Here’s a simulcast with my daily ACC blog at On The B. Rink…

Last couple weeks, we looked at the early entrants and the grads–but how about the ACC players coming back and how the ACC dominoes fall next season?

The News & Observer puts together an early projected starting lineup yearly with early entrants/graduation/new recruits factored in and here’s my early picks based off how the ACC is looking at this point.

1. Duke Blue Devils

2009-10: 13-3, first
G Kyrie Irving, fr.
G Seth Curry, soph. (20.2 ppg @ Liberty)
G Nolan Smith, sr. (17.4 ppg)
F Kyle Singler, sr. (17.7 ppg)
F Mason Plumlee, soph. (3.7 ppg)
Bench: G Andre Dawkins, F Miles Plumlee, F Ryan Kelly, F Josh Hairston

Outlook: Loooooooooooooooaded. They will be a unanimous choice for the ACC and one of the top teams in the country.

2. Florida State Seminoles

2009-10: 10-6, third
G Derwin Kitchen, sr. (8.1 ppg)
G Deividas Dulkys, jr. (8.7 ppg)
G Michael Snaer, soph. (8.8 ppg)
F Chris Singleton, jr. (10.2 ppg)
F Xavier Gibson, jr. (5.5 ppg)
Bench: G Luke Loucks, F Terrance Shannon, PG Ian Miller, F Okaro White, F Jon Kreft

Outlook: No Alabi, no problem? That’s what I’m saying–the cupboard isn’t bare at FSU and if there’s a year that Hamilton’s Noles make a run–it has to be this season.

3. Virginia Tech Hokies

2009-10: 10-6, fourth
G Malcolm Delaney, sr. (20.2 ppg)
G Dorenzo Hudson, sr. (12.0 ppg)
F Terrell Bell, sr. (6.1 ppg)
F Victor Davila, jr. (5.3 ppg)
F Jeff Allen, sr. (15.2 ppg)
Bench: F J.T. Thompson, G Erick Green, F Jarell Eddie, F Allan Chaney, F Cadarian Raines, F Manny Atkins, G Ben Boggs

Outlook: The time is now in Blacksburg as they return everybody. Greenberg needs to advance past simply making the ever-elusive NCAA Tourney, but win some games in said tourney.

4. North Carolina Tar Heels

2009-10: 5-11, 10th
G Larry Drew II, jr. (8.5 ppg)
G Reggie Bullock, fr.
F Harrison Barnes, fr.
F John Henson, soph. (5.7 ppg)
F Tyler Zeller, jr. (9.3 ppg)
Bench: F Will Graves, G Dexter Strickland, PG Kendall Marshall, G Leslie McDonald

Outlook: The Tar Heels are an interesting squad to watch this season because they had such a fall from grace last season. Heels are still young and Williams will have quite a coaching job to do to get UNC back to the top.

5. Maryland Terrapins

2009-10: 13-3, second
G Adrian Bowie, sr. (4.8 ppg)
G Sean Mosley, jr. (10.1 ppg)
G Cliff Tucker, sr. (5.7 ppg)
F Dino Gregory, sr. (4.2 ppg)
F Jordan Williams, soph. (9.6 ppg)
Bench: F James Padgett, G Terrell Stoglin, F Mychal Parker, PG Pe’Shon Howard

Outlook: Terps lose three of their biggest starters from last season with Vasquez, Hayes, and Milbourne, but they have a talented group coming back. Sean Mosley has to step into the go-to-guy role and Jordan Williams has to expand his role in the paint for the Terps to stay here.

6. Clemson Tigers

2009-10: 9-7, sixth
G Demontez Stitt, sr. (11.4 ppg)
G Tanner Smith, jr. (8.7 ppg)
F Milton Jennings, soph. (3.2 ppg)
F Devin Booker, soph. (4.5 ppg)
F Jerai Grant, sr. (7.2 ppg)
Bench: G Noel Johnson, G Andre Young, G Donte Hill, F Bryan Narcisse

Outlook: The Tigers are in transition between philosophies with a new coach in Brownell and lose star forward Trevor Booker, but this team still has the guns to compete in a wide-open(past Duke) ACC.

