I think this would be good discussion. This decade will be over soon and there have been a ton of great players to have come through the ACC. Any player that played a game in the year 2000 is eligible. So players that played their final year in the 99-00 season are acceptable.

I think Redick will be high on a lot of people's list simply b/c of the records he broke. Like him or not he was a great player, even if he wasn't as athletic as say a Chris Paul. Chris Paul is another I'd have up there. Hodge, May, Felton, Shelden Williams, Battier, Dunleavy, and Juan Dixon are some others I'd have up there.

2/1/2008 4:25:12 PM

trevor ferguson

2/1/2008 4:26:23 PM

what? no Tyler Hansbrough?

2/1/2008 4:27:45 PM

Jason Williams


I hate d00k but its Jason Williams hands down. /thread

2/1/2008 4:31:15 PM

Wait 2 more years till the decades over

This is like releasing a Greatest Hits CD after only 3 albums

2/1/2008 4:34:50 PM

Anthony Grundy.

2/1/2008 4:38:54 PM

sean singletary
al thornton
james jones (lol)

2/1/2008 4:45:27 PM

Josh Howard warrants consideration as well.

ACC POYs

1999-00 Chris Carrawell Duke
2000-01 Shane Battier Duke (co-POY)
2000-01 Joseph Forte North Carolina (co-POY)
2001-02 Juan Dixon Maryland
2002-03 Josh Howard Wake Forest
2003-04 Julius Hodge N.C. State
2004-05 J. J. Redick Duke
2005-06 J. J. Redick Duke
2006-07 Jared Dudley Boston College

2/1/2008 4:54:16 PM

battier wins this hands down

2/1/2008 4:57:26 PM

To me it has to be someone who played for longer then a year or two in the ACC. Show that you can do it in the ACC over a period of time(3-4 years).

2/1/2008 5:04:25 PM

keeter

2/1/2008 5:09:51 PM

jason williams, hands down. its a shame he's not dominating in the nba now like he should be

2/1/2008 5:14:20 PM

aha joe forte

2/1/2008 5:16:37 PM

Quote :

"its a shame he's not dominating in the nba now like he should be"

Even if he had stayed healthy...he never would have dominated the NBA.

He just wasn't good enough.

2/1/2008 5:21:15 PM

Maybe we should break it down by the best player from each team then compare all of those players. I've got an idea for a few of the teams already.

Duke - Redick, Battier, or Jason Williams. My vote goes to Redick. He's an icon for players you love to hate b/c they are just so damn good. Not to mention that he broke so many records. He was money from the FT line, and could shoot lights out. If Duke needed a big shot, everyone knew where the ball was going.

State - Hodge. Hands down it's Hodge. He was NC State for the four years he was here.

Carolina - May. Sean May while he's now sucking it up in the pros was one of the more determined players I've seen in awhile. He really grew as a player over his three years. He was pretty bad his freshman year, but by his junior year he was 1st team All-ACC and was the MOP for the 2005 NCAA Tournament. I'm probably going to put Hansbrough after he's done though. I mean he made 1st team All-ACC as a freshman and sophmore. There's no doubt that he'll get ACC POY this year and probably next year if he stays which is very likely.

Maryland - Dixon. Not much needs to be said about this guy. He surpassed Len Bias as Maryland's all-time leading scorer and he is the only player in NCAA history to accumulate 2,000 points, 300 steals and 200 three-point field goals.

Wake - Paul. Just a simple look at what the Deacons did the year before CP left and the year after shows you how good of a player this guy was.

Georgia Tech - Jack. Jack carried the Yellow Jackets to the 2004 NCAA Championship game and the 2005 ACC Championship game. He was the glue to that team.

Florida State - Thornton. It's a shame he never got to go to the NCAA Tournament. He had a lot of respect from the rest of the league's fans, most evident by the entire arena giving him a standing ovation after he fouled out in his final game in the ACC Tournament last year.

Virginia - Singletary. No discussion about it, b/c really there haven't been any other UVA players besides Reynolds that have come close to him.


If I had to make an All-Decade team here's how it'd look like.

First Team
C - Tyler Hansbrough
PF - Shane Battier
SF - Julius Hodge
SG - JJ Redick
PG - Chris Paul

Second Team
C - Sean May
PF - Jared Dudley
SF - Josh Howard
SG - Juan Dixon
PG - Jason Williams

Third Team
C - Shelden Williams
PF - Carlos Boozer
SF - Mike Dunleavy
SG - Rashad McCants (gah )
PG - Raymond Felton

Honorable Mention
C - Chris Bosh
PF - Al Thornton
SF - Marvin Williams
SG - Chris Duhon/Jarrett Jack (It's a split between these two, but either way I would move them from the PG position over to the SG position)
PG - Sean Singletary


Flame away. I'm sure some of you are going to ask why there are so many Dookies and Tar Holes on my list.

