Burton putting up 1st Team All-ACC numbers is certainly a surprise but he's a 5th year guy. Players get better. 23 year olds are better than 18 year olds. We've seen here at Pitt and at other places, guys make drastic improvements. Wanamaker, Patterson, Gibbs, etc. The difference is you dont really do that at the same school anymore.
Hinson doesn't surprise me a ton. His play has been like a best-case scenario of what I thought he could he, going off his SEC numbers. So, while I wouldn't predict he would be All-ACC, I wouldn't have thought it would be totally impossible. Guys get better.
Cummings has surprised me in that he has developed into sort of that natural PG/leader. I saw him more as a scoring PG. More in that Xavier Johnson, have to do things myself type. He probably isnt scoring as much as I thought but that's not a bad thing.
Fede is another best case scenario of what I thought he could be as you see from my posts above. His JUCO numbers were good.
Elliott has been about what we all expected I think. Probably rebounds better than I thought and is more streaky than I would like but he's been a good addition.
I say a lot of times that luck plays a factor and we've had so much bad luck recently, we have been due. I dont want to take anything away from the staff but sometimes guys just develop differently. Burton, