2022-23 ACC Preseason Poll and Awards

[Orange315]

This team is going to prove a lot of people wrong. The perception is off because of how unathletic they have been the last couple years. (Especially last year) If Mintz plays well, which I think he will and Bunch, Taylor, Williams provide decent production this is a top 25 team.

 

[Sbucketball]

This team is going to prove a lot of people wrong. The perception is off because of how unathletic they have been the last couple years. (Especially last year) If Mintz plays well, which I think he will and Bunch, Taylor, Williams provide decent production this is a top 25 team.

Not sure if they'll be ranked, but I'm 100% with you that the media and general public are way off base with this team. My thought is they really start cooking late in the season, just in time to scare the hell out of whoever draws them in March.

 

[djcon57]

My hot take on Preseason Awards/Rankings after looking these over and seeing the Preseason AA teams.

People are massively overrating the good returning players. Felt like we saw that last year with UCLA specifically. There's always good young talents that will improve and arrive on the scene.

 

[Sbucketball]

My hot take on Preseason Awards/Rankings after looking these over and seeing the Preseason AA teams.

People are massively overrating the good returning players. Felt like we saw that last year with UCLA specifically. There's always good young talents that will improve and arrive on the scene.

100%. Prime example this year is UNC. UNC was up and down last year, and then made a run to the Championship game, and the entire media is acting like they're the GS Warriors playing against a bunch of high schoolers. I think they'll be really good, but not "head and shoulders above the rest of the field" good. Also Bacot will probably be the best ACC center, but the whole country is acting like he's Shaq 2.0 right now. What have you done for me lately is the name of the game.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

I think 8th is pretty generous for us. 4 spots ahead of Lville. We have nothing but question marks on the wing 2 spots to fill with newcomers/Williams I don't think the people who voted us 8th forgot about Edwards or Joe probably just consider both one dimensional and they didn't make the preseason top 10 players.

Wing is a complete unknown for us and everyone is putting huge expectations on Mintz out of the gate. (Mintz is ranked right where guys like Carey and Kaleb Joseph were.) Joe is going to get a ton of attention from defenses if someone doesn't step up as a 40% 3 point shooter its going to be tough for him to get open looks. I think we need Mintz and 2 freshmen wings to be very good right away or we are in trouble. Someone also has to be able to regularly hit 3s other than Girard. Feels like a big 'what if' to me.

 

[Niastri]

I think 8th is pretty generous for us. 4 spots ahead of Lville. We have nothing but question marks on the wing 2 spots to fill with newcomers/Williams I don't think the people who voted us 8th forgot about Edwards or Joe probably just consider both one dimensional and they didn't make the preseason top 10 players.

Wing is a complete unknown for us and everyone is putting huge expectations on Mintz out of the gate. (Mintz is ranked right where guys like Carey and Kaleb Joseph were.) Joe is going to get a ton of attention from defenses if someone doesn't step up as a 40% 3 point shooter its going to be tough for him to get open looks. I think we need Mintz and 2 freshmen wings to be very good right away or we are in trouble. Someone also has to be able to regularly hit 3s other than Girard. Feels like a big 'what if' to me.

Yup, you just spelled out the worst case scenarios that would make this a bad team.

On the other hand, if half or more of those "what ifs" go our way, we could be a good teamOn the right side of the bubble.

If they mostly come out positive, we could be really good.

I think our defense will be improved by the replacement of low ceiling athletes with superior fast twitch athletes. The greater experience of Swider and Jimmy was irrelevant because they were in their first year in the zone.

Replacing those guys with Williams, Brown, Taylor or Bunch along with Buddy for Mintz is going to be a huge defensive upgrade right away. And they will get better as they learn to be instinctive with the rotation requirements. Every team since JB went all in on the zone has shown significant improvement defensively as the season progressed. Unlike last year, this team will have the horses.

On offense, things are murkier, but with the guys we have coming in, along with the likelihood of Williams improving, it seems likely we'll be able to find guys who can be good defensively and hit open shots.