2/1/2008 8:09:50 PM

i really don't think you can put paul first team when he didn't even make it past the 2nd round of the ncaa tournament i don't think. sure he's a great pro now, but he wasn't all world in college

2/1/2008 8:44:37 PM

chris paul easily belongs at least 2nd team. tournament be damned.

2/1/2008 8:51:06 PM

How many combined ACCT and NCAAT games did Chris Paul win again? This is easy, Jason Williams at Duke. Easily the best player of the 2000s, acc mvp or not, created his own shot, couldn't defend him.

2/1/2008 8:52:15 PM

^^^^yea it is hard to tell if you are judging college, pro, or combined

may was like the 4th best overall player on that team behind felton, mcants and williams

i love hodge, but i dont see how you can honestly put him above howard when howard absolutely detroyed him everytime they played and howard is 1000x better as a pro

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 8:52 PM. Reason : a]

2/1/2008 8:52:24 PM

ofcourse, if you have Duke players on the list, you have to include the 6th man.....the ACC referee

2/1/2008 8:55:17 PM

^^^^^ not bad. I'd move some players around here and there, but in all would be about right in my opinion.

2/1/2008 8:56:04 PM

plus players like thornton didnt have the advantage of being surrounded by other AA's

2/1/2008 8:56:48 PM

Just look at what Chris Paul had around him. Every player on that team was exposed for how average they were after he left. He made every person on that team better. Jason Williams was a great player, I'm not denying that, and I nearly put him over Paul, but he had an infinitely times better team around him. I put Hodge on the 1st team b/c of what he brought to his team. It's not a coincidence that State finally made the tournament again after a long hiatus when Hodge showed up. I'll admit that Howard had the better all-around basketball ability, but Hodge had so many intangibles and was so clutch. The guy has the only triple double in school history and is only the third player in ACC history to top 2,000 points, 400 assists and 700 rebounds. Plus I like to reward players that stay all 4 years.

2/1/2008 9:06:27 PM

haha

howard led his team to 1rst place, stayed all 4 years and is the second (after Shane Battier) ACC player to amass 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 200 assists, 200 steals, 100 blocks, and 100 three-pointers


again, i love hodge, but i dont see how you can honestly claim he was a better player or better in college than howard

^and actually it was kinda a coincidence that we made the tourney his frosh year. he helped alot, but that was grundy's team

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 9:28 PM. Reason : a]

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 9:31 PM. Reason : and not to play semantics, but i think chastity melvin had a trip-dub too]

2/1/2008 9:28:04 PM

Yeah I forgot that Howard stayed all four years. For some reason I thought he had foregone his senior season. Hodge has 2,040 career points. Other notable players that played all four years that are behind him are Shane Battier, Trajan Langdon, Hawkeye Whitney (one of the best to don the R&W), Grant Hill, Brad Daugherty, Josh Howard who is 275 points behind Hodge, Bobby Hurley, Curtis Staples, Jeff Capel. The list goes on.

Hodge is in the top 30 for all-time career scoring in the ACC. Howard isn't even in the Top 70. Listen they were both great players. Either one could be first team all-decade the way I see it. I'll say this Hodge was great for his entire career. Howard had a very good junior season and an amazing senior season in which he scored 606 points.

Howard
Freshman - 335 pts
Sophmore - 393 pts
Junior - 431 pts
Senior - 606 pts

Hodge
Freshman - 352
Sophmore - 548
Junior - 563
Senior - 577

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 10:51 PM. Reason : ]

2/1/2008 10:49:39 PM

Hodge was better in college than Howard. Howard was OUTSTANDING his senior year, and pretty good his Junior year. Hodge was outstanding his senior year and very good both his Soph and Junior years. When looking at their overall college careers, Hodge was better.

Jason Williams was better in college than Chris Paul, although Paul might have an argument if he stayed a 3rd year.


Pros are a different story.



[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 10:58 PM. Reason : 2]

2/1/2008 10:57:02 PM

points dont tell the full story. hodge has to be the man soph-sr, which say a few things:he couldn't hide behind anyone but he also got more chances to score the ball. howard had players like songalia around him until his sr year. when it was his time to be th man, he stepped up, and how.

howard was unquestionable a better defender than hodge and actually more versatile in terms of scoring. howard could score from anywhere on the court whereas hodge lived off of his midrange jumper and his ability to slash and post up, granted he was phenomenal in these areas but his failure to develop an outside shot really prevented him from ever becoming the type of talent that could carry his team to heights.

i suppose, comparing all 4 years, you could call them even.

2/1/2008 11:10:39 PM

Quote :

"howard could score from anywhere on the court whereas hodge lived off of his midrange jumper and his ability to slash and post up, granted he was phenomenal in these areas but his failure to develop an outside shot really prevented him from ever becoming the type of talent that could carry his team to heights."

Funny you say that, considering that Hodge took his team farther into both the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament than Howard ever did.

In Howard's 4 years, despite having more players around him, Wake never advanced to even the Sweet 16, and Hodge bounced them from the ACC tourney with regularity.

Hodge was the better college player, no matter how you slice it.

And LOL at Hodge's "midrange jumper".

[Edited on February 1, 2008 at 11:24 PM. Reason : 2]

2/1/2008 11:17:45 PM

forte had about the best first two years of any unc player I can think of (even hansbrough), he absolutely carried a team that was already showing the signs of 8-20 to the number one ranking

2/2/2008 12:19:49 AM

i'd put felton, singletary, and williams all above paul

i think you've forgotten how well-rounded jason williams' game was, no way he's behind reddick

he gets my vote for best player since 2000

sean may would be somewhere around my 18th team

josh howard would be ahead of hodge

marvin williams and chris bosh were both incredible players and freakishly athletic but i don't see how you can even include one year players in the conversation

2/2/2008 12:33:56 AM

^^^well you do have to give hodge credit for the sweet 16, but sendek teams ALWAYS overperformed in the acc tourney (at least til the 2nd half of the finals) so i feel that it is hard to give all that credit to hodge alone. and howard took his team to finish 1rst in the season. and really, you could argue that simmons and powell were as good as, if not better than, anyone that howard played with.

^and i agree about Williams. he could hit all the shots jj could and he could create his own shot and defend the ball. (and hodge smacked him in the face with the ball, which was funny)

2/2/2008 1:35:05 AM

I vote Juan Dixon best player since 2000 with Jason Williams a close 2nd.

And I remember when we were all pissed and some of the media even thought Hodge should have been POY twice over Howard.

2/2/2008 11:41:54 AM

sorry but julius hodge is not first team. he was great for nc state and I'm sure we all love his intangibles but if you could have replaced him with anyone else on that list you'd do it in a heartbeat.

2/2/2008 12:51:58 PM

Dude, show some respect. The man was ACC POY, 2 time first team All-ACC, and the heart-and-soul of a team that made numerous runs in the ACC tourney as well as one memorable run in the big dance. Don't let his flop in the pros diminish what he did in his 4 years here.

The only guy I'd switch him with on that first team is Jason Williams, but then again Williams would take Chris Paul's spot instead of Hodge's.

2/2/2008 12:58:56 PM

I just don't know how well he'd configure into a lot of the teams we're talking about here

2/2/2008 1:16:04 PM

Quote :

"And I remember when we were all pissed and some of the media even thought Hodge should have been POY twice over Howard."

Quote :

"He was the unanimous selection as the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year in 2003 (first since David Thompson in 1975) "

so, no, i dont think everyone thought Hodge should get POY. That was the year that Howard destroyed Hodge, at least in both regular season meetings. I remember us trying to make a comeback at home against WF and everytime we got close, Howard would drop a 3 in Hodge's face.

Quote :

"sorry but julius hodge is not first team. he was great for nc state and I'm sure we all love his intangibles but if you could have replaced him with anyone else on that list you'd do it in a heartbeat."

that is simply false. i am merely arguing that howard was more deserving of the spot. if howard didnt exist, hodge gets it hands down. who are you going to put in front of him??

2/2/2008 1:21:55 PM

Howard dominated that year in the regular season, but Hodge had his revenge in the ACC tourney.

Howard's play dropped off tremendously in the end of the year. Didn't they get bounced out of the NCAA tournament by East Tennessee State or some other shitty team that year?

2/2/2008 1:26:43 PM

^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_NCAA_Men%27s_Division_I_Basketball_Tournament#East_region

They were a 2 seed and barely beat #15 ETSU by 3, then lost to #10 seeded Auburn.

2/2/2008 2:05:28 PM

I don't know what ya'll are talkin about hodge isnt even a top 10 player in the acc in the 2000's.

2/2/2008 2:38:39 PM

^Wow.

Name 10 better. I would really love to see this list.

2/3/2008 2:42:57 AM

^dont feed the trolls

2/3/2008 2:46:40 AM

jason williams

/discusssion

2/3/2008 3:09:24 AM

damon thornton
kenny inge
ron kelly
archie miller
cliff crawford

2/3/2008 3:15:32 AM

anyone that doubts jason williams should go back and watch the game at maryland where he scored 9 points or so in 30 seconds to win the game

2/3/2008 9:35:25 AM

The absolute eggs that Wake consistently lays in the ACCT and NCAAT should negate any of them.

2/3/2008 9:50:49 AM