7. N.C. State Wolfpack

2009-10: 5-11, 11th
G Javier Gonzalez, sr. (9.5 ppg)
G Lorenzo Brown, fr.
F C.J. Leslie, fr.
F Richard Howell, soph. (4.9 ppg)
F Tracy Smith, sr. (16.5 ppg)
Bench: PG Ryan Harrow, G Scott Wood, G C.J. Williams, F DeShawn Painter, F Jordan Vandenberg

Outlook: Expectations should be high in Raleigh with a talented crew coming in and back. If Lowe can capture the magic of the ACC Tourney run to the semis, the Pack can go far, but I’m staying a bit skeptical on them.

8. Miami Hurricanes

2009-10: 4-12, 12th
G Durand Scott, soph. (10.3 ppg)
G Malcolm Grant, jr. (9.6 ppg)
G DeQuan Jones, jr. (5.7 ppg)
F Julian Gamble, jr. (3.5 ppg)
F Reggie Johnson, soph. (6.4 ppg)
Bench: G Rion Brown, G Garrius Adams, G Antoine Allen, F Donnavan Kirk

Outlook: Miami will be a trendy pick this season, but I’m on the fence with them. I  like Scott and Johnson, but Miami has a lot to prove right now.

9. Virginia Cavaliers

2009-10: 5-11, ninth
G Jontel Evans, soph. (2.4 ppg)
G Sammy Zeglinski, jr. (8.9 ppg)
G K.T. Harrell, fr.
F Mike Scott, sr. (12.0 ppg)
F James Johnson, fr.
Bench: PG Billy Baron, F Will Regan, F Assane Sene, G Joe Harris, G Mustapha Farrakhan, F Will Sherrill

Outlook: I had the ‘Hoos at ninth in my early, early picks last season and that’s where they finished–completely new team coming to play next season with Bennett cleaning house, but they have some talent.

10. Boston College Eagles

2009-10: 6-10, eighth
G Reggie Jackson, jr. (12.9 ppg)
G Dallas Elmore, jr. (3.9 ppg)
F Corey Raji, sr. (11.4 ppg)
F Joe Trapani, sr. (14.1 ppg)
F Josh Southern, sr. (4.4 ppg)
Bench: PG Biko Paris, F Courtney Dunn

Outlook: New system, several transfers, and a squad of mostly unproven, consistently, players at this level–hard to get behind the Eagles at this point.

11. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

2009-10: 7-9, seventh
G Moe Miller, sr. (3.9 ppg)
G Iman Shumpert, jr. (10.0 ppg)
G Glen Rice Jr., soph. (5.4 ppg)
F Kammeon Holsey, r-fr.
F Brad Sheehan, sr. (1.2 ppg)
Bench: G Brian Oliver, PG Mfon Udofia, F Daniel Miller

Outlook: The Jackets return all of their primary guards, but the problem falls with losing the three best players off last year’s team with Favors, Lawal, and Peacock in the paint. I will stay cautious on Georgia Tech because I’m not sure the Jackets’ guards can carry them.

12. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

2009-10: 9-7, fifth
G Tony Chennault, fr.
G C.J. Harris, soph. (9.9 ppg)
F Ari Stewart, soph. (7.3 ppg)
F Tony Woods, jr. (4.6 ppg)
F Carson Derosiers, fr.
Bench: F Travis McKie, F Melvin Tabb, G J.T. Terrell, F Ty Walker, G Gary Clark

Outlook: New coach Jeff Bzdelik has a project on his hands, but the cupboard isn’t totally bare. If he can get the Deacs back to the NCAA Tourney, Bzdelik did a great coaching job.

Who’s too high? Who’s underrated? Can anyone knock off Duke? Early NCAA Tourney bid predictions?

It’s a new day in Chapel Hill.

I think most Tar Heels fans knew we were being spoiled while we had Tyler on the court. While we had Ty running the point. While we had Wayne and Danny hitting 3’s.

When you see Psycho T out-working every other player on every team you play for 4 years, you start to believe that every Carolina team will have players like that. But the reality is that Tyler Hansbrough was unique in his tenacity and toughness.

This Carolina team reminds me of a “Dean Smith” kind of team. Lots and lots of tall guys. Some average size guards and average size forwards. This team seems almost “too tall” to play the way Roy wants them to play….run up and down the court, get easy baskets. Can Deon Thompson, Ed Davis, Tyler Zeller, and John Henson run like Roy wants and finish the fast breaks? That to me will be something to watch as the season develops… can our big guys learn to play the way Roy wants them to play?

The mindset of Carolina fans will change this year. We have gotten used to believing that we will win every game. That Ty or Wayne will hit a crucial shot in crunch time to get the win. That Tyler will get the much needed rebound. This year, we are on much more of a level playing field with many teams. We will dominate the average teams but against good, solid teams (ACC, etc.), we will have battles on our hands.

It will be frustrating to watch… but part of “Recovering Spoiled Fan Syndrome.”

And definitely a year where Roy and his coaches earn every penny.

Go Heels!

MrTarHeel
www.mrtarheel.com

2009 has been tumultuous for a number of reasons. Earthquakes in Asia have taken the lives of thousands.  Swine flu has swept across the nation like a pack of angry gnats, slightly annoying people, and then going away. 2012 Apocalypse Theories have floated around television, the internet, and movie theaters, causing widespread panic.

Now, as if this year couldn’t get any more disastrous, JJ Redick has announced that his “super group” of “rappers” is releasing an album this fall.

For all of you uncultured, philistines out there who haven’t sunken their intellectual teeth into JJ’s masterful tomes of poetic glory, I suggest you take a look at this poem, written on November 10th 2004, for a better idea of just how disastrous this release might be.

I can’t see what my future has in store
but I move forth with the strength of a condor
The courage of a warrior
The commitment of an American soldier
Despite this weight on my shoulder
my inner forces circulate to form
a nucleus of an unbreakable bond
These words describe the soundtrack to my life’s song
My mind and body united like the Colors of Benneton
My destiny isn’t told by the creases of my palm
A sharp thorn once cut my soul
The blood flowed
But no bandage would cover the wound
I couldn’t help but stare at the distant moon
Waiting for a resolution to come at an instant soon
I asked the Lord, “What am I to do?”
He said, “Son, I made the sky blue
The rain falls because of me
Leaves change colors on a fall tree
I was the inspiration to Martin Luther King
I’m the reason Ray Charles could sing
I’ve changed others through and through
And my son, I’ll do the same to you”

While the album has not received much publicity thus far, it is expected to compete with other timeless, basketball masterpieces of hip hop glory such as Shaquille O’Neal’s  “Yo Shaq, Where You at” or Aaron Carter’s hard knock rebuttal, “That’s How I Beat Shaq.”

There’s not a whole lot of information available at this point, so I thought I’d speculate about potential band and album names for Duke’s oh-so hateable, three point bombadeer.

Here’s 5 for starters.

JJ and the Floppers: Pros and Condors

3 Points Down: Bricktonite

Dr. JJ (featuring Tre, LongBall, and Zoobeezy aka Brian Zoubek): Benchtime Blues

The Great Beyond: Sweet Sixteen (If You Know What I Mean)

Tryfekta: The Land of Milk and Honeys

7 Cent : I Ride the Magic Bench

And while we’re making fun of Air Redick, why not throw in a few more anecdotes?

Let me get something off of my chest. This is going to take all the inner condor that I can conjur up, but I think I can do it. The summer before my freshman year of high school, I attended basketball camp at Duke University. In all honesty, it was one of the worst basketball camps that I have ever seen. I’ll spare you the details, but from the effort put into it, you’d have thought it was the Allen Iverson basketball camp. I really didn’t learn a darn thing. So that’s that. Please forgive me, UNC fans. I think this article alone atones for my mortal sin.

1) During the week long camp, JJ Redick wore his McDonald’s All-America shorts every day, as if he didn’t have any other pairs. And speaking of humility…

2) JJ was coaching my team one game, and I was sitting on the bench with a lanky, black kid from Richmond, Virginia. JJ asked this kid where he went to high school, and the kid told him George Wythe. JJ responded by stating calmly, “I dropped a quiet 47 points on them in the state championship game.”

3) (told to me by a friend at the camp)—At the outdoor courts, JJ asked a kid on his team for a sip of his Gatorade. He then chugged the bottle entirely. It was 90+ degrees outside at the time.

You’re just going to have to take my word for it on these three anecdotes, but there’s legit proof for the rap album. Don’t believe me?

http://allhiphop.com/stories/news/archive/2009/10/29/22003127.aspx

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/The-10-man-rotation-starring-J-J-Redick-s-rap-?urn=nba,198356

An old saying goes somewhat like this: “We must look at our past to know what our future is.” For those of us that are Tar Heel basketball fans this means that while we watch the future play on the hardwoods of the Dean Dome, we must look up to the jerseys in the rafters to see the history of this great program which this year celebrates its 100th year of existence. In this post we talk about one of those ex Heel immortalized up there. The Tar Heels first played in the 1910-11 season in what used to be Bynum Gymnasium, now called Bynum Hall. From there the team changed venues four more times, heading first to the “Tin Can“, then to Woollen Gymnasium, switching over to Carmichael Auditorium and finally to the Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, or as most would call it, the Dean Dome. In that time UNC has won 1,984 games, second most behind only Kentucky. The key to this success? Great coaching and, of course, great players.

You can see a lot of those players if you’re ever at the Dean Dome and look up towards the ceiling, at what are called the jerseys in the rafters. There you will see the names of players such as Billy Cunningham, Ed Cota, Brad Daugherty, Bobby Jones, Bob McAdoo, Eric Montross, Sam Perkins and I could go on and on and on. All of them great players, but only eight players in a century have been able to make it to the front row, and this eight part post is going to pay homage to those players, starting with Antawn Jamison, the seventh player to ever have his number retired.

First off, let’s talk about how you make it to the front. It’s pretty simple, but very hard to achieve, since the only way to make it there is to be the elected National Player of the Year by one of the following:

• Associated Press
• Oscar Robertson Trophy
• National Association of Basketball Coaches
• Sporting News
• John R. Wooden Award
• Naismith College Player of the Year

Antawn, who’s full name is Antawn Cortez Jamison, which most do not know was a mispelling on the birth certificate that the family decided to keep, won both the Naismith and the Wooden award in the 1997-98 season. In that year the 6′9″ junior forward averaged 22.2 points and 10.5 rebounds for the year. What makes this very interesting is that Antawn did this in the year of transition, since Dean Smith retired at the end of the 1996-97 season and long time assistant Bill Guthridge took over the team. With a team that featured Vince Carter, Brendan Haywood, Shammond Williams, Orlando Melendez, Ed Cota and Jamison, the Heels went all the way to the Final Four, losing to Utah 65 to 59. The final record of that squad was 34 and 4. Jamison would finish his career with an overall record of 83 and 22 (79.04% winning percentage), while averaging 19.0 points and 9.9 in his 105 games at UNC.

At the end of his third year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Antawn Jamison would leave college and head off to the next level, where he would be picked fourth by the Toronto Raptors in the 1998 NBA Draft. His teammate, Vince Carter, would go fifth in the same draft, ending up with Golden State. Shammond Williams was also part of this draft, heading to the Chicago Bulls as the 34th pick overall. Others from that team would make it to the next level, and a lot of people have often wondered, if Dean Smith had stayed one more season, would he have brought home a third national title. With all that talent it was usually Jamison’s name that would come out of Dick Vitale in his broadcasts, or as Dicky V would say, “Mr. Jamesssooonnn”.

But Antawn Jamison has been as much of a great person off the field as he has been a great player on it. One thing that comes to mind about his earlier years in high school was his mom telling a writer doing a story about a young Antawn how she couldn’t go see him play because her stomach would get uneasy and she could not bear to stand watching him miss a shot. Mrs. Jamison was able to go see her son when he went from Charlotte to Chapel Hill, but only on the weekend, because during the week she had to tend to Jamison’s younger siblings. If you read about this Tar Heel you will soon see that he was brought up in a family atmosphere, where love and unity was a founding block of the family. As he grew up and was able to give back, Antawn has shown to any and all that he learned that lesson.

From setting up a scholarship at his old high school, Providence High School, to starting the Antawn Jamison’s “A Better Tomorrow”, which he hopes to use to provide the underprivileged with a chance at a better future, knowing that Jamison is a Tar Heel makes someone like myself feel proud, and not just because of his accomplishments on the basketball court.