ACC’s all-era teams
McMillen
SEE RELATED:
Burleson
South Carolina
Charlie Davis
Larry Miller
Norm Sloan
Dean Smith
North Carolina
F David Thompson
Maryland
C Len Elmore
N.C. State
First team\
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PG John Roche, South Carolina (22.5 points, 82.1 FT percentage)\
SG Charlie Scott, North Carolina (22.1 points, 7.1 rebounds)\
F David Thompson, N.C. State (26.8 points, 46-inch vertical leap)\
F Tom McMillen, Maryland (20.5 points, 9.8 rebounds)\
C Tom Burleson, N.C. State (19.0 points, 12.7 rebounds)\
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Second team\
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G Charlie Davis, Wake Forest (24.9 points, 86.2 FT percentage)\
F/G Larry Miller, North Carolina (21.8 points, 9.2 rebounds)\
F Bobby Jones, North Carolina (13.7 points, 60.8 FG percentage)\
C Len Elmore, Maryland (11.8 points, 12.2 rebounds)\
C Tom Owens, South Carolina (15.8, 13.3 rebounds)\
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Coach: Dean Smith (four ACC titles, four Final Fours)
David Thompson is the best player in ACC history.\
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Billy Jones of Maryland was the first black player in ACC history, but Charlie Scott was the first great one. John Roche is the point guard.\
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Tom McMillen, Tom Burleson and Len Elmore were the top post players of the era. McMillen was class of them, and Burleson usually outplayed Elmore in individual matchups.\
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Elmore and Tom Owens are the posts on the second team.\
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Larry Miller was an accomplished player — a consensus All-American, two-time ACC player of the year. But he played before the conference was fully integrated. Charlie Davis is the point.\
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Bobby Jones was the era’s best defensive player, a basketball Swiss Army knife like John Havlicek or Scottie Pippen.\
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Smith was the easy choice as coach. He was 116-40 (.744) in ACC games, including the conference tournament.\
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A somewhat apocryphal story: When Norm Sloan led N.C. State to a 57-1 record and a national championship over two seasons, the rebuttal went — just think what Dean would have done with that team.
Patrick Stevens
