THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030548
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 134 lines
You might want to forget all that preseason talk about this being a down year for ACC basketball.
The ACC begins conference play tonight as the No. 1-rated league in the nation, according to the NCAA's latest Ratings Percentage Index Report - ahead of the Big East, the Big Ten, the Pac 10 and all the rest.
Most preseason predictions had the ACC, normally considered the toughest league in the nation, sliding downhill after losing most of its best players, including three sophomores, to the NBA draft last summer.
But according to the RPI Report, the ACC as a league played the most difficult preconference schedule in the nation, and did well enough to top the power rankings.
The league had a 65-22 record against outside competition. Five of the losses were against No. 1-ranked Massachusetts.
``Back on Nov. 1, everyone was saying this was going to be a down year for the ACC,'' Wake Forest coach Dave Odom said. ``Everyone seemed to buy into that except the coaches and players. No one has proved to be a great team, but many have proved to be very good and high-caliber teams.''
Wake Forest is the highest-ranked of the ACC teams at No. 12. North Carolina is 16th, Duke 19th and unbeaten Clemson 22nd. Of the others, only Florida State failed to receive votes in the latest Associated Press poll.
North Carolina coach Dean Smith, in his 35th season, says he can't recall the league ever having better balance: ``It is hard to pick any team that could finish last. I hope it is not us.''
Odom agrees that the league is more balanced than last year, when four teams tied for first place, but he thinks two or three teams will eventually jump out.
``By the time we get to March 1, I think the fans and media will have a great team in the league to talk about, and maybe two or three having a chance to win the national championship,'' he said.
Which teams might those be? We'll find out starting tonight with three conference games: Florida State at Virginia, Duke at Clemson, and Maryland at Georgia Tech.
North Carolina State is at North Carolina on Thursday night, and Wake Forest begins league play Saturday at Florida State.
Here is a look at the teams on the eve of conference play:
Virginia (5-3): The Cavaliers struggled in December and slipped from 15th out of the polls.
Starting slowly has been a familiar pattern for the Cavaliers in six seasons under coach Jeff Jones, but the problem may be more serious than in previous years, when they got in gear for the ACC season.
Jones has not yet developed much inside offense, and guards Harold Deane and Curtis Staples are shooting under 35 percent from the floor.
Says Jones: ``I think it is a matter of time before we start playing better and getting sharper on offense. Still, there are no guarantees.''
Florida State (8-2): The Seminoles are off to their best start since the 1988-89 season and have gone 5-1 since settling on a starting lineup of Kirk Luchman, James Collins, Corey Louis, Avery Curry and LaMarr Greer.
The bad news: Top reserve freshman Randall Jackson (10.8 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game) is expected to miss the opener because of a head injury suffered in practice.
Duke (9-2): This isn't the team Mike Krzyzewski thought he was going to have. Sophomore guard Trajan Langdon, the most talented Blue Devil, is out for the season with a leg injury. Senior forward Tony Moore will miss the remainder of the season because of academic reasons.
The good news: center Greg Newton (14.5 ppg, 7.9 ppg) is playing above expectations, and both Jeff Capel and Chris Collins are averaging 16 points from the perimeter.
Clemson (9-0): The Tigers were the surprise of the nonconference season and are the league's only unbeaten team despite losing strongman Iker Iturbe in the preseason.
It's been a team effort, as the Tigers do not have a single player among league's top 15 scorers or top 10 rebounders. Guard Merle Code is the leading scorer (13 ppg).
Clemson is waxing opponents by an average of 21.4 points with a defense that allows only 55.3 points per game. The Tigers have a league-leading turnover margin of 6.2 per game.
``Last year we had to pick our spots, but we are a more complete team this year,'' coach Rick Barnes says.
The bad news: Starting guard Bill Harder is expected to miss the opener against Duke because of a sprained knee.
North Carolina (9-2): Sorry, Tar Heels haters, but this team is much better than you or anyone else expected.
The reason has been the perimeter play of Jeff McInnis (16.5 ppg) and Dante Calabria (3.1 3-pointers per game), and the rebounding of freshman Antawn Jamison (9.3 rpg).
The bad news: McInnis is expected to miss the conference opener against N.C. State with a leg bruise, and freshman Vince Carter, struggling on defense, is unhappy because his playing time is shrinking.
Maryland (6-3): Picked in the preseason to win the ACC, the Terps are still trying to get over the loss of Joe Smith.
In the search for a replacement, the center position is being manned by sophomore Rodney Elliott, junior Mario Lucas or freshman Obinna Ekezie.
All three Maryland losses have come to national powers (Kentucky, UCLA and Massachusetts), and the Terps could still make a strong run at the ACC title with Johnny Rhodes (18 ppg, 4.4 steals per game) having a great season.
N.C. State (7-2): Even coach Les Robinson's mother had begun complaining about the Wolfpack's creampuff schedule before the Rainbow Classic, losing close games to No. 1 UMass and No. 13 Illinois and blowing out then-No. 18 Missouri.
``I'm glad we played those teams even if we went 1-2,'' Robinson says. ``It gets the media off our backs about our weak schedule.''
With Ishua Benjamin and C.C. Harrison off suspensions, State may be the deepest team in the league and it has the second-best center in Todd Fuller, the league's top scorer (22.4 ppg) and No. 2 rebounder (10.8 rpg).
Wake Forest (7-1): Odom says center Tim Duncan, the premier player in the league, is not up to speed yet - although he is averaging 18 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks per game and is hitting 58 percent of his field-goal attempts.
When Duncan gets in the groove, the Deacons could become the ``great team'' Odom had mentioned.
Georgia Tech (6-7): The Yellow Jackets continue to be the most unexplainable team in the league, as they have always been under Bobby Cremins.
Since beating ranked Louisville, they have lost four straight - the last two against Bradley and Santa Clara. They are off to their worst start since 1982, and can't even explain it to themselves.
``If we knew what was wrong, we'd fix it. It seems we have forgotten how to win,'' says senior guard Drew Barry.
Cremins is tinkering with the lineup trying to find answers, and freshman sensation Stephon Marbury (18.2 ppg) says the good news is ``we have to get better, because we can't get any worse.'' ILLUSTRATION: ACC THIS WEEK
[For a copy of the schedule, see microfilm for this date.]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wake Forest comes into the ACC schedule the with the highest AP poll
ranking - 12th, with Tim Duncan the team's backbone.
by CNB