* Here's something to consider in the debate about North Carolina's many ups and downs this season: Of the five teams in ACC history that received the most points per game from freshmen, only this year's UNC squad is any good.

The all-time leader in this category, the 1982-83 Duke team that received 52.9 points per game from a famous freshman class led by point guard Johnny Dawkins (now an assistant coach for the Blue Devils), finished 11-17 under coach Mike Krzyzewski. The other similarly young squads, at Georgia Tech (13-15) in 1982-83, Clemson (18-11) in 1995-96, and UNC (19-16) in 2002-03, also ended up in the mediocre-to-bad category.

The 2006-07 Tar Heels are getting 43.9 points per game from their freshman class of power forward Brandan Wright, wing guard Wayne Ellington, point guard Ty Lawson, power forward Deon Thompson and center Alex Stepheson. Wright is a leading candidate for the ACC rookie of the year award, and Wright, Lawson and Ellington are among the top contenders for the league's all-rookie team, but UNC has been somewhat inconsistent with all three rookies in the starting lineup.

Prior to this season, the ACC's greatest success story among its most freshman-laden teams was the 1999-2000 Duke squad, which had point guard Jason Williams and center Carlos Boozer among the rookies who contributed a total of 40.5 points per game. The 2000 Blue Devils finished 29-5, placed first in the ACC regular season at 15-1, won the ACC Tournament, and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

One big difference between the 2007 Tar Heels and the 2000 Blue Devils was the experience level of the teams' most talented players. UNC's top three performers this season are a sophomore (Hansbrough) and two freshmen (Lawson, Wright). Duke's top three were a senior (forward Chris Carrawell), a junior (forward Shane Battier) and a freshman (Williams). The top two players in the ACC in 2000 were Battier and Carrawell, the league's player of the year.

* With two consecutive horrible seasons in conference play, Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser is nearing some dangerous territory. Consider this: Since 1975, ACC basketball programs have had streaks of three or more seasons when they lost more than 60 percent of their conference games only 13 times. In 12 of those situations, the coach who started the streak was fired without ending it.

The lone exception was Maryland coach Gary Williams, and his truly was a unique case. His three straight horrible ACC seasons (1991-93) came in the aftermath of the disastrous Bob Wade era (1987-89) in College Park. Williams ultimately righted the ship, going to 11 straight NCAA Tournaments (1994-2004) and winning the national championship in 2002.

With a 3-13 ACC record last year and a 4-10 mark so far this season, Prosser now has two straight seasons that surpass the 60-percent losing mark. Looking ahead, he'll enter 2007-08 without his most productive player from this year (senior center Kyle Visser), and with a possible starting lineup of five sophomores. A third straight bad season would put Prosser in the midst of some very undesirable company.

* N.C. State forward Brandon Costner leads all ACC freshmen in points (16.1), rebounds (7.7) and minutes (34.4) per game. According to most observers, Costner ranks with UNC's Wright and Georgia Tech point guard Javaris Crittenton as the favorites for this year's ACC rookie of the year award, but Costner's status as a redshirt freshman (he played some in 2005-06 before getting hurt) apparently complicates his candidacy in the eyes of some media members.

Television analyst Len Elmore stated earlier this season that he would not include Costner on his list of "elite ACC rookies," and some ACC beat writers privately have stated that they won't consider Costner for the league's rookie of the year honor because of his playing time (five games) last year. This despite the fact that the ACC specifically decided many years ago to make redshirts (medical or otherwise) eligible in the voting. Indeed, Costner earned rookie of the week honors on Feb. 5 this year.

Interestingly, the redshirt label appears to carry no such stigma in football. Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner earned the ACC rookie of the year award last fall as a redshirt freshman. N.C. State receiver Koren Robinson earned the honor in 1999, after redshirting the previous season.

The ACC rookie of the year has been selected in basketball since 1976, and the league's five-man all-freshman team started in 1993, but no redshirt freshman in the conference ever has received any postseason recognition in hoops. The rookie of the year vote is a close call, but if Costner is left off the all-rookie team entirely, it will be in direct defiance of well-established league policy.

* North Carolina forward Brandan Wright has won the ACC rookie of the week award six times so far this season. Only two players in conference history earned the honor more often — Georgia Tech's Kenny Anderson in 1990 and UNC's Tyler Hansbrough in 2006 — and both won the league's rookie of the year award at the end of their initial college seasons.

Besides Wright, four other former ACC players won the rookie of the week honor six times: Sam Perkins of UNC in 1981, Bryant Stith of Virginia in 1989, Joe Smith of Maryland in 1994, and Luol Deng of Duke in 2004. Perkins, Stith, Anderson, Smith and Deng all eventually became top-13 selections in the first round of the NBA draft, the latter three after leaving school early for the professional ranks.

Perkins, Stith and Smith also won the ACC rookie of the year award in their initial college seasons. Deng lost out to Wake Forest's Chris Paul. Deng became the NBA's No. 7 pick after his freshman season in 2004, and Paul went at No. 4 as a sophomore in 2005.

NOTE: More details on these stories and many others are in this week's double edition (including a 16-page football recruiting supplement) of the ACC Sports Journal and at ACCSports.com.