Edwards and Girard are proven commodities that will likely evolve slightly with another year of experience. They excelled at the pick and roll their last few games, and it could be dominant this season.

Even our expected reliance on Mintz coming in and being good to great right away has Torrence and Copeland as backup contingencies if he doesn't work out as expected.

Mintz looks like a guy who used basketball smarts and skill to excel in high school, not merely blowing away smaller, slower kids with his athleticism. I think he's going to exceed his ranking substantially and make this a very good team right from the start of the season.

With the team only getting better as the year goes, I'm quite optimistic.

I look forward to a season with single digit losses. 25-6 regular season.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Yup, you just spelled out the worst case scenarios that would make this a bad team.

On the other hand, if half or more of those "what ifs" go our way, we could be a good teamOn the right side of the bubble.

If they mostly come out positive, we could be really good.

I think our defense will be improved by the replacement of low ceiling athletes with superior fast twitch athletes. The greater experience of Swider and Jimmy was irrelevant because they were in their first year in the zone.

Replacing those guys with Williams, Brown, Taylor or Bunch along with Buddy for Mintz is going to be a huge defensive upgrade right away. And they will get better as they learn to be instinctive with the rotation requirements. Every team since JB went all in on the zone has shown significant improvement defensively as the season progressed. Unlike last year, this team will have the horses.

On offense, things are murkier, but with the guys we have coming in, along with the likelihood of Williams improving, it seems likely we'll be able to find guys who can be good defensively and hit open shots.

Edwards and Girard are proven commodities that will likely evolve slightly with another year of experience. They excelled at the pick and roll their last few games, and it could be dominant this season.

Even our expected reliance on Mintz coming in and being good to great right away has Torrence and Copeland as backup contingencies if he doesn't work out as expected.

Mintz looks like a guy who used basketball smarts and skill to excel in high school, not merely blowing away smaller, slower kids with his athleticism. I think he's going to exceed his ranking substantially and make this a very good team right from the start of the season.

With the team only getting better as the year goes, I'm quite optimistic.

I look forward to a season with single digit losses. 25-6 regular season.

This team is going to lose a lot more than 6 games. They’ll lose probably 2-3 in the non conference alone. They aren’t beating NC, Virginia or Duke. That’s six already. I believe we play Virginia twice. At ND is another loss. We got smoked at Pitt last year and they actually have some guards this year. This is another 16-18 win team and that means 15-13 losses.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Feels like a big 'what if' to me.

Yes...and "ifs" don't get highly ranked.

Two big "ifs" are:
will Jesse Edwards bring up his game even further
and will Joe Girard be a big scorer as 2 guard.

IF those things happen it could be a pretty good season.

Why are they being ignored in the meaningless pre-season poll?
Probably because outside of Syracuse they get very little attention.

 

[Niastri]

Yes...and "ifs" don't get highly ranked.

Two big "ifs" are:
will Jesse Edwards bring up his game even further
and will Joe Girard be a big scorer as 2 guard.

IF those things happen it could be a pretty good season.

Why are they being ignored in the meaningless pre-season poll?
Probably because outside of Syracuse they get very little attention.

Two biggest "ifs" for me this season:

1) Can the offense get 12-15 good shots for Girard every game?

2) Can Mintz consistently get by ACC defenders and do something positive when he does,

If yes to both, everything will work out fine... If no we will be on the .500 bubble, not the tournament one.

 

[DanielA]

This team is going to lose a lot more than 6 games. They’ll lose probably 2-3 in the non conference alone. They aren’t beating NC, Virginia or Duke. That’s six already. I believe we play Virginia twice. At ND is another loss. We got smoked at Pitt last year and they actually have some guards this year. This is another 16-18 win team and that means 15-13 losses.

How can you say we aren’t going to beat any of those teams without actually seeing the team play.

