One thing brownell can do if coach defense and our guards this year are long. Much different than our past teams. He’s typically good at taking away teams main options and if you don’t distribute the ball well then it’s really tough. This years defensive numbers have slipped a tad due to the offense being a little more up tempo and we don’t try to grind games out like we had to when our talent was bottom tier. we have the makeup of a sweet 16 team. Veteran team, 5-6 guys that can easily score and we defend. Hope we can get in somehow.
"This will be the second significant hire for first-year athletic director J Batt, who also promoted assistant Brent Key to head coach in football after the 2022 season. Batt, who came from Alabama, has a background in fundraising and plans to be aggressive with NIL (name, image and likeness). He watched Crimson Tide basketball coach Nate Oats arrive in Tuscaloosa and quickly build that program into a national title contender, and he hopes to use a similar blueprint at Tech." so at this point you have to wonder if GT's AD actually understands he's the AD at GT.
“Duke really turned a corner on offense against Miami”…..yes by Miami’s best defender being injured for the entire game
Definitely weird considering how inconsistent we were all year. Somehow it was one of those matchups that just worked in our favor.
This Clark guy worth a shit? Middlebrooks is pretty raw but he can bang and I liked the edge he played with.
he’s not bad. Pretty good rebounder, decent defender, can handle a little bit. the issue with him is that he absolutely cannot shoot. His jumper is aesthetically pleasing and he got plenty of open looks with defenses focused on joiner and baby T but it just rarely goes in. supposedly he was tired of playing the 4 here so I’d imagine you told him he can play the 3.
I’m not sure but Middlebrooks transferred because he was stuck behind pj hall at the 4. I imagine he will be a 3 for us.
I think Middlebrooks will be a good fit for us spelling Burns at the 5. Ebe Duwouna was a nice kid by all accounts but he’s absolutely dog shit at basketball, Ben will be a clear upgrade in that role. A good contrast with Burns too as he’s a more natural PnR big (Burns’ limitations on this front were a big reason for Clemsons success slowing us down this year).
2023-24 ACC Basketball Preseason Poll School, Points 1. Duke (44), 757 2. Miami (5), 693 3. North Carolina (1), 670 4. Virginia (1), 593 5. Clemson, 570 6. Wake Forest, 440 7. NC State, 420 8. Virginia Tech, 390 9. Pitt, 380 10. Syracuse, 321 11. Florida State, 294 12. Boston College, 227 13. Georgia Tech, 157 14. Louisville, 108 15. Notre Dame, 100 First-place votes in parentheses (51 total voters) Preseason All-ACC First Team Kyle Filipowski, Duke, 51 Armando Bacot, North Carolina, 50 PJ Hall, Clemson, 48 Reece Beekman, Virginia, 44 Norchad Omier, Miami, 42 Second Team Judah Mintz, Syracuse, 39 Nijel Pack, Miami, 34 Blake Hinson, Pitt, 33 Tyrese Proctor, Duke, 24 Quinten Post, Boston College, 23 ACC Preseason Player of the Year Kyle Filipowski, Duke, 35 votes Armando Bacot, North Carolina, 13 PJ Hall, Clemson, 2 Tyrese Proctor, Duke, 1 ACC Preseason Rookie of the Year Elliot Cadeau, North Carolina, 40 votes Jared McCain, Duke, 6 Caleb Foster, Duke, 3 Donald Hand Jr., Boston College, 1 Carlton Carrington, Pitt, 1
Excited to watch Bacot set every record the league has and not hear any commentary about how he’s setting them.
Really sad seeing Duke lose last night. What a shame And with that, my contributions to the ACC basketball thread are complete for the year. See you all next year
When the league just barely gets 5 bids again this year like they did last season, you can point to nights like last night for that. Duke gets a strong opponent at home and doesn't take advantage of it. Wake/VT can't beat middling SEC teams. Louisville is still Louisville. Throw in Boston College barely beating The Citadel.