News-Record.com

Don't know about you, but I'm just about all brawled out. I know there's probably an Outside the Lines that needs to be done, a made for tv movie starring Jaleel White as Ron Artest and almost certainly an ESPN Magazine article title "The Ron Artest that nobody understands." But for now, I'd like to return to our humble abode of ACC basketball, the place where Larry Brown was once a brawler himself - albeit on the court.

Here's a question I was asked two days ago and it's piqued my interest. Who will be the surprise team in the ACC this season? That one team that exceeds everyone's expectations - maybe to make an upper division finish, maybe to make the NCAA tournament.

I was really all set to say Florida State on this one, but then they lost to Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. (I checked, it really is a school. They're the Islanders).

So I fell back on the trendy choice of UVA (If everyone's picking a team to be a surprise, can they really be a suprise?) They showed flashes of promise last year and just seemed to be a point guard away from being a legit NCAA team. Well, that point guard appears to have arrived in freshman Sean Singletary, who abused Arizona point guard Mustafa Shakur in the Cavs' big upset of the Wildcats.

What do you think? Is UVA the team that will defy expectations? Or will there be a negative surprise team - i.e. one that does much worse than what everyone anticipated?