 

[RealMcNeil]

This team is going to lose a lot more than 6 games. They’ll lose probably 2-3 in the non conference alone. They aren’t beating NC, Virginia or Duke. That’s six already. I believe we play Virginia twice. At ND is another loss. We got smoked at Pitt last year and they actually have some guards this year. This is another 16-18 win team and that means 15-13 losses.

Reasonable enough assessment with the unknowns. I’d say 20 wins is definitely in play before ACCT, though. I think there are a lot of 50/50 games, and a lot can happen between now and when the real rubber meets the road in December / January.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Reasonable enough assessment with the unknowns. I’d say 20 wins is definitely in play before ACCT, though. I think there are a lot of 50/50 games, and a lot can happen between now and when the real rubber meets the road in December / January.

To me it doesn’t really matter. We are irrelevant and banking on recruits to overplay their rankings. We were competitive and actually kinda sent guys to the league even tho they weren’t drafted and did make a sweet 16 recently even though the roster moves after stunk it’s pretty much the same situation as we’ve had every year since our first season in the ACC.

I would give anything to jump start the program with a Musselman/Oats/Underwood.

 

[Orangezoo]

Duke is loaded with this elite class. Which is great for them. With all that said they have a freshman coach who can recruit like crazy. The question will be can he get a bunch of guys with shots on their mind and more experience with the ball in their hands than out to run good sets, set good screens and make winning plays. It's been a struggle for Calipari and even K to a lesser extent to transition 5 plus NBA guys into a championship college basketball team. Can a young coach make it work? I think Scheyer has a huge task in front of him. I think they will be good but I see 10 loss good not 4 loss good as he struggles to piece things together. Also expect an early tourney exit and some 5 star transfers.

UNC has a clear head start on Duke for this next version of both programs. The talent plus team building of UNC and Kansas to me stands out as the likely new juggernauts with talent and teams vs all star teams. The SEC is now a bigtime player but without the stewardship that gets you titles.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

Duke is loaded with this elite class. Which is great for them. With all that said they have a freshman coach who can recruit like crazy. The question will be can he get a bunch of guys with shots on their mind and more experience with the ball in their hands than out to run good sets, set good screens and make winning plays. It's been a struggle for Calipari and even K to a lesser extent to transition 5 plus NBA guys into a championship college basketball team. Can a young coach make it work? I think Scheyer has a huge task in front of him. I think they will be good but I see 10 loss good not 4 loss good as he struggles to piece things together. Also expect an early tourney exit and some 5 star transfers.

UNC has a clear head start on Duke for this next version of both programs. The talent plus team building of UNC and Kansas to me stands out as the likely new juggernauts with talent and teams vs all star teams. The SEC is now a bigtime player but without the stewardship that gets you titles.

UNC had a great tournament run after a so so season. They’ve somehow avoided early departures for a while now. Makes sense they are a pre season hyped team tho. UCLA was last year after they made the final game off a play in game berth.


Scheyer isn’t starting life on third base he’s like 5 feet away from home with that class. Even if they disappoint he gets guys back as sophomores.

We just need that huge season to flip things. It’s such a good time to make a change even Nova is gonna be down with Jay Wright leaving and that is who’s taken advantage of our decline. UVA didn’t really follow up on their super teams.

 

[73CAV]

In UNC's case, it's worth remembering that their run of wins began when Love was moved off the ball, and Davis became their primary ball handler. Whether they continue with their success is an unknown (the loss of Brady Manek has to be considered), but it is not an unreasonable expectation.

 

[Col. Bleep]

Two biggest "ifs" for me this season:

1) Can the offense get 12-15 good shots for Girard every game?

2) Can Mintz consistently get by ACC defenders and do something positive when he does,

If yes to both, everything will work out fine... If no we will be on the .500 bubble, not the tournament one.

Yes, those are also important "Ifs."

And there's one I neglected and that I don't see much conversation about.
Can Symir up his shooting game?

If he can...suddenly the Orange have Symir and Joe Girard... two experienced guards playing their appropriate spots.
Plus Judah Mintz (Newcomers are always "ifs.").
That could be a real wealth of riches.