The NCAA will be implementing new rules for college basketball. While the sporting world awaits refbots, the rule changes will help the games and the officals. The womens’ game will now be featuring a 10-second backcourt rule, which is fairly self-explanatory. But there will be several changes to the mens’ game.
As previously noted, Big 10 fans do not like the Capital One Cup. Now, the world could be polite and let the Big 10 have its complaints and criticisms. But not the Confidential. The Confidential is creating its own “Cup,” this one being so very ACC-centric that it will be sure to anger Big 10 fans. Here is the scoring system:
The recent records speak for themselves. The Boston College Eagles have been terrible lately. But ACC fans should not necessarily conclude that Boston College is not carrying its weight. In fact, Boston College has more than carried its weight since joining the ACC 10 years ago.
First, the ugly. The last few seasons for Boston College have been terrible. Charles Barkley-esque “turrible.” Just look at these recent records:
You do not need a calculator to understand that the Eagles have been awful.
But let’s not get carried away with Boston College’s recent woes. Did you know:
So, while Boston College has fallen on hard times, just think of where they were before this recent sports drought? In addition to opening up the Boston market to the ACC, the Eagles have more than held their own in the ACC. And all of this while on an extreme geographic island without traditional rivals (like Syracuse and Pitt).
You were probably expecting an article about how the ACC teams do in the non-revenue/Olympic sports. After all, we devoted several posts to performance in the revenue sports. See here, here, and here. No, this article is much more simple.
Last week, we analyzed the last decade of ACC performances in football and basketball. There were some surprises. For example, Boston College in football and Florida State in basketball. But what does it mean overall? How about a ranking of the performances of all schools in both sports? Here you go.
The ACC records for the last decade of football was posted by acaffrey earlier this week so I thought it would be fun to see the numbers for the basketball side of the conference. I believe the biggest surprise over the last decade of ACC basketball has been the emergence of Florida State as the third winningest program in the conference behind Duke and North Carolina, a period that includes an ACC tournament championship for the Noles.
1. Duke 123-39 76%: Arguable one of the most successful decades in conference history. Duke has won at least 10 conference games in 9 of the last 10 years. During the last decade Duke has won one NCAA title, 3 ACC Regular Season titles, and 6 ACC Tournament titles.
2. North Carolina 117-45 72%: The baby blue (UNC) and navy blue (Duke) have dominated the conference in hoops. Although Duke has a better conference record, North Carolina won 2 NCAA titles during the Roy Williams era (which started in 2003-04). The Heels have also won 6 ACC Regular Season titles and 2 ACC Tournament titles during that time.
3. Florida State 85-77 52%: How in the world did the biggest name in ACC college football climb so high in the basketball centric ACC? Leonard Hamilton. Hamilton’s teams consistently play above their talent level through hard work and relentless defense. However, FSU could be hit the hardest from the most recent conference expansion as the competition for 3rd place in the conference gets considerably tougher.
Few questioned the decision by Syracuse’s Michael Carter-Williams to forego his last two years of college basketball and enter the NBA draft. After all, NBA draftniks had been drooling and fawning over MCW for the entire season. The phrase “certain lottery pick” is enough to convince the Confidential that any player should turn pro. But this one is getting ugly.
The good news for MCW is that Chad Ford has stated to Syracuse.com that scouts either “love” or “hate” MCW. So some scouts still love him. But others hate him? That seems harsh… presumably they just dislike his game. But that is bad news.
Even worse is this quote from Ford:
“I know his agent thinks that I’m insane to have him, I think right now, I have him projected outside the lottery,” Ford said. “I think Dallas is a very good possibility for him at 13 and Sacramento is a good possibility for him if Anthony Bennett is off the board. Other than that, I just haven’t identified the other teams where I think he is a fit and they’re high on him.”
The good news for MCW is that he is still likely to be a first-round pick and get guaranteed money. If so, the decision to go pro was unquestionably a sound move. If the flaws in his game were not corrected next year, that extra year of college would be wasted.
But it is still a shame to see someone leave school when the “potential” outweighs the “actual.” If only the NBA and college basketball could work together to allow kids a chance to continue to develop their game in college, without making that a risky proposition from a business sense.
Most sports fans are willing to make fun of a school based on its perceived on-field or on-court performance. Sometimes it is accurate; other times it is not. So, what we set out to do was look at the records of ACC schools in football over the past decade. Who do YOU think had the best record in conference games between 2003 and 2012? Worst? Courtesy of stassen.com, we were able to easily make the calculations.
So, Big 10 fans, you are getting a Maryland team that was 11th in conference wins the past decade. While Maryland has had financial troubles, they were operating under the same system as the rest of its ACC peers. So, good luck with that.
What do you think the rankings would be for hoops? Would it be Duke, North Carolina, or someone else at the top? Who would be at the bottom?
The Confidential 