Like many others, I was struck by the implausibility of Mr. Dalbert's statement, so I decided to look at the recruiting classes of other ACC schools from 2002 (the first year Scout lists commits) through 2010 (whose members will now be entering their senior years). Unfortunately, zero--yes, zero--ACC schools brought in a 7-man class during that timeframe, which makes direct comparison impossible. Virginia Tech actually had 8 committed members in their 2007 class, but one didn't qualify and one (Gus Gilchrist) never enrolled.
Instead, I expanded the scope to include 5- and 6-man classes. I found 24 examples of such in my search parameters. Of those 24 classes, only one got 4 years from each of its players, UNC's 2005 class of Hansblow, Green, Frasor, Ginyard, and benchwarmer Michael Copeland. You might also recall them making the Final Four in 2008 and winning a championship in 2009, which I would consider to be rather exceptional circumstances not likely to be duplicated by our 2012 group. Only three other classes (UNC 2002, Maryland 2002, Maryland 2006) saw their classes complete their eligibility without a transfer. Below I've listed all 24 classes. Players who did not play four years are in bold.
Wake 2002
Eric, Trent, Gray, Ellis, Joyce
Wake 2006
Ish, LD, Chas, Skeen, Crawford, Gurley
Wake 2010
McKie, Chennault, JTT, Tabb, Desrosiers
VT 2002
Markus Sailes, Allan Calloway, Fabian Davis (only played 2 years), Shawn Harris, Winston Robinson (went JUCO instead), Philip McCandies (transfer)
VT 2007
Hank Thorns (transfer), Darrion Pellum (didn’t qualify), Dorenzo Hudson, Terrell Bell, Malcolm Delaney, JT Thompson (transfer), Gus Gilchrist (didn’t enroll), Jeff Allen
UVA 2006
Jerome Meyinsse, Will Harris (transfer), Johnnie Lett (transfer), Solomon Tat, Jamil Tucker (dismissed), (Scout incorrectly lists transfer Ryan Pettinella as a freshman for this year)
UVA 2010
Billy Baron (transfer), Akil Mitchell, James Johnson (transfer), K.T. Harrell (transfer), Joe Harris, Will Regan (transfer)
NCSU 2009
Deshawn Painter (transfer), Jordan Vandenberg, Josh Davis (transfer), Richard Howell, Lorenzo Brown (didn’t enroll until following year, NBA early-entry), Scott Wood
UNC 2002
Felton (early entry), McCants (early entry), May (early entry), Byron Sanders, Damion Grant (left team due to injury)
UNC 2005
Michael Copeland, Green, Hansbrough, Bobby Frasor, Marcus Ginyard
UNC 2006
Brandan Wright (NBA), Alex Stepheson (transfer), Deon Thompson, Wayne Ellington (NBA), Ty Lawson (NBA), Graves
UNC 2009
McDonald, Dex Strickland, Wear (transfer), Wear (transfer), Henson (NBA)
UM 2003
Anthony King, Greg Brown (didn’t enroll?), Guillermo Diaz (NBA), Yankuba Camara (didn’t enroll), Leonard Harden (transfer), Karron Clarke (transfer)
UMD 2002
Gilchrist (early entry), Chris McCray, Caner-Medley, Jamar Smith (JUCO transfer, played 2 years), Travis Garrison
UMD 2003
Ibekwe, Hassan Fofana (transfer), DJ Strawberry, Bowers, Michael Jones
UMD 2006
Bambale Osby (JUCO transfer, played 2 years), Vasquez, Jerome Burney (left team, injuries), Landon Milbourne, Eric Hayes
UMD 2007
Cliff Tucker, Shane Walker (transfer), Adrian Bowie, Dino Gregory, Braxton Dupree (transfer)
UMD 2010
Berend Weijs (2 years’ eligibility), Haukur Palsson (Europe), Pe’Shon Howard (transfer), Ashton Pankey (transfer), Mychal Parker (transfer), Terrell Stoglin (dismissed)
GT 2009
Daniel Miller, Derrick Favors (NBA), Glen Rice (dismissed), Mfon Udofia, Kammeon Holsey, Brian Oliver (transfer)
FSU 2008
Derwin Kitchen (3 years’ eligibility), Chris Singleton (NBA), Pierre Jordan (transfer), Dulkys, Xavier Gibson, Loucks
Duke 2002
Sean Dockery, Redick, Melchionni, Shav Randolph (undrafted early-entry), Shelden Williams, Mike Thompson (transfer)
Duke 2005
Pocius, Boateng (transfer), Boykin (transfer), McRoberts (NBA), Paulus
Clemson 2004
Jerome Johnson (didn’t qualify), Troy Mathis (transfer), Cliff Hammonds, Sam Perry, James Mays, Cheyenne Moore (transfer)
BC 2007
Biko Paris, Courtney Dunn, Josh Southern, Corey Raji, Rakim Sanders (transfer)
Dalbert's claim that CMM would be a potential early-entry candidate also struck me as dubious. For comparison's sake, I decided to look at his ACC scoring vs. that of our most recent early-entry guard, Jeff Teague. Below are listed each player's game-by-game ACC scoring, including ACCT, arranged from highest to lowest. For ease in comparison, I decided to bold the better score in each set.
CMM: 15, 15, 14, 14, 10, 9, 9, 8, 8, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 4, 2, 2, DNP
Teague: 27, 26, 25, 25, 20, 19, 18, 18, 17, 15, 15, 13, 12, 10, 6, 6, 6
The count comes out to: Teague- 17, CMM- 1 (by forfeit thanks to the 18-game schedule). Suffice to say that CMM has a long, long, long, long, long, long, long way to go before he'll be showing up on the NBA radar.
