ACC Roundup – Opening Night!

SB Nation

The college basketball season opens on Monday night and most of the ACC is in action – but for the most part, it’s the lame openers everyone schedules. Let’s look.

UNC hosts Central Arkansas, Charleston

Southern is at Virginia Tech, Binghamton is in the Dome at Syracuse, Pitt welcomes the Penguins of Youngstown State, NC State gives NCCU’s LeVelle Moton a chance to coach in his hometown, Boston College visits FAU, Clemson gets New Hampshire, Rider is at Virginia, LIU checks in with Notre Dame, Georgia Tech sees Maryland Eastern Shore, American stops off in Winston-Salem, SMU takes on Tarleton State, Jai Lucas gets his career off to a start as Miami hosts Jacksonville, Louisville tunes up with South Carolina State and Cal starts off with Cal State Bakersfield.

Barring an upset, most of these aren’t worth much concern, but there are themes to keep in mind. Here are a few:

Can Hubert Davis get off the hot seat?
Is UNC’s Caleb Wilson as good as he appears?
Who else is on the hot seat?
Can Will Wade back up the big talk? Or will NC State see NC State stuff happen?
How will Ryan Odom do with Virginia?
Can Louisville improve from last season?
What is Jai Lucas building?

For a few quick, too-soon answers: a good season will get Davis off the hot seat – for now. His next erratic season, this year or after, will end him. He’s squandered a lot of good will and in our opinion, does not have good people skills. You might not agree with us on that, but we’d bet if you ask Caleb Love, Ian Jackson, Elliott Cadeau and Ven-Allen Lubin about it, they might concur.

Who else could be on the hot seat? Well, Jeff Capel, unfortunately, and possibly BC’s Earl Grant, Wake’s Steve Forbes, Syracuse’s Adrian Autry, Virginia Tech’s Mike Young and Stanford’s Mark Madsen. All of them need a good season. Actually, you could add Micah Shrewsberry, too.

We’re not saying all of them are in trouble, just that any of them could be.

Wade and Odom are big additions and both of those teams are reasonable bets for March.

As for Louisville, they may or may not be better, but they won’t be far off. Pat Kelsey is building a tremendous program.

We expect Jai Lucas will as well, but probably not quite as quickly. However, he has a good roster and just a few days ago got a major commitment for next season. Caleb Gaskins was a high school teammate of the Boozer twins and is a major talent in his own right.

Like NC State and Virginia, both programs are on the rise and that’s good for the ACC.

Last season was a horrible year for the league, the worst in living memory, but with much better coaches at several schools, the stage is set for a bounce back season. Let’s see what we get.