Inaugural ACC Roundtable: State of Our Basketball Programs

What does your team have left to do in order to make the NCAA Tournament?

STG: Win the ACC Tournament. We won’t, so that’s pretty much all she wrote. This season was never about making the dance, however: it was about weathering the enormous roster turnover, getting better, and giving us all a reason to believe that next year and beyond, they’ll have a more respectable record.

UNC: Essentially nothing, ranked #8 in the nation UNC just needs to make sure they don’t blow every game the way they did at Florida State. Right now it’s all about getting back into the top 4 where we belong and securing a #1 seed. For the Heels to do that they not only need to get their heads in the game and play with more mental toughness. They also need to knock down some free throws. UNC is the worst FT shooting team in the ACC, so bad, I refuse to even publish their current shooting percentage at the stripe.

Maryland: Win two of the six games they have against Duke, UNC and Virginia, and then win five of their other seven games. It’s going to be an extremely tough task, and I just don’t see it happening. Terrell Stoglin will need to keep up his 20 ppg clip, Pe’Shon Howard and Alex Len will have to return to their earlier form, either Nick Faust or Sean Mosley will have to emerge as a consistent secondary scoring option, and James Padgett will need to stop missing ridiculously easy chances. It’s not impossible, but it’s close.

Duke: All they have to do is focus even harder. Conference play is going to get tougher, and Duke will probably need to make it’s defensive improvements by then. They’ll get into the tournament, though, no doubt…. unless they somehow start dropping losses left and right. But I have never seen Duke do that, in my lifetime at least.