Rothstein putting us at #4 in the ACC seems like the highest I’ve seen so far…
1 Like
I imagine most will have us in the 4-5 range. The top 3 in the preseason will be Duke, UNC/MIami in some order.
I imagine 4-5 will be UVA/Clemson in some order.
I personally think the upper middle (6-9) should be in any order really, WF, NCSU, VT, Pitt. Lower middle (10-14) Cuse/FSU/BC/GT/UL. On paper ND is clearly the worst team in the league. But the new coach bump (Shrewsbury) could lead them to play over their head.
4 Likes
I think the ACC will be a much better conference than it has been the last few years purely because 3-9 is better. There’s some depth there.
4 Likes
I think Rothstein is undervaluing Wake there. Forbes hasn’t had much continuity on this roster like he will next year and their transfers, especially Sallis and Reid if he gets a waiver, could really lift their ceiling if everything goes right there. I think they have the potential to be in the top 4/5 of the ACC next year
3 Likes
Tech too high at 6 too. They are meh to me
3 Likes
I’m not really sold on Sallis or Reid as impactful players. Sallis has some nice 2PT shooting numbers that are driven almost completely by beating up on the weaker WCC teams; his statline gets a lot worse if you look at how he did against top-100 teams. Reid has a glossy HS recruit ranking, but he couldn’t beat out the less well-rated Ben Gregg for backup 5 minutes at Gonzaga. By the third year, I think five star recruit rating is not a very strong indicator of potential when the college production hasn’t shown signs of life.
6 Likes
That’s all fair, I more just mean that they’re both fairly athletic and Sallis has the talent for perimeter defense that it feels like Wake has been lacking of late, which could really lift the team up
1 Like
Sure, I think I agree with the overall point that Wake might be better than last season.
2 Likes
Leitao:
12 Likes
Leitao gets a bad rap.
Cause he is awful
18 Likes
It’s crazy how he had the DePaul job twice
3 Likes
What did you think of him as an ex-player while he was there? Did he connect with previous players at all?
Nope. He never connected at all with anyone. Thats my biggest gripe. In fact, as far as I remember, no one was even welcome
Atleast Pete was cool with all of us if we were able to come around
9 Likes
Did he even connect with his current players at all?
8 Likes
Leitao was just always a weird fit for UVa.
I’m not even sure he would have been kept around long if we had won more.
4 Likes
I have to say Sean loves the guy
Singletary
6 Likes
I sports hated Will Avery while he was at Duke, then I thought it was a nice story when he graduated (this past spring), and now I can go back to sports hating him:
4 Likes
There are some interesting tidbits about the Jarin Stevenson recruitment in a News & Observer article. Notably, CTB mentioned the r-word when it came to Stevenson’s desire to reclass. It seems like he’d have been better off staying in '24 and doing a year at a prep school or someplace with better competition. If he’s not at a point where he can make a push for playing time against an established upperclassman, then it seems like he’s a ways off from being NBA-ready.
6 Likes
The detail about the prep school trying to scare him off reclassifying was interesting.
In May, one of those prep schools sent the Stevensons a spreadsheet designed to scare Jarin away from the idea of reclassifying. At the bottom, the school included a quote from Kentucky coach John Calipari: “If you’re not mentally mature enough or physically ready, why would you reclassify? … You’re setting somebody up for failure.” And another from Kansas coach Bill Self: “You’re trying to put growing up and maturing in fast-forward, which I don’t think is good.”
And beneath that, a fact of note: “No NBA All-Stars this year were re-class ups.”
The spreadsheet listed more than two dozen players who’d considered the same question Jarin was now considering, and who’d decided to graduate high school early. Next to their names, it listed their former recruiting ranking — top 15 in their class, or top 20, or top 30 and on and on — and what had happened to them. Ten had transferred. Ten others had stayed at their schools but were receiving “Low PT,” as the spreadsheet put it. Next to Emoni Bates’ name, it said, “Transfer, Bad Stats … Stock Down.” Next to GG Jackson’s, it said, “Bad Stats, Bad Maturity … Stock Down.”
That’s a very mean spreadsheet. “Bad Maturity”
8 Likes
It looks like there’s already some good conversation about this article on one of the other threads, maybe a mod can move this over?