Duke's Giles-Tatum tandem tops ACC newcomers
— -- Newcomers don't take long to impact college basketball -- not in this world of one-and-dones and transfers. Over a two-week span, we will look at the top five newcomers in each of the 10 biggest conferences. Next up is the ACC.
A teeming ocean of talent is crashing the Atlantic Coast this summer. Ten of the top 28 players in the Class of 2016's ESPN 100 will play in the ACC in 2016-17. Six different programs are represented in that list. Some of them will need their talented youngsters to step up right away. Some can afford a slower, less pressurized development curve. One is the obvious national title favorite. ( Guess who?)
Any ACC-newcomers list requires more slots than we currently have at our disposal. Which, in turn, means these five dudes must be pretty good.
As we covered in last week's Big 12 rundown, there was no clear consensus about the top overall pick in Chad Ford's first 2017 Big Board. For now, the closest thing Ford's assorted scouts and sources have to offer is this: If Giles is healthy, he's the easy choice.
Health is the only pertinent discussion worth having about the No. 1 player in the class of 2016. Giles' eventual draft fortunes will directly proceed from how well he plays during his freshman season at Duke; his ability to do so will hinge on how well he has recovered from two separate ACL tears in high school. The latest of the two came in November 2015, and cost Giles basically all of his senior season. As recently as June, per the News & Observer's Laura Keeley, Duke's staff was still bringing Giles along slowly, focusing mostly on rehabilitation and making no promises that he'd be ready by the start of the season.
All of which, in a roundabout way, is a good way of hammering home just how good Giles is: He tore two ACLs in three years and he was still the best player in a loaded class.
Jayson Tatum, Duke Blue Devils
Duke can afford to bring its top prospect along as slowly as he needs, mostly because there are an embarrassing wealth of options around him. It's one thing to land the nation's best freshman; it's another to corral three of the best 10, and four of the best 16; it's yet another to add those players to a group of veterans like this one. Senior Amile Jefferson, back by the grace of a medical redshirt, will be one of the sturdiest and most experienced frontcourt players in the country. Guard Matt Jones has huge minutes under his belt. Rising sophomore Luke Kennard is a gifted perimeter scorer -- nearly as gifted as Grayson Allen, who carried a massive load, and did so with remarkable efficiency, in his breakout sophomore season.
Under relatively normal circumstances, a veteran team like this would have filled a need or two in recruitment, maybe landed an elite prospect, and been very, very good. These are not exactly normal circumstances.
That's because Duke is also bringing in the third-ranked overall player in the Class of 2016, small forward Tatum. He is a preternaturally polished attacker who just needs to add a perimeter shot to be unstoppable, and at 6-foot-8 he possesses the length and athleticism to be a dominant wing defender. A few months under coach Mike Krzyzewski should help in that regard.
Austin Nichols, Virginia Cavaliers
Freshmen aren't the only genus in the newcomer family. There are also transfers -- a taxonomic population still reproducing at a remarkable year-over-year rate. Whatever the systemic reasons for this increase (and that's a topic for a different day), the appeal is obvious. For players, a transfer is a hunt for more minutes or a better stylistic fit or an NCAA tournament appearance. Sometimes, a year spent practicing but not playing is just what the doctor ordered. For coaches, a transfer is a chance to add a proven quantity -- a player who's ready to play from the moment he is eligible.
All of the above are likely to apply in some form to Nichols, a 6-foot-8 forward who departed for Charlottesville last summer after two promising but occasionally listless years at Memphis. A year off is likely to have expanded Nichols' game, particularly on offense (as it did for Malcolm Brogdon and Anthony Gill). What is certain is that the big man's natural defensive talents -- he swatted 12.5 percent of opponents' attempts as a sophomore, the eighth-highest block rate in the country that season -- are going to pair extremely well with coach Tony Bennett's pack-line style. Freshmen, no matter how talented, are rarely this guaranteed.
Jonathan Isaac, Florida State Seminoles
Isaac debuted at No. 8 on Ford's Big Board, drawing a minor comparison to 2016's No. 2 overall pick, Duke forward? Brandon Ingram. The biggest question is whether, like Ingram, Isaac is either a)?skilled enough to overcome his slight frame against daunting defense early on, or b) capable of adding enough mass and strength that by January it won't bother him. Ingram did both, but it isn't easy.
Also tricky? Florida State's roster. It's an impressive position-less menagerie: Rising sophomore? Dwayne Bacon was the school's highest-ranked recruit ever, before Isaac showed up. Junior Xavier Rathan-Mayes was coach Leonard Hamilton's offensive workhorse two seasons ago.? Malik Beasley's departure to the NBA, if not surprising, took the Seminole enthusiasm down a half-peg?or so ... but not enough to keep them out of the Way-Too-Early Top 25.
The question is whether, and how, all of these pieces fit, and what Hamilton will do to fill in the gaps (mostly on defense) around them. Even so, Isaac's potential, on both ends of the floor, is limitless.
A handful of ACC newcomers claim loftier recruiting rankings than Syracuse's star freshman, who sits at No. 35. Yet it feels to safe to say that none will be as important to their team's success, for better or worse, than Battle.
Duke point guard? Frank Jackson, for instance, is doubtlessly talented, but he is joining a loaded veteran-led backcourt that can more than get by if he gets off to a rough nonconference start. Battle,?on the other hand, looks like a must-have piece for coach Jim Boeheim, even by default. This spring, Syracuse lost its best player, Michael Gbinije, a converted small forward-turned-point guard, as well as four-year stalwart Trevor Cooney. Meanwhile, after freshman? Malachi Richardson's draft stock soared into offer-you-can't-refuse territory, he did the?sensible thing and took the NBA up on it. Richardson's departure was a minor shock; suddenly? Franklin Howard, a little-used reserve freshman, was Boeheim's most?experienced backcourt returner.
The Orange have a chance to be pretty good next season, particularly if? Tyler Lydon?truly blossoms into the 3-and-D monster he advertised as last March. But if Syracuse is good, it will almost?certainly be because Battle is both better than expected on the offensive end and yet another of the Boeheim zone's dominant disrupters on the other end. No pressure, kid.
Related Stories
ABC News Live