  In fact, he still holds the record for most points scored in a season in ACC games.  He had some absolutely monster games that year, including seven straight 30-point games against ACC teams and a 38-point, 14-rebound performance in the ACC Tournament opener against Clemson. And this wasn’t “volume scoring” – he shot 55% from two, 37% from three, and 76% from the line for a True Shooting Percentage of 59.5%.

But it wasn’t just that season.  He was playing at a very high level in 1991 when he broke his leg and missed most of the ACC season.  He probably would have been first team All-ACC had he stayed healthy.

There are a handful of Top 100 candidates whose career trajectories were affected by injuries.  JR Reid comes to mind.  Doug Moe missed a bunch of games as a junior, but that was due to academic problems.  Bobby Hurley missed some games as a junior, and maybe that kept him off first team All-ACC.  James Worthy, Sean May, and Elton Brand missed a lot of time early in their careers. But nobody was affected more than Williams. I thought a lot about how to handle that in compiling the list.  On the one hand, it doesn’t seem right to give a guy credit for games he didn’t play.  While I think he would have been All-ACC as a junior, the fact is that he wasn’t.

On the other hand, I feel like some sort of credit should be given for being a great player, even if circumstances prevent you from being in the lineup.  To borrow a line from Bill James, I’m not giving him credit for what he might have been; I’m giving him credit for what he was.  Walt Williams was a great player in 1991.  It’s too bad he didn’t get more opportunities to show it.

I would also argue that there is a hangover effect from that in terms of recognition.  Because Williams got hurt in 1991, he didn’t make All-anything.  And because he didn’t make All-anything, he wasn’t on anybody’s radar screen nationally going into 1992, and didn’t get the hype.  And there is no question but that preseason hype has a carryover effect in terms of getting end-of-season recognition.  So I’m suggesting that Williams’ injury in 1991 indirectly kept him from making first team All-American in 1992.

To support that point, here is the balloting for AP preseason All-America going into the 1992 season (65-member panel):

• Shaquille O’Neal – 64
• Christian Laettner – 61
• Jimmy Jackson – 52
• Calbert Cheaney – 23
• Lee Mayberry – 20
• Todd Day – 15
• Harold Miner – 14
• Alonzo Mourning – 14
• Allan Houston – 12
• Byron Houston – 11
• Clarence Weatherspoon – 7
• Terry Dehere, Bobby Hurley, Don MacLean, Malik Sealy – 6
• Walt Williams, Josh Grant, Chris Smith – 2

The eventual first team, in order of votes, was Laettner, O’Neal, Jackson, Miner, and Mourning; second team was Williams, Houston, MacLean, Anthony Peeler, and Adam Keefe.  I’m not taking away from how good Harold Miner was, but I think Walt Williams had a better year than he did.

Maybe I’m voting with my heart here instead of my head. Williams’ magical year was my senior year in high school, and I remember it fondly. But it’s my list, and I think Williams belongs on it.

2003 Top 50 List: Not eligible

Dan Collins List: Yes

I struggled with whether to put Tyler Zeller on the list.  What he has going for him is an outstanding senior year in 2012 in which he ran away with ACC Player of the Year and was an All-American, finishing eighth in the AP voting and making second team on all the major listings.  He was nearly as good as a junior in 2011, and with all due respect to Reggie Jackson of Boston College, probably should have made first team All-ACC.  Both the 2011 and 2012 Carolina teams were Top 10 teams, and Zeller was their best player.

What he doesn’t have going for him is that the ACC in 2012 was pretty weak.  Kenpom has them as the fifth-best conference that year, after the Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, and the SEC.  Zeller’s main competition for ACC Player of the Year was Virginia’s Mike Scott, a nice player but unlikely to be confused with Ralph Sampson.  I didn’t put Zeller or Kyle Guy on my early versions of this list, but after some reflection, I decided that I was probably being too hard on players from the 2010s.  Zeller is deserving.

The old cliché is that the elite programs don’t rebuild, they just reload, and that was certainly true of Roy Williams’ program at Carolina.  But reloading isn’t always as easy as it sounds; consider the 2010 Tar Heels.  The core four from the 2009 national championship team all departed, with Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green graduating and Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson leaving for the NBA.  The 2010 team was really starting over, with a combination of upperclassmen who had previously been role players and highly touted recruits who were unproven at the college level.  The result was a mess.  The upperclassmen – Deon Thompson, Will Graves, and Marcus Ginyard – just weren’t that good.  And the young players played like young players; nobody came in and made an immediate impact.  Roy kept changing the rotations, trying different combinations, desperate for something to work, but nothing ever did.  Zeller showed some promise early, but he got hurt and missed most of the ACC schedule.  The offseason was filled with more churn, as Ed Davis turned pro, Travis and David Wear transferred, and Graves left the program.

So there were lots of questions going into 2011, and the early season returns weren’t promising as the Tar Heels lost non-conference matchups to Minnesota, Vanderbilt, Illinois, and Texas.  After a dismal loss to Georgia Tech in mid-January, it seemed like they were on their way to another disappointing season.  But Roy finally found the right buttons to push, and the Heels reeled off 12 of 13, culminating with a blowout win at Duke in the regular season finale.  The core group was built around Zeller, surrounding him with Kendall Marshall, John Henson, Harrison Barnes, and Reggie Bullock. 

Amazingly, all five of them returned in 2012, and UNC was preseason #1.  They didn’t quite live up to that billing, but they had an outstanding year, going 14-2 in the ACC and advancing to the regional final.  Injuries really hurt that team; Tar Heel fans will remember, not without pain, that Roy played Stilman White in the regionals after Marshall broke a bone in his wrist, that on top of a season-ending injury to Dexter Strickland earlier in the year.  Had they stayed healthy, they had a great chance to make the Final Four.

So give Zeller some credit for that as well.  He had to deal with some real adversity in the program, and he led them back to the top, or very near it.