college basketball

With basketball season officially under way, most of the attention is on the returning men's stars and highly touted recruits. Some of the Atlantic Coast Conference's impact players, though, are already around.

Here are five players capable of moving from the shadows to the spotlight in new roles this season:

Harrison Barnes says he can sense the push and pull, blue against blue, building like a rising tide.

Because of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski's propensity to shorten his bench as the season stretches along, few former walk-ons ever have the chance to play important minutes, much less make an impact.

Point guard Jordan Davidson -- who began his career as an invited walk-on, and is now on scholarship -- hopes to change that.

Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir wasn't old enough to vote last November but on Tuesday night she sat at President Obama's left elbow, breaking her Ramadan fast, after he introduced her as "an inspiration to all of us."

One month before Derrick Rose was to enroll at the University of Memphis, he had not yet scored high enough on his standardized test.

He had tried three times. He had failed three times.

Can you imagine the mood in the Memphis basketball offices over this? Can you imagine the mood of head coach John Calipari?

Look at the bright side, Memphis basketball fans. At least your head coach hasn't had two Final Four appearances stripped from the record books.

John Calipari is Kentucky's problem now.

Or should it be Kentucky's punch line?

Q: When is a Final Four appearance not a Final Four appearance?

A: When Calipari is coaching!

The Atlantic Coast Conference will release the full basketball schedule for the 2009-10 season this week, likely on Thursday, but we already know the nuts and bolts of the conference schedule.

On the three-year rotation, the slate of ACC opponents will be just like the 2006-07 season. That's good news for Virginia and bad news for Georgia Tech.

The jokes abound regarding randy University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino. There's the one about him calling a restaurant and asking for a table for two. At which point, the maitre d' inquires: "Would you like silverware with that?"

As well as: Rick Pitino never orders the table d'hote; only the table that's hot.

Now we know why Rick Pitino owned a restaurant when he was coaching Kentucky.

It wasn't the food. It was the social life.

Maybe you think Pitino's recently reported sexual encounter with a woman in a Louisville restaurant was an isolated incident. Then, you might want to drop by later today when I put on a dunking exhibition.

Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams is proud of former player Chris Wilcox for signing a new NBA contract. Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg is excited that furniture is being moved into his team's new practice facility. Clemson coach Oliver Purnell recently met with a prospective new strength coach.

How do I know? The same way recruits do: Twitter.