ACC player ratings: In search of this year’s Kemba Walker

About this time last season, Connecticut faltered after a 20-5 start, ending the regular season with four losses in five games.

Heading into the Big East Tournament, many observers figured the Huskies would be short-lived in both that tourney and the NCAA Tournament. Then Kemba did his thing.

With Kemba Walker leading the charge, UConn shook off its inconsistent play and locked down opponents on defense while giving Walker just enough support. And with Kemba averaging nearly 25 points and five assists during the team’s final 11-game winning streak, the Huskies needed only a handful of players to have good nights to keep things rolling.

Could anyone in the ACC step up and pull off a Kemba en route to a deep tournament run? Perhaps.

I haven’t revisited the Total Impact Quotient player ratings in a few weeks, but I’m pulling out the player ratings for ACC players to identify some potential impact players during the next month and a half. Some of the names are the ones you’d expect to see while others might be a surprise.

• Mike Scott, Virginia. No surprise here, right? The frontrunner for ACC Player of the Year continues to rank as the ACC’s best player. He’s got a TIQ of 36.0 points per 40 minutes. That’s because Scott is a ridiculously efficient player, averaging 17.2 points per game on 59 percent shooting from the field. He’s good at the line to boot, with an 82 percent free throw rate. It can’t be overstated how impressive these stats are for a guy playing on super-slow Virginia. If Scott and the Cavs played at North Carolina’s pace, he’d be averaging close to 21 points per game. Good luck trying to stop Scott in the NCAA Tournament, especially when his supporting cast is knocking down 3-pointers.
• Harrison Barnes, North Carolina. When it comes to the Tar Heels, Kendall Marshall is the obvious choice for team MVP. And rightfully so for a guy averaging nearly 10 assists per game but only three turnovers per game. However, Barnes is the guy who take over a game by lighting up the scoreboard. In addition to shooting 47 percent from the field and 43 percent from 3-point range, Barnes works hard to collect loose rebounds. He’s third on the team with 56 offensive rebounds, only 22 behind John Henson in that category. Barnes gets to the line, grabs rebounds, hits 3-pointers and generally makes life difficult on opponents. He has the talent to give North Carolina a Kemba-like boost en route to a title. Given his quiet demeanor, such an outburst might come as a surprise to some, but now you know to look out. Not surprisingly, Barnes already ranks among the ACC’s best in the TIQ at 30.4 points per 40 minutes.
• Lorenzo Brown, NC State. Surprise! There’s a Wolfpack on this list. NC State remains on the bubble to even reach the NCAA Tournament right now. But if the Wolfpack can make a late push into the tournament, Brown will have to play a big part of that run. He’s a bona fide stat stuffer on a team that lacks a go-to guy. With 12.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.7 steals per game, Brown does a little of everything. Coach Mark Gottfried needs Brown to orchestrate an offense that has been underwhelming lately despite possessing plenty of talent. Brown needs to be selective in attacking the basket or looking for his own shot while setting up the team’s sharpshooter, Scott Wood, and feeding the Wolfpack’s talented wings and big men: the C.J.s (Leslie and Williams) and Richard Howell. Brown is fourth in the ACC in TIQ right now at 32.1 points per 40 minutes.
• Quinn Cook, Duke.I’m entering the ridiculously deep sleeper territory here. But Cook has been one of the steadiest hands on Duke this season, despite a knee injury that has limited his play in recent weeks. Since Cook’s injury against Wake Forest, Austin Rivers has been averaging 37 minutes per game while Cook is playing less than 10 minutes per game. Rivers has been unstoppable at times this season, but he’s not a pure play-maker, evidenced by his 57 assists to 62 turnovers. In comparison, Cook almost never turns the ball over, only 15 times in more than 300 minutes this season, a pace of about 1.9 turnovers per 40 minutes. That’s almost half of Rivers’ 2.9 turnovers per 40 minutes. Besides ball security, Cook is also excellent at attacking the rim, and he gets to the line about once for every two shot attempts. Before the injury, Cook was better than a 47 percent shooter from the field. He’s struggling through an 8-of-30 stretch, but if he can get back to speed, watch out. Despite this cold spell, Cook ranks as a top 10 player in the TIQ at 30.0 points per 40 minutes. Of course, his real impact per game is far less because he plays sparingly. But if health allows, Cook is the kind of guy who could be a dominant sixth man, sparking this Duke team to a run when many are predicting the Blue Devils to falter earlier than their seed would dictate.

So how does everyone else stack up in the ACC? Here’s a team-by-team list of players and their TIQ ratings, sorted by the percent of minutes played this season.