University of Virginia Library

ACC Race Begins

State, 'Heels, Maryland Are Favorites.

By JOHN MARKON

CD/Saxon Holt

George Karl Sparkplug of the North Carolina Tar Heels

Every basketball season the
press flaks down at ACC
headquarters send out reams of
releases swearing that in the
coming season all conference teams
will battle it out to the wire in
a thrilling seven-way dogfight
for the title. This year they
may come close to being right.

Usually a "super team" will
emerge in mid-season and
establish itself as a clear
favorite. However, with five or
six teams claiming to be at
least semi-super, the race could
be much closer than normal.
This is the way one person sees
it:

N.C. STATE— With the
wealth of talent available to
him this season, Wolfpack
coach Norman Sloan's club
should win the title. For
beginners, Sloan has two
genuine All-America candidates
in 7-4 center Tommy Burleson
and 6-4 forward David
Thompson. Burleson, who is
still just learning to use his
height to best advantage, made
the All-ACC team last year as a
sophomore, averaging 21.3
points per game and pulling
down 365 rebounds.

Thompson is this year's
"Super Sophomore." The
18-year old resident of Shelby,
N.C. has all of the natural
ability necessary to be the
best player on any team. He's
quick, has a fine shot, can play
good defense and jumps like
there's no tomorrow. As a
freshman he led his team in
scoring and rebounds.

Other top members of the
Wolfpack squad include
forward Rick Holdt, and
guards Joe Cafferky and Monte
Towe, who's only 5-7. The first
two are excellent shooters
while the diminutive Towe will
direct traffic on offense this
year. State will run a lot, shoot
a lot, rebound a lot and win a
lot.

NORTH CAROLINA–Last
year's champs will be
weakened by graduation losses
but will still have more than
they need to do well.
Returning is guard George
Karl, a second-team All-ACC
pick who deserved to be on the
first team somewhere, and
forward Bobby Jones, a tall
(6-9), skinny junior who made
this year's Olympic team.

Complementing these two
will be frontliners Donn
Johnston, Ed Stahl, Donald
Washington and Mitch
Kupchak and backcourt
prospects Ray Hite, Ray
Harrison and Brad Hoffman.
All these players are young and
all are talented. Carolina has
the best all-around depth in the
league and the best coach in
Dean Smith.

MARYLAND–Ranked third
in the country in pre-season
polls, Lefty Dreisell's powerful
Terrapins could still finish as
low as third in the conference.
Driesell enters the season with
everyone of import returning
from his NIT-championship
team of last year, 6-11 forward
Tom McMillen, an
All-Conference selection and a
21 point scorer, will lead the
club again this year.

There's trouble in paradise,
however, as injuries have
already begun to tear down
Driesell's colossus. Out for the
season is guard Jap Trimble
while guard Howard White and
star center Len Elmore are still
on the mend from earlier
mishaps. As a result, freshman
guard John Lucas opened the
season last night as the Terps'
point man.

Joining Lucas in the starting
lineup were McMillen, Bob
Bodell, an excellent defensive
guard, forward Jim "Bozo"
O'Brien and Tom Roy, subbing
at center for Elmore. Lefty still
has the league's best raw
material this year but I have
confidence he'll find a way to
mess things up.

CLEMSON–Tiger coach
Tates Locke is building a
powerhouse down in the South
Carolina boondocks. This year
he's adding Wayne Croft, a 6-9
sophomore, and guards Ron
DiPasquale (defense) and Van
Gregg (offense) to what was a
pretty good team last season.

Clemson's style this year will
be physical and deliberate.

Locke, who used to coach at
Army, is not a believer in the
run-and-gun. To mesh with his
hot new prospects he retains
guards Terrell Suit and Buddy
Martin and big men Mike
Browning and Dave Angel.

DUKE–Blue Devil boss
Bucky Waters is going into his
fourth season in Durham
relying on guard Gary
Melchionni and center Alan
Shaw, both second team
All-ACC performers, and very
little else in the way of proven
talent. He could be okay in the
front court with 6-9 junior
Chris Redding and top
sophomore Bob Fleischer but
seems hurting at guard.

Slated to start alongside
Melchionni is junior Jeff
Burdette, who can't shoot, and
behind him is sophomore
Kevin Billerman, who can
shoot but can't do anything
else. Pete Kramer, another
soph, is a possibility.

WAKE FOREST–Wake is
picked last this year as much
out of force of habit as
anything else. The Deacons
experienced a poor season last
year and new coach Carl Tacy,
ex-Marshall, has taken steps to
correct past mistakes.

Recruiting heavily in the
junior colleges, Tacy grabbed
two JC centers and an
All-American JC guard. Tony
Byers is the guard and he'll be
teaming with long-range gunner
Willie Griffin in the Deac
backcourt while Sam Jackson
heads an undistinguished group
of forwards.

J.J. Grant and Tim Stare,
the JC centers, are presently
battling with holdover Pat
Kelly and freshman Danny
Moses for the pivot duty.