I realized this morning as I zipped around Al Gore's Invention that I probably should have included the list of ACC junior college transfers in recent years.

(One poster on the Scout board quite astutely pointed out the value of Sam Cassell --- a JUCO --- to Florida State relative to Charlie Ward to the Seminoles' early 1990s success. That was a throwaway line since the point was to analyze the last seven years, but he's still right.)

Anyway, both this post's and last night's are much more informational in nature than anything else. There's no arguing Maryland has done pretty well for itself going this route --- certainly in comparison to the rest of the ACC. But if it was either the best or most efficient or most stable way to build a team, everyone would do it (although, again, the Internets would and did point out Kansas is bringing in two JUCOs next year. The Jayhawks could have a flood of players leave early after winning a national title, which puts them in a different place than Maryland circa today).

Here's the JUCOs (again, so far as I can tell; my stash of ACC media guides might have led me astray once or twice) from the last seven years. A case can be made that Maryland's Ryan Randle, Jamar Smith and Bambale Osby are three of the five most productive players on this list (alongside Tim Pickett and Devin Smith, with Nate Johnson and Lance Hurdle in the discussion):

2001-02

Trevor Harvey, Florida State: 57 G, 6.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg
Ryan Randle, Maryland: 65 G, 8.1 ppg, 5.1 rpg

2002-03

Devin Smith, Virginia: 85 G, 13.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg
Nate Johnson, Florida State: 62 G, 5.0 ppg, 3.4 apg
Tim Pickett, Florida State: 62 G, 16.7 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 2.6 spg
Jamar Smith, Maryland: 62 G, 9.6 ppg, 6.5 rpg

2003-04

Lamar Rice, Clemson: 28 G, 4.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg (one season)
Diego Romero, Florida State: 61 G, 3.8 ppg, 2.6 rpg

2004-05

Antonio Griffin, Florida State: 9 G, 3.1 ppg, 0.8 rpg (one season)
Sterling Ledbetter, Maryland: 55 G, 2.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg, 1.9 apg
Marcus Travis, Virginia Tech: 27 G, 0.4 ppg (walk-on)

2005-06

Jerel Allen, Florida State: 65 G, 4.2 ppg, 1.7 rpg
Parrish Brown, Maryland: 60 G, 2.9 ppg, 1.3 apg
Brian Nieman, N.C. State: 39 G, 1.7 ppg, 1.4 rpg (began career at Winthrop)

2006-07

Bambale Osby, Maryland: 67 G, 8.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg (began career at New Mexico)
Fabio Nass, Miami: 23 G, 1.7 ppg, 2.0 rpg

2007-08

Lance Hurdle, Miami: 34 G, 8.0 ppg, 2.4 apg

--- Patrick Stevens