Position rankings: ACC point guards
1. Erick Green, Sr., Virginia Tech. If Green played in the triangle there'd be no question who the best point guard in the ACC is. But this is the ACC, and so Green flies mostly under the radar. He had the best turnover rate of any point guard in the conference last season, and he made 38% of his threes and 46% of his twos. It's a shame he doesn't have a better supporting cast for his senior season.
2. Lorenzo Brown, Jr., North Carolina State. Perhaps the best passing guard in the conference, as indicated by his assist rate which only trailed Kendall Marshall. Brown isn't horrible from beyond the arc (35%) but excels when he's slashing and using his size to score at the rim or draw fouls. He also has a solid mid-range game.
3. Ian Miller, Jr., Florida State. Miller had the third lowest turnover rate among ACC point guards last year (though he split his time between the 1 and 2). This year the team is his, and he'll need to maintain that rate. His game took a huge jump from his freshman to sophomore seasons, and Seminoles should be expecting another jump this year.
4. Quinn Cook, So., Duke. Due to offseason surgery Cook missed much of the preseason leading up to his college debut. He struggled a bit early, and wore down at the end, but still put up impressive numbers in limited minutes. He made 55% of his twos, and showed a good ability to get to the line (making 78% once he was there). His assist rate would have been third in the conference if he played enough minutes to qualify.
5. Shane Larkin, So., Miami. Having Larkin in the top-5 is less of a nod to his ability as it is to the shallowness of this position in the conference. He has all of the tools to be a solid point guard, but needs to step his game up significantly this year. He struggled with turnovers as well as shooting (32% on threes and an even more woeful 39% on twos), but he was a knock down shooter from the line. He also uses his exceptional quickness to gamble successfully on defense.
good stuff. I guess we differ on a few things.. mine was more team rankings then individual.
@JerrySteinberg I noticed that - hard to classify some of the depth so I'm going with straight up top-5s. Durand Scott, for example, plays some point, but he'll be in my top-5 2-guard list.
@Michael Rogner I'm thinking of combining the 2/3 positions for my next article, then one on 4/5 since some teams do not even use a true center.
