DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711100231

SECTION: SPECIAL                 PAGE: Z5   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: 1997-98 BASKETBALL PREVIEW

SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   86 lines

A FEW TWISTS SPICE UP ACC BATTLE

It seems to be a familiar story in the ACC this season with North Carolina and Duke again picked to battle it out for the league championship.

But there are some interesting twists. The biggest, of course, is that college basketball's winningest coach, Dean Smith, no longer is on the bench at North Carolina.

Smith, whose teams won or tied for 17 regular-season titles in his 36 years, announced his retirement shortly before the start of preseason practice. He was replaced by Bill Guthridge, an assistant to Smith the last 31 years.

Another twist is the team that will be challenging the Blue Devils and UNC for the title - Clemson.

The Tigers, whose only ACC regular-season title was in 1990, are No. 5 in the Associated Press' national preseason poll - right behind No. 3 Duke and No. 4 UNC.

UNC returns its top four players - Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Ed Cota and Shammond Williams - from last year's Final Four team.

Duke returns the bulk of its players from the team that finished first in the ACC regular season but ran out of gas at the end of the season and was beaten in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

It is not the veterans but four highly regarded freshmen - Shane Battier, William Avery, Elton Brand and Chris Burgess - who have Duke fans excited. They have credentials to be as good as any freshman class in ACC history and at least two are expected to start.

The rest of the league is fairly bunched up behind the top three.

Florida State, with new coach Steve Robinson, has the potential to crack into the first division for the first time since 1993.

North Carolina State, in its second season under Herb Sendek, finished strong last year and brought in one of the nation's top recruiting classes.

Maryland lost Keith Booth but has enough talent returning to make its fifth straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

Wake Forest suffered the most major loss, player-of-the-year Tim Duncan. The Deacons must get help from freshmen to stay among the league's top teams.

Virginia has some big holes to fill in replacing Courtney Alexander, who left school during the summer, and four-year leader Harold Deane.

Georgia Tech, which went from regular-season champ to last-place chump last year, brought in three of the nation's top recruits to help get it moving back to the top.

Let's get right to it. How much will UNC fall with Guthridge coaching instead of Dean?

If it's any indication, UNC was a popular choice to win the Final Four before Smith retired. Now, the Heels are being picked to finish second in the ACC to Duke.

Can we expect the kind of collapse that Duke had in '95 when Mike Krzyzewski became ill and turned his team over to assistant Pete Gaudet?

Absolutely not. That Duke team, which finished last in the ACC and was 4-15 overall, had nowhere near the talent that Guthridge has. Besides, Guthridge is a better coach.

How will UNC replace Serge Zwikker?

Probably with a frontcourt that includes Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Ademola Okulaja. Freshman Brendan Hawyood (6-11, 265) could play quickly and word is that 6-10 senior Makhtar Ndiaye had an excellent preseason camp.

Which of the four Duke freshmen are ready to contribute immediately?

All of them. The most impressive is Brand, who gives much needed rebounding help. He definitely will start and so may Battier and Burgess.

If the frosh get a lot of playing time, how can Coach K keep the returning lettermen happy?

All of them won't be happy and you might see one or two bailing out. The only veterans with guaranteed starting jobs are Steve Wojciechowski and Trajan Langdon.

Clemson might have made the Final Four last year if it had a solid outside shooter. Any improvement there?

The backcourt was strengthened by the arrival of Jason Pryor, who averaged 37.5 points in high school, and with the eligibility of transfer Johnny Miller from Temple.

How much will losing Tim Duncan hurt Wake Forest?

Some people thought the Deacs would have been a last-place team without Duncan last year. So it pretty much depends on how much help they get from the freshmen. Coach Dave Odom again has a patsy pre-conference schedule that won't prepare his players for what they'll face in the league.

N.C. State finished strong last year. Was that a sign of things to come?

Yes, but maybe not this season. Sendek has more talent and flexibility, but he will have to develop new chemistry with six freshmen. ILLUSTRATION: FILE PHOTO

...Tar Heels... KEYWORDS: SPECIAL SECTION SUPPLEMENT BASKETBALL

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