Posts from the Acc Basketball Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

The conference's TV contracts are in place through the end of the 2010-11 academic year. Any serious tinkering with the ACC's schedules will come when the TV deals expire, so that the conference can maximize the financial payoff of its changes.

The conference feels that they don't want to give away extra games for free.

After all, they know that the ACC is still damn good TV. Five of the top ten college hoops games on ESPN involved at least one ACC team. The second North Carolina-Duke game was ESPN's highest rated game -- ever. As for football, Clemson-Florida State was the World Wide Leader's top rated college game ... while Boston College-Virginia Tech was ESPN's highest rated Thursday game -- ever.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford has sent a letter to the Division I men's basketball committee requesting that conference strength be added to the list of criteria considered when the NCAA tournament field is selected.

Coaches say they plan to remind the media more often next season about the conference's strength.

One of the buzzing stories around the internets are some photos of UNC players Tyler Hansbrough and Bobby Frasor jumping off a balcony and into a pool. The pictures were taken at a SAE frat house and show both Psycho T and Frasor (close friends) at a party, jumping off a building into a large, inflatable pool.

Right now, they are getting a lot of heat (and some love) over the stunt on message boards and blogs.

Yes, these kinds of things go on at colleges. Anyone who's been in college has seen or participated in some stupid stuff ... especially once the spring semester ends and everyone is looking forward to a summer off. These guys are student-athletes and they have the same academic pressures as the rest of the student body.

However, these two are in college because of their physical gifts. Seeing Frasor up there was puzzling. He missed most of the past season after tearing up his knee. If Ty Lawson stays in the NBA Draft, Frasor inherits this team and will be counted on heavily. Seems like jumping off a balcony and into a pool isn't the best way to rehab that injury.

As for Hansbrough, I'm sure it just adds to his "Psycho T" legend. However, it is dumb for the defending Player of the Year to spend the offseason leaping off stuff like that. Whether he will be successful in the NBA or not, some team will draft him and, in turn, pay him lots and lots of money. It's really scary that he would risk all of that for his "I am a golden god" moment.

Incoming freshman power forward Miles Plumlee wanted a release from his letter of intent when Stanford head coach Trent Johnson left for LSU.

He's now made his decision on where he wants to go: Duke.

The funny thing about that is Stanford just hired former Blue Devils player and assistant Johnny Dawkins to replace Johnson. Even at the press conference, Dawkins said that he wouldn't be surprised if Plumlee chose to go to Duke.

Still, it probably wasn't Dawkins who steered him over to Duke. Plumlee will have a close friend with him in Durham -- his brother. Mason Plumlee, who is a rising high school senior, had already committed to join the Blue Devils in 2009.

The older Plumlee is quite a get. He's 6-10 and has that typical Duke perimeter game of recent big men. His size is sorely needed on a team that lacked it last year. Kyle Singler did a valiant job trying to defend in the paint but he, at times, was overmatched and it took away from other aspects of his game.

Plumlee may not be ready physically to match up against the better big men in the ACC, but he will join fellow recruit Olek Czyz and Singler for what should be a much improved front line.

Two weeks ago, I mentioned that one of the ACC's biggest offseason stories would be (again) looking into expanding the conference basketball season to 18 games. For the third straight season, the current system of scheduling has been a talking point.

Last year, Virginia won a share of the ACC regular season crown with what was, statistically, the weakest schedule in the conference. This past season, Virginia Tech played UNC, Duke and Clemson just once apiece ... and that may have cost them an NCAA Tournament bid.

Now, the ACC may look into expanding the season from 16 to 18 games.

The Big East, Big Ten and Pac-10 all play the 18-game schedule and it hasn't hurt them come tournament time. The ACC is currently in a tournament funk (getting bids and winning games) and losing those bids to teams from those conferences.

Some say that adding the two extra games actually hurts the conference's RPI because it means those bad teams have to play more games, too. True, but one of the reasons the ACC continues to sit near the top of those RPI standings is because their "bad" teams are usually better than the other league's "bad" teams.

Obama spent the night in Chapel Hill following a rally late Monday at the Smith Center, then scrimmaged with the team on Tuesday morning after touring the Coach Bill Guthridge Locker Room with coach Roy Williams and his wife, Wanda.

Obama played team members that included Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard, Marc Campbell, Surry Wood and Deon Thompson. He kept up with the run-and-gun pace for at least five minutes before benching himself.

When he got back in the game, Williams, who was watching from a chair on the sidelines, called out: "You've got the future president of the United States wide open."

I guess Mike Krzyzewski is trying to get that awkwardness that Roy Williams had going on out of the way very early.

Last week, news broke that Duke assistant Johnny Dawkins would be the new head coach at Stanford. Dawkins was considered, by many, to have been the eventual successor for Coach K at Duke. According to Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, Coach K said so himself:

Bowlsby said one of the first people he spoke to about the open job at Stanford was Krzyzewski and that he asked Krzyzewski about both Dawkins, who was Krzyzewski's right-hand man for 11 seasons, and Duke assistant Steve Wojciechowski.

"At that time, Coach Krzyzewski said that Johnny was a likely successor to him [at Duke]," Bowlsby said.

Coach K has at least another ten years left in him to coach, so it wasn't like Dawkins was going to get a good look at it anytime soon. I think Dawkins is a great hire (albeit an inexperienced one) for the Cardinal program and would be the kind of guy that would stick around for a while.

Well, maybe until Coach K comes calling.

"Danny and his father contacted me in the last 24 hours and indicated they wished to test the waters and enter Danny in the draft,'' UNC coach Roy Williams said in a prepared statement. "We have done the necessary paperwork to do that."

The announcement came as a surprise - Wednesday night, Williams told the News & Observer that Green had not been part of the coach's process of contacting teams to determine where the players might be drafted.

A surprise, indeed. There aren't really any draft sites that think he's a first round draft pick -- if they have him getting drafted at all. He, like Ty Lawon and Wayne Ellington (who are also entering the NBA draft), will not hire an agent in order to preserve his amatuer status and possibly return to school.

Meanwhile, the reigning player of the year Tyler Hansbrough has already said he's returning to school.

He inherits a team that will lose the Lopez twins, Brook and Robin, to the NBA draft, but will return its primary perimeter players in Mitch Johnson, Lawrence Hill and Anthony Goods, who will all be seniors next season.

Despite flirting with Georgetown a few years ago, many people do feel that Dawkins will one day replace Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Getting the Stanford job as his first head coaching gig is quite an endorsement of how good of a coach he is.

They are getting a great guy. Dawkins wanted his first head coaching job to be at a school with high academic standards that also had a great hoops program. Stanford is definitely that. He's just 44 years old, so he could be around Stanford for many years to come.

Or when Duke looks for Coach K's successor.

He's also in charge of player development for the U.S. Olympic Team as they get ready for the Beijing Games this summer.

"I love playing at North Carolina and still have big dreams to realize here, including graduating," Hansbrough said in a prepared statement. "Of course I look forward to playing in the NBA some day but not next year. I love my collegiate experience and want to finish my four years here, then move on to my next dream of playing in the NBA. I am very relieved that this decision is behind us and I can concentrate on my academic work and improving my game for next season."

To be honest, I really thought he'd declare for the draft and not hire an agent (enabling him to return to school). He's a junior, so he could've used his one time testing-the-waters pass this spring just to gauge how NBA-ready he is.

The last Wooden Award winner to return to school the next season was Ralph Sampson in 1982. Sampson won the award again in 1983.

Now, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington will be testing the waters by declaring for the draft and not hiring an agent. DraftExpress.com has Lawson as the #30 pick (the final pick of the first round). Ellington is the 40th pick which means a lack of a guaranteed contract.