Measuring talent throughout the ACC

Loyal readers know I love Spiffy Charts.

And research.

And numbers crunching.

I spend an inordinate amount of time on it, probably more than I do searching for actual sustainable, honest-to-goodness work. I hope everyone remembers that when my house is foreclosed .

I kid, I kid.

The point is, someone coming up with an intriguing metric is always going to get my attention.

And the man behind Yet Another N.C. State Sports Blog (@YANCSSB on Twitter) has attempted via what some would call "dark magicks" and others would describe as "statistical analysis" how much talent has been on the floor for ACC teams this season.

This requires some faith in recruiting analysts, who tend to fare much better in basketball than football because they actually get to watch players go head-to-head each summer. There's some swings and misses, but it's not a guessing game, either.

Anyway, the formula includes average star ratings multiplied by average minutes played for each player. The sum for each school is its rating.

Duke ranks first, in large part because only two players in the Blue Devils' rotation averaged less than four stars. One (Olek Czyz) transferred to Nevada. The other (Miles Plumlee) has a younger brother on the team who's going to wind up better than him.

Maryland, without any five-star players, ranks seventh.

Be sure to click that link for more. If it wasn't football signing day, I'd probably scour it for more than an hour.