ACC off to slow start

The ACC has gotten off to such a slow start that even one of its biggest advocates, ESPN announcer Dick Vitale, is down on the league.

"What has happened to the once PROUD ACC?" Vitale wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday. "UNC and Duke NEED HELP from their partners."

Despite Vitale's pessimism and the gloomy forecast, there will still be an ACC season. Here are some highlights - and low highlights - to salvage the league from its painful start:

Five games to watch

1. UNC at Virginia Tech, Jan. 19: If the Tar Heels are going to lose an ACC game, it will probably be on the road against a team with good guards. Erick Green and Dorenzo Hudson qualify as such for the hard-luck Hokies.

2. N.C. State at Duke, Feb. 16: Last year's trip to Cameron was a disaster for the Wolfpack: a 24-point loss and really its worst half of basketball of the decade. The Wolfpack's only shot at Duke this season is in Durham, where it hasn't won since 1995.

3. UNC at N.C. State, Feb. 21: Former Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe won his first home game against the Tar Heels. That was five years ago, and it's also the last and only time in 16 tries State has beaten Roy Williams.

4. Duke at Florida State, Feb. 23: The Seminoles already have lost to Harvard and Princeton, but they have beaten Duke at home three times since 2002 and will be in desperate need of a resume-building win.

5. UNC at Duke, March 3: Looking for good signs? Both of Williams' national title teams won their regular-season finale against Duke.

Five newcomers to watch

1. Mark Gottfried: There's already a conspicuous difference in the Wolfpack's effort and execution 15 games into Gottfried's tenure, and next season's recruiting class is shaping up to be one of the best in the country. Coaches still have to make their bones in ACC play to be considered a true success, however.

2. Austin Rivers: As Harrison Barnes found out a year ago, the transition from prep prodigy to college star doesn't happen overnight, but Rivers leads the Blue Devils in scoring (15.1) and, like Barnes, he will only continue to get better.

3. Mark Turgeon: The first-year Maryland coach called his new gig "the biggest challenge I've ever had in coaching" after a 26-point loss to Iona in November. This is the same guy who coached at Jacksonville State, but he has new hope with the addition of forward Alex Len and the return of guard Pe'Shon Howard from an ankle injury.

4. P.J. Hairston: UNC's biggest need was an outside shooter to complement Barnes. Hairston, a freshman from Greensboro, has hit 24 3-pointers and averaged 8.3 points per game in less than 13 minutes per game of floor time.

5. Shane Larkin: Even in Miami's crowded backcourt, with veterans Malcolm Grant and Durand Scott, the freshman point guard has stood out (8.8 ppg, 1.8 steals per game) and is a building block for first-year coach Jim Larranaga.

We'll miss

1. Gary Williams: As good an X-and-O coach as the ACC has ever seen, Williams led Maryland to the NCAA title in 2002, two Final Four trips and the 2004 ACC title. He had few peers, in league history, in playing the foil to (and beating) North Carolina and Duke.

2. Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler: In their four years together at Duke, the duo merely won 125 games, the 2010 national title and three ACC titles. Both also did it all with pure class.

3. Malcolm Delaney: The former Virginia Tech guard unwittingly joined a dubious group of All-ACC selections who never got to play in the NCAA tournament during his selection-committee vexed career.

4. Reggie Jackson: Criminally underrated and off the traditional ACC radar in Boston, Jackson carried the Eagles to nine league wins last season and the entire program to respectability.

5. Frank Haith's open door: Haith, who grew up in Burlington, was a true ACC fan who became a league coach, albeit in Miami. He was always gracious with the media and always showed an appropriate respect for the league's history.

We won't miss

1. Hand-wringing over Harrison Barnes: In the immortal words of Ol' Roy, all the angst over Barnes' slow start was "just ridiculous." Barnes more than acquitted himself (just ask Clemson) by March and now has the Tar Heels in position to get back to the Final Four, just two years after they went 5-11 in ACC play.

2. Injuries to stars: How different would the 2010-11 season have been with a healthy Kyrie Irving for Duke or Mike Scott at Virginia or Tracy Smith at N.C. State or Chris Singleton at FSU? It was a bad year for big-name players and injuries.

3. Coaching searches: Three ACC teams have a new coach this season, and eight have made a change since the end of the 2008-09 season. Save for message-board monkeys, no one likes a coaching search - sabotaged or any other variety.

4. Paul Hewitt, the protester: For such an intelligent man, the former Georgia Tech head coach took a Sisyphean approach to ACC referees. Hewitt protested every little call and, subsequently, never got the big ones that he needed.

5. Frank Haith's zone: I know, no one blames Jim Boeheim for playing zone, but Haith built a talented roster at Miami and didn't need to sit back in a zone, especially against teams that could shoot from the outside.

Shoes to fill

1. Seth Curry, Duke: Curry's not a traditional playmaker, but Duke's asking him to run its offense, kind of like guards Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer did before him. Curry has done so with mixed results. He's more suited for a supporting role, as a shooter, but Duke doesn't have that luxury this season.

2. Lorenzo Brown, N.C. State: Replacing Javi Gonzalez or Ryan Harrow isn't much of a task for Brown, who's becoming the Wolfpack's best point guard since Chris Corchiani and driving Gottfried's offense, which is reliant on a dynamic ballhandler.

3. Alex Len, Maryland:

Forward Jordan Williams' decision to leave for the NBA certainly hastened Gary Williams' retirement and left Maryland without an experienced post option. Len, a Ukrainian 7-footer, had to sit out the first 10 games because of NCAA Clearinghouse issues, but he has made an immediate impact (14.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg).

4. Erick Green, Virginia Tech: Malcolm Delaney led the ACC in scoring as a junior and was second behind Smith last season. Green, a point guard, emerged as a sophomore playing alongside Delaney and has started his junior season averaging 15.5 points per game.

5. T.J. Sapp, Clemson: Guard Demontez Stitt carried Clemson to an unlikely NCAA bid, and the program's first tournament win since 1997, in coach Brad Brownell's first season. Without Stitt, Brownell needs one of his freshmen guards to step up.