When you travel down U.S. Route 29 through hilly Central Virginia, you leave behind everything except spotty cell phone reception. This is, until you stop in Greensboro, N.C., the location of the ACC headquarters, which was home to the 2007 ACC Media Days Sunday. To sum it up, every head coach and one to two players from all 12 ACC basketball teams -- usually captains or seniors -- sat at a table and fielded various questions from members of the media from Boston down to Miami and even across America. If one doubts the importance of the ACC to the college basketball landscape, even Len Elmore of ESPN -- the man who was the color commentator for the Virginia upset of Duke last season -- was on hand for the occasion.
During ACC Media Days I had the privilege to place a ballot predicting how I thought the final ACC standings would look and who I thought would make the All-ACC first team. North Carolina senior Tyler Hansbrough, Virginia senior Sean Singletary, Boston College junior Tyrese Rice, N.C. State sophomore Brandon Costner and North Carolina sophomore Ty Lawson comprised the preseason team this year. Hansbrough was voted preseason player of the year, while Duke freshman Kyle Singler was voted preseason rookie of the year.
The ACC also announced the creation of the Skip Prosser Award, which will honor the conference's top men's basketball student-athlete. Prosser was the head coach of Wake Forest until he suddenly passed away July 26.
ACC Media Days, however, were much more than predicting standings and players of the year. It was about the personality of the coaches and players. That is the beauty of the ACC: There is so much diversity of players and coaches in the league, yet they share the common bond of playing in the best conference in America and will defend the league adamantly.
As one would expect, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski drew the biggest media presence of anyone there. If the Blue Devils were coming off of a national championship, this would not be abnormal; however, Duke is coming off their worst season since the mid-90s. Questions abound about whether Duke can return to prominence nationally, let alone in the ACC. Even though the media predicted Duke to finish second in the ACC this year, the Blue Devils have legitimate competition within a half-hour radius of Durham.
Duke archrivals North Carolina and N.C. State were picked to finish first and third, respectively, in the ACC this season. The Tar Heels were the unanimous first-place selection, yet UNC coach Roy Williams did not let that go to his head. He spoke about the improvements his team had to make and made an excellent comparison between Lawson and Raymond Felton, the point guard on the 2004-05 UNC national championship team. N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe was equally humble, mentioning how much he will miss guard Engin Astür, even though he has the best frontcourt in the ACC.
Virginia coach Dave Leitao, Singletary and senior forward Adrian Joseph represented the Cavaliers in Greensboro this past Sunday. The Cavaliers, who were picked to finish fifth in the ACC, received more attention during this year's ACC Media Days than in the past. That will happen if you shared the ACC regular season title and your star player has made various preseason All-American teams. Singletary handled the attention well and looks poised to lead the Cavaliers further into the NCAA Tournament this year.
One coach I was extremely impressed with was Miami coach Frank Haith. He was articulate, spoke very positively about his team and sounded very confident while I talked to him. Though his Hurricanes were predicted to finish last in the ACC, they have a stud in junior guard Jack McClinton, who can carry the Hurricanes higher in the ACC standings than expected.
I had a blast at the ACC Media Days this year and it reaffirmed my belief that not only are we privileged to attend one of the top academic institutions in the country, but are fortunate enough to witness basketball in the best conference in America. As Dick Vitale would say, ACC basketball: It's awesome, baby!
Read More
Phenomenal pitching lifts Virginia softball to crucial road victory over No. 8 Florida State
By Ben McNiff | 3 hours agoWhen people look back on this specific iteration of Cavalier softball, they will remember this 2-0 victory on the road.
Live tracker: the men’s basketball offseason
By Michael Liebermann , Emory Huffman and Xander Tilock | 17 hours agoA frenetic offseason likely awaits.
Virginia is getting ‘better and better,’ and it was all on display against Syracuse
By Michael Liebermann | 21 hours agoVirginia did almost everything right in its best performance of the season.
