CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- We are officially within one month.
The ball is tipped on Nov. 7, and on Wednesday, the 15 ACC men's basketball programs will convene here at the Westin Charlotte, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, for their annual media day in advance.
Well, there we are.
Feel free to allow this glorious tune to play in the background as you read this. It's been in my head all throughout the planning of covering it:
Pitt coach Jeff Capel, along with players Jamarius Burton and Nelly Cummings, will represent the Panthers on the panel, which we will have fully covered on-site.
Among other nationally recognized topics like conference realignment and the growing NIL landscape, here are five storylines to monitor as we hit the road for the all-day festivities:
1. DIOR JOHNSON
The top-rated player that Capel has ever recruited to Pitt during his tenure may never see the floor, pending an investigation on five charges stemming from an early-September domestic incident. The true freshman Johnson has been suspended indefinitely from the team and has a preliminary court date set for Oct. 20 regarding the charges.
How will Capel handle what is expected to be a bombardment of questions from the national media about the situation? Will he make a statement as he steps to the lectern to open his press conference? Will he deflect the answers completely? Will he choose to answer any question regarding Johnson, at all?
Given the gravity of the charges brought upon Johnson, this isn't just the top storyline circling around the Pitt program right now. This is THE storyline heading into the ACC's media day, as Pitt was expected to take the next step as a program with Johnson on the floor. The Pitt athletic department won't comment further until legal proceedings take place, so it will be interesting to see how Capel handles this situation with a national spotlight shining upon him.
2. NO COACH K
The greatest coach in college basketball history is no longer the head coach at Duke following Mike Krzyzewski's retirement, leading way to the Jon Scheyer era beginning at the blue blood program this season.
Scheyer is sure to bring some of the flavor to the program that Coach K brought, as the 35-year old was a two-time team captain and an All-American while playing for Krzyzewski from 2007-'10, and served as an assistant down the bench from Krzyzewski beginning in 2013. Duke brought in the top-ranked recruiting class in 2022, led by five-stars and the top two players in the ESPN 100 in center Dereck Lively and small forward Dariq Whitehead, along with No. 7 in the ESPN 100 and five-star forward Kyle Filipowski. Including these three, Duke signed five players ranked in the top 50 in the ESPN 100.
There shouldn't be too much of a drop off within the Blue Devils' program, but nonetheless, Scheyer gets his shot as its first tenured head coach not named Krzyzewski since 1979.
3. BOEHEIM, TOO
Jim Boeheim is entering his 47th season on the bench at Syracuse, and he has said in the past that he knows when he will retire, and that a succession plan is in place for the next head coach of the Orange. Perhaps this successor comes in a similar vain as Scheyer succeeding Krzyzewski, as Boeheim has also previously added his opinion that the best approach is for his successor to come from within. This immediately turns eyes on assistants Adrian Autry and Gerry McNamara, each of whom have coached under Boeheim since the start of the 2011-'12 season.
Boeheim just sustained his first losing season ever, as the Orange finished with a 16-17 record and a loss in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals to Duke. With a roster laden with solid freshmen and a plethora of complimentary veterans, Syracuse is set up for the foreseeable future. But, his sons Buddy and Jimmy Boeheim are now gone from the program, and it's not far fetched to think that the coach Boeheim takes one more season to build on his 1,099 career wins (I am a Syracuse alumnus, so I recognize the 101 wins vacated by the NCAA) and allow for that succession plan to start coming into play.
4. TAR HEELS' TIME?
After all, UNC is among the four teams favored to win the National Championship this year. The Tar Heels surged as a No. 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament and rode the wave to the title game, where they blew a 16-point halftime lead to top-seeded Kansas. The run was marked by major tournament victories over No. 1-seed Baylor, No. 4-seed UCLA, and all-time March Madness Cinderella St. Peter's, before sending Krzyzewski off to retirement in a classic within the rivalry's lexicon in the Final Four.
North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis returns most of his talent from that run, including guards R.J. Davis and Caleb Love, swingmen Leaky Black and Puff Johnson, and forward Armando Bacot, making for what is likely the strongest starting unit in the conference (which could include Northwestern transfer forward Pete Nance).
5. THE HOT SEATS
Surely, Capel is included in this discussion. Not just because of the Johnson situation, but also because of Pitt's failure to get anywhere close to prominence in his four seasons. Capel is 51-69 in those four seasons, each of which produced sub-.500 records.
There are also a few other names to watch, including Clemson's Brad Brownell, NC State's Kevin Keatts, and Georgia Tech's Josh Pastner.
Brownell took the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament in 2020, but the Tigers still haven't felt a consistent surge within the program since the 2013-'14 season. Since, Brownell has turned in records of 16-15, 17-14, 17-16, 16-15, and last year's 17-16. If Clemson doesn't see a measurable improvement, could they move on from Brownell?
Keatts' Wolfpack finished in last place in the ACC last year at 11-21 overall and 4-16 within the ACC. NC State was the worst defensive team in the conference in allowing 75.6 points per game, which followed a season in which it was sixth in the ACC in points allowed per game (69.7). If this doesn't improve, and the Wolfpack finish at or near the bottom of the conference, could he be out?
Pastner's Yellow Jackets are not the same team as the one which went to the NCAA Tournament bubble in 2021, as they finished second-to-last in the ACC at 12-20 overall and 5-15 within the conference. The Yellow Jackets finished 11th in the league in offense (68.7 PPG) and defense (70.8 PPG) and are now without their two lone double-digit scorers from last season (Michael Devoe, 17.9 PPG and Jordan Usher, 14.8 PPG) and could be in the market for a rebuild of the program.
