THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 21, 1995 TAG: 9511190442
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: College Preview Basketball
SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
The ACC, which already flies its flag everywhere from Maryland to Florida, is in a new state this season: the state of denial.
With most of last year's top talent gone to the NBA, with nary a team that can be considered a national-championship contender, with no team in the Associated Press preseason top 10, even, this would seem to be a down year for America's premier college basketball conference.
But on that point, many of the league's coaches and players won't give an inch.
``Until someone proves differently, we still have as good a conference as anybody in the country,'' Maryland coach Gary Williams said.
``I still think this is the marquee conference,'' Duke senior Chris Collins said, ``because of the competition from top to bottom.''
By any reasonable standard, the conference would be considered strong this year. Four teams - Wake Forest, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina - have made just about everyone's preseason top 25.
But the ACC doesn't set reasonable standards. The conference has been represented in five of the last six NCAA finals, and has produced three of the last five national champions.
``The competition year in and year out in the league is the best in the country,'' Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
And no doubt competition will be intense again this year. Even with households names like Smith, Stackhouse and Wallace no longer around - not to mention NBA first-rounders like Parks, Best, Sura and Childress - no one is likely to confuse the ACC with the A-10. There's talent in the league, familiar figures like Tim Duncan and Harold Deane, and newer players many fans don't know well yet.
``The fun thing about it is you're going to see some new guys come on the scene,'' Collins said.
Names to watch include Stephon Marbury, Vince Carter, Greg Buckner, Curtis Staples, Corey Louis, Ricky Price and Matt Harpring. All are freshmen or sophomores, and they could make up the next generation.
It's the presence of such rising rising stars, and the league's tradition of renewing itself, that make some coaches and players loathe to concede that the ACC could lose a step this year.
One point that there is agreement upon, however, is that the ACC has no clear frontrunner. Parity should be the rule this season.
``By the time the NCAA tournament rolls around, because of the parity,'' Williams said, ``you might see 10-6 (record) in first place, 6-10 in last place, with everybody bunched in there. The conference tournament might be more important than in years past.''
Conference lynchpins Duke and North Carolina are thinner than at any time in recent memory. Various publications and polls have annointed Wake Forest, led by Duncan; Maryland, with four starters back; or Virginia, with a talented backcourt, as the teams to beat.
Will any team make a run at national title? The polls and the pundits say no, but history suggests otherwise.
``The league will be better than everyone thinks,'' Clemson coach Rick Barnes said. ILLUSTRATION: [Side Bar]
ACC at a Glance
For complete listing, see microfilm.
KEYWORDS: SPECIAL SECTION by CNB