ACC Day 2

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Good morning everyone! We have exhibition games every day leading up to the season. Let’s get to the news.

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1. Notables from day 2 of ACC media

After chatting with six programs on day one, we hit the rest of the ACC and heard from Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Miami, NC State, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest on Wednesday.

The full show is above, but here’s a few things that stood out:

• Duke has depth galore this season, but: “Why does depth matter if you don’t use it in the right way,” Jon Scheyer said. “I want to redefine for us what playing hard looks like. I think you’ll see us pick up and pressure more… Competitive stamina. How can we wear teams out?”

• Michael Malone wants to bring back the toughness and grittiness and “work culture” to the North Carolina program. He also mentioned fifth-year Cameron Fens won’t play Friday, but they’re hopeful he’s eligible on Nov. 2.

• NC State will have a very strong perimeter and will play fast with Georgia’s offensive coordinator Anthony Goins, but Ven-Allen Lubin and his eligibility is key: “He adds that premier post guy, that recognizable name that we needed,” Justin Gainey said. “If we jump the ball today, he’d be eligible.” 

• Clemson chance to be sleeper, but they’ll need Carter Welling healthy: “November is way too optimistic,” Brad Brownell said for a timeline. “December is probably optimistic. He will be ready as soon as he can.”

• Gavin Doty and Gerry McNamara are both sicko competitors. They both told a story about how Doty was peeing blood from getting hit in the kidney the day before a game, and he had to go to the hospital. Doty was back to playing for a MAAC title the next day.

• Jai Lucas says he feels Miami, with more depth this season, can compete for ACC title. What was his offseaon objective?: “ “I wanted to make sure we had a little more depth… It really showed up in the Purdue game. We ran out of gas.”

• Luke Loucks said he thinks Sebastian Rancik can be for Florida State what Thomas Haugh has been for Florida: a piece to jumpstart a run to a national title.

• Why does Mike Young still do it?: “I love it. I love coaching. It’s different and it's confusing and frustrating at times… I don’t know what the heck else I would do.” Young added he hopes to go for 5-6 more years.

• During Pittsburgh’s first meeting, Jeff Capel pointed out to all of the players their records through college. Pretty much everyone comes from losing programs, besides Jonathan Powell, Jalil Bethea and Dominique Diomande: “We got to win. At this point, we got to win. There’s nothing else to talk about besides winning,” Baye Ndongo said.

• Steve Forbes has two four-star freshmen, Gallagher and Gavin Placide. They will have a major role, and Steve Forbes even compared Gavin to Tobias Harris. “They can play and they will play in this league right away.”

2. Takeaways from Mountain West media day

The Mountain West has been one of the best mid-major leagues in college basketball for years, and while it has new membership this season, that should stay the same.

We were in Vegas to chat with the head coach and players of every team ahead of the season.

If you didn’t catch our media day coverage, you should click the link above. A full Mountain West preview was also written with rotations, best players, strengths/weaknesses, and more. Here’s some quotes to highlight from media day:

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