After the shakedown of games last night, it seemed like an appropriate time to take a look at some story lines and things of note in the ACC. Obviously, you guys are getting some perspective from my Power Rankings, but I'd like to go a bit deeper into some of the numbers. Here goes nothing...
StatSheet really gives you some surprising stats.If you asked yourself who had the highest offensive rating amongst ACC players, a few candidates would come to mind--Greivis Vasquez, Malcolm Delaney, Jon Scheyer, Sylven Landesberg, amongst others. But when you run down the top 7, the list has some shockers.
1.) Scheyer (Duke)
2.) Tyler Roche (BC)
3.) Adrian Thomas (Miami)
4.) Eric Hayes (MD)
5.) Jerome Meyinssee (UVA)
6.) Sean Mosley (MD)
7.) C.J. Harris (Wake)
If you had to make that list, would you ever have included Jerome Meyinssee? I sure wouldn't.
Other things of note: Eric Hayes has the highest 3PT%, eFG% and True Shooting %, Dwayne Collins leads the league in FG% (59.6), Al-Farouq Aminu leads in rebounding (10.955), Vasquez leads in both turnovers and assists, two Wake players are in the top 5 in most fouls per game (L.D. Williams and Chas McFarland).
There have only been five technical fouls in the league this year.
I don't know about anyone else, but that's a bit strange to me. This league seems more physical overall this year and there's always been bad blood between teams. To see the fact that there are only 5 technicals all year (although we could throw in Tony Woods' flagrant and ejection if we're arguing semantics) is just amazing. What's even more amazing is that of those 6, 4 of them are from Wake players. I guess they really are living up to that "reputation" everyone seems to think they have. Just for reference, there were 13 technicals in the league last year.
Some of the league's better players just aren't that great of shooters.
Of the league's top 20 scorers, 7 of them have eFG%s of less than 50% (Ish Smith, Landesberg, Delaney, Singler, Aminu, Joe Trapani, Vasquez). Obviously they are shooting more, but this is a bit surprising. Of the top 20 scorers, the one with the highest eFG% is Landon Milbourne (14.45 ppg, 55.65 eFG%).
Which leads me to mention, Maryland is a better team than their record and their biggest wins.
The Terps have been playing extremely good basketball and they deserve to be where they are in the ACC. They have a very efficient offense, as indicated by their peripheral offensive numbers and are getting a lot out of Milbourne, Hayes and Mosley to go along with their playmaker Vasquez. Obviously they have a tough stretch coming up, but if Maryland can come out of it in good shape, I'd give them a very good shot at winning the ACC Tournament.
North Carolina isn't just bad, they're really bad.
They have won 2 of their last 10 games and they have one true road win on the entire year. That's absolutely mindblowing. It's becoming old hat to talk about the Tar Heels' struggles, but outside of their Ohio State and Michigan State wins back in November-December, the Heels have only four other wins in the top 150 in the KenPom rankings (Nevada, Marshall, Virginia Tech, N.C. State). UNC, which prides itself on scoring the basketball, hasn't scored 80 points in 2010, after scoring 80 or more 11 times before the first of the year.
I know it's a Wake site, but don't sleep on the Demon Deacons.
Not only are they 17-5 (7-3), but they aren't just the beneficiaries of a favorable schedule. The Deacs are currently 13th in the RPI, with a SOS of 24th (RPI)/12(KenPom). They have 8 RPI quality wins and 5 true road wins. They have been a bit lucky--(7-1 in games decided by 6 points or less), but their computer numbers are terrific defensively (#4 in eFG% defense, #3 in defensive 3PT%, #25 in block%). This is a team that could easily finish 10-6 in conference.
If anything else has stuck out, feel free to post them in the comments. There's a lot to sift through, but there's always a lot to talk about when it comes to the ACC.