ACC Basketball: Projecting each team’s key player production for 2021-22

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA - MARCH 19: Buddy Boeheim #35 of the Syracuse Orange reacts during the second half against the San Diego State Aztecs in the first round game of the 2021 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse on March 19, 2021 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

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ACC Basketball Anthony Walker Miami Hurricanes (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /

Miami: Kameron McGusty and Anthony Walker

Decrease in production: Kameron McGusty

When starting point guard Chris Lykes injured his ankle in the Hurricanes’ second game of the season the Hurricanes’ guard situation was anything but set in stone. Lykes’ absence for all intents and purposes eliminated the traditional ‘point guard’ position and resulted in Isaiah Wong, Harlond Beverly, or Kameron McGusty being the primary ball-handler.

This season -barring injury- there will more consistency at point guard in the form of DePaul transfer and Big East top-10 scorer Charlie Moore. Moore not only brings stability but he brings over 14 points and four assists per game to a team that had slightly more success than DePaul, so Moore should continue to put somewhere in the neighborhood of thirteen shots per game while taking the ball out of McGusty’s hands.

Increase in production: Anthony Walker

The fact that the 6’9 forward is going to go from starting sixteen of twenty-six games in 2020-21 to starting every game this season, his 26.4 minutes per game is going to increase as the power forward and center positions have just Anthony Walker, Sam Waardenburg – who missed the entirety of 2020-21- and Deng Gak (2.2 ppg, 13.9 mpg) vying for playing time.

Not only did Walker increase all his totals and averages thanks to the more than double playing time from his freshman year, but Walker also upped his field goal shooting percentage by 2 percent, his three-point shooting by 2 percent, and his free-throw shooting by six percent.

Walker loves to get shots around the painted area and with Waardenburg having gone 46 for 138 for his career beyond the arc as opposed to last year’s center Nysier Brooks who was a career 0 for 5, the rim protectors will have to be a little further from the paint in order to prevent Walker’s baseline dunks off the Charlie Moore dish.