Onward to the next part of the ACC's all-era teams, selected by both myself and native North Carolinian Kevin Brewer.

We'll start with my picks. The caveat remains that certain statistics are either hard to come by or flat-out don't exist for some of these earlier eras.

I like the starting five of this era quite a bit. No one should be able to argue Thompson, McMillen and Burleson. If John Lucas wasn't going to get shuffled into the next era, he might be the point guard on this team.

John Roche is sort of a forgotten star, maybe because you don't see Food Lion-sponsored ads of him running up and down the floor with either Steve Martin or Original Hogewood narrating. And that's probably because he played at South Carolina. But the numbers say he was superlative in a time when the most effective guards were really 6-foot-4 swingmen.

Charlie Davis received a lot of consideration for the second guard spot, but Larry Miller was the league's player of the year twice.

I gave the nod at coach to Norm Sloan, mainly so that I wouldn't have Dean Smith and Coach K monopolizing that spot for four out of five eras. They'll probably collect the last three, but the accomplishments of both Smith and Sloan were close enough to allow me to just give it to the guy who won a title in the era. That's a silly way to allocate things in any sort of voting, but I won't feel too bad about falling victim to such a fallacy once.

1st team

G John Roche, South Carolina: 22.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 45.3 FG%, 82.1 FT%
G Larry Miller, North Carolina: 21.8 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 51.1 FG%, 68.4 FT%
G/F David Thompson, N.C. State: 26.8 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 55.3 FG%, 76.3 FT%
F Tom McMillen, Maryland: 20.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 55.5 FG%, 79.9 FT%
C Tom Burleson, N.C. State: 19.0 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 51.6 FG%, 68.7 FT%

2nd team

G Bob Verga, Duke: 22.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 49.0 FG%, 72.9 FT%
G Charlie Davis, Wake Forest: 24.9 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 46.0 FG%, 87.3 FT%
G/F Charlie Scott, North Carolina: 22.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 48.0 FG%, 72.6 FT%
F Tom Owens, South Carolina: 15.8 ppg, 13.3 rpg, 50.1 FG%, 64.6 FT%
C Len Elmore, Maryland: 11.8 ppg, 12.2 rpg, 48.8 FG%, 72.3 FT%

Coach: Norm Sloan, N.C. State

Here's Kevin's team:

First team

PG John Roche, South Carolina (22.5 points, 82.1 FT percentage)
SG Charlie Scott, North Carolina (22.1 points, 7.1 rebounds)
F David Thompson, N.C. State (26.8 points, 46-inch vertical leap)
F Tom McMillen, Maryland (20.5 points, 9.8 rebounds)
C Tom Burleson, N.C. State (19.0 points, 12.7 rebounds)

Second team

G Charlie Davis, Wake Forest (24.9 points, 86.2 FT percentage)
F/G Larry Miller, North Carolina (21.8 points, 9.2 rebounds)
F Bobby Jones, North Carolina (13.7 points, 60.8 FG percentage)
C Len Elmore, Maryland (11.8 points, 12.2 rebounds)
C Tom Owens, South Carolina (15.8, 13.3 rebounds)

Coach: Dean Smith (four ACC titles, four Final Fours)

And his thoughts:

David Thompson is the best player in ACC history.

Billy Jones of Maryland was the first black player in ACC history, but Charlie Scott was the first great one. John Roche is the point guard.

Tom McMillen, Tom Burleson and Len Elmore were the top post players of the era. McMillen was class of them, and Burleson usually outplayed Elmore in individual matchups.

Elmore and Tom Owens are the posts on the second team.

Larry Miller was an accomplished player -- a consensus All-American, two-time ACC player of the year. But he played before the conference was fully integrated. Charlie Davis is the point.

Bobby Jones was the era's best defensive player, a basketball Swiss Army knife like John Havlicek or Scottie Pippen.

Smith was the easy choice as coach. He was 116-40 (.744) in ACC games, including the conference tournament.

A somewhat apocryphal story: When Norm Sloan led N.C. State to a 57-1 record and a national championship over two seasons, the rebuttal went -- just think what Dean would have done with that team.

--- Patrick Stevens