ACC talent slip showing

The ACC’s weakest draft since 2004 came and went the other day, and understandably garnered little fanfare in these parts. But what was revealed by the selections, or lack thereof, is eminently worthy of discussion.

J.J. Hickson of N.C. State was the sole first round pick from the league, a dearth of front-rank talent not seen since ’04, when Duke’s Luol Deng was similarly alone at the top. Like Deng, Hickson left after a single season, and so hardly built up a reservoir of interest and attachment among fans, no matter how pleased they might be for their school or conference or for the young man.

That relative emotional disconnect has become increasingly common. One-third of the ACC players selected in the first round over the past half-decade were freshmen: Hickson, Deng, UNC’s Marvin Williams (2005) and Brandan Wright (2007), and Georgia Tech’s Thaddeus Young and Javaris Crittenton, both taken in 2007.

Hickson’s selection meant the ACC extended a streak of 20 years with at least one first-round pick, as we were repeatedly reminded. Since the league was founded, at least one ACC player was selected in 50 of 55 first rounds.

The only time in the past 38 years the ACC was shut out in the first round, the top selections from the league played for N.C. State. Vinny Del Negro and teammate Charles Shackleford were the sole ACC players even taken in the second round in 1988. Del Negro,  who did not get his first collegiate start until his 50^th game with the Wolfpack, was named head coach of the Chicago Bills on June 11.

That Hickson gave N.C. State three first-round choices in the past four years also was mentioned in many ACC draft analyses.

Tellingly, during that span only North Carolina produced more first-rounders, with four of its five coming on the heels of its 2005 NCAA title. One might question whether the Pack made the most of its relative talent edge, or at least its crust of superior players. The question is similarly applicable to Georgia Tech, which trailed only UNC and N.C. State in first-rounders over the same period with Young, Crittenton, and Jarrett Jack taken in 2005.

Two erstwhile ACC powers that have disappointed on the court recently also made weak showings in the ’08 draft.

Duke failed to have a player drafted in either round, the first time the program was totally shut out since 1997. Senior DeMarcus Nelson, a nice guy and hard worker but a marginal pro prospect, went undrafted. Duke did not produce a first-rounder last year, either. (Josh McRoberts went early in the second round.)

Of 30 players who made first team All-ACC over the past decade, then were eligible for the draft, only five (17 percent) have gone undrafted: Nelson, Virginia Tech’s Zabian Dowdell in 2007, Clemson’s Edward Scott in 2003, N.C. State’s Anthony Grundy in 2002 and UNC’s Ademola Okulaja in 1999. 

Duke, which did win 28 games in 2008 and finished second in the ACC, has not been all that talent-deprived. Since 2000 the Blue Devils are tied with the Tar Heels for the lead among ACC programs with seven first round picks each.

A shallow pool of pro-caliber talent is more notable at Maryland. Excluded from the NCAAs in three of the past four seasons, the Terrapins did see senior James Gist selected near the end of the 2008 second round. Only two Terps have been drafted in the past five years, and there’s been no first rounder since Steve Blake in 2003.

Both the paucity of picks overall and in the first round are the longest droughts of Gary Williams’ 19-year tenure at his alma mater, reflecting a lull in recruiting premier players in the wake of capturing the 2002 national championship.

Next season’s recruiting class won’t help much. Maryland recently lost Gus Gilchrist and Tyree Evans, its top incoming prospects. Both committed to come to College Park, then withdrew from the picture.

Evans, a junior college transfer, had numerous legal problems. Gilchrist’s motivation remains a bit murkier. The power forward had previously reneged on attending Virginia Tech, citing the stresses of the campus shootings in April 2007. Released from his commitment, he soon landed at Maryland, which precipitated a heated confrontation at last year’s ACC spring meetings. (According to several sources, Virginia Tech’s Seth Greenberg wound up angering Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton, who took umbrage at blanket accusations made by the aggrieved Hokie coach.)

Greenberg had one player selected in the 2008 second round, Deron Washington. The wing was the first Hokie drafted since the program joined the league four seasons ago. During that period Virginia Tech nevertheless finished in the ACC’s upper echelon three times.

Virginia’s Sean Singletary went to Sacramento as the 12^th pick of the second round, well ahead of fellow seniors Gist and Washington.

Singletary was voted to the All-ACC first team three times (2006-08), one of 25 players so honored over the years, including rising UNC senior Tyler Hansbrough. Less gloriously, Singletary became only the sixth member of that exclusive group who was not picked in the opening round of an NBA draft. (One of the six, North Carolina’s Charles Scott, was presumably downgraded in 1970 because he cast his lot with the upstart American Basketball Association.)

Happily for Singletary, recent precedent is promising for such snubbed ACC stars. Mark Price was the last three-time all-league player untouched in the first round. The Georgia Tech guard was the first pick in the second round of the 1986 NBA draft, and went on to play 12 seasons in the pros, four times earning All-Star recognition. His .904 career free-throw accuracy is best in NBA history.

Singletary continued a trend Virginia would prefer to arrest. No Cavalier has been a first-round selection since 1995, when guard Cory Alexander was the 29^th pick. Roger Mason, another second-round choice (2002), was the sole Cav active this past season in the NBA, hardly an advertisement for the benefits of advancing your career via a stop at Charlottesville.

Only Clemson has gone longer than Virginia without a prominent draft pick. The last Tiger selected in the first round was Sharon Wright in 1994, four coaches ago. Senior James Mays had hopes of being drafted this year after exploring his options during the spring of 2007, but injuries helped trim his aspirations. Not since Will Solomon went in the second round in 2001 has a Clemson player been drafted. 

No wonder critics argue that the talent level in the ACC is in decline.