RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke has a lone contender for ACC player of the year, Matthew Hurt, the conference's leading scorer.
North Carolina has none, despite having the preseason player of the year in Garrison Brooks.
Amid all that's unusual about this season, all that is unprecedented, the one thing about this rivalry that still stands out — especially given a first meeting last month that still managed to deliver everything expected of it — is the lack of star power.
What a strange circumstance that is.
And it's far from limited to these two titans of the ACC.
Consider some of the other contenders for player of the year: A transfer from the Big South, a transfer from the Southern Conference, a player from Raleigh who wasn't recruited by any in-state ACC schools.
On what planet could a player ever walk in the door from Radford or Wofford and immediately have a valid claim to be the best player in a league that has prided itself on its star power?
The ACC has won the Naismith Trophy 17 times in the past 50 years, far more than any other conference. On Thursday, that award released a 10-player short list without a single ACC player on it for the first time since at least 2013.
"You go from the Zion Williamsons on down, it's been such a great league for such a long time," North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. "I would think it's just an abnormality."
While the perception is the ACC is down, analytically speaking this isn't even one of the five worst seasons in the past two decades. (Last year was.) There's still talent, just not as much elite talent.
This has been an abnormal couple years for the ACC from that perspective. The ACC had its fewest players taken in the first round of the NBA draft last spring since 2008, when the league was three-quarters the size it is now.
This year doesn't figure to be all that much better. The ACC is going to be hard-pressed to exceed last season's historic low of three, and that's even if it takes credit for Duke departee Jalen Johnson. Florida's Scottie Barnes, Louisville's David Johnson and North Carolina's Day'Ron Sharpe are the other ACC players in the first round of ESPN's mock draft.
It's a long way from 2017 and 2019, when almost a third of the first round came from the ACC. And if draft stock isn't the best measure of college performance, there isn't anyone from the ACC in the national player of the year conversation, either.
Is this a crisis? Probably not.
There has been some diversion of elite NBA-bound talent to the G-League and overseas, but those typically haven't been players who were considering the ACC. N.C. State has lost two incoming recruits to the pros the last two years, but they weren't first-rounders.
More likely, this is a natural function of the ebb and flow of talent nationally. Last year and this year weren't great classes for one-and-done freshmen, the kind of high-profile talent influx that typically fuels the ACC. The past two seasons have been prime territory for older teams that have developed (or poached) players and are now reaping the rewards. The pandemic in particular hasn't been a good situation for young players. It's been hard on the kids.
These circumstances are made for a team like Georgia Tech, with two veteran guards and late bloomer Moses Wright, who was a swimmer before he got to Enloe. Florida State has a one-and-done freshman in Barnes, but its two best players are a senior and a junior. Same with Virginia, which added grad transfer Sam Hauser to Jay Huff and Kihei Clark.
North Carolina's often that kind of team, but not this season. Duke rarely has been lately.
Experience was the trump card this season. Neither school could play it.
"I don't think that means next year it'll be that way," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Each year can be different in all the conferences. The Big Ten has gotten old, right? And good. You didn't get there in one year. In saying that, Hunter Dickinson who's played great has been surrounded by veterans. That helps showcase him, where I think some of the younger talent in our league didn't have that structure."
That helps explain all the ups and downs and swings and swoops of confidence and momentum, but even the most basic numbers league-wide reflect it. Duke's DJ Steward currently leads ACC freshmen in scoring at 12.9 points per game. That would be one of the eight lowest figures to lead the conference since freshmen became eligible in 1973.
There are some future famous names among the other seven like Tom Hammonds, Ed Cota and Julius Hodge (Derrick Favors and Marvin Williams were both top-three picks after their freshman years) which is where the promise of this season truly lies.
If Steward and Jeremy Roach and Jaemyn Brakefield and Mark Williams stick around at Duke, and Sharpe and Caleb Love and RJ Davis and Kerwin Walton and Walker Kessler stick around at UNC, this could be a very different conversation around the rivalry this time next year, especially if they get a full summer and fall of practice.
There's talent on both rosters; with the exception of Hurt, it's just not quite ready to take over yet.
What this rivalry needs, what the ACC at large needs, is a little time to grow. More talent will inevitably arrive, as it always does, but the next collection of ACC stars is already here. They'll shine eventually. Perhaps even Saturday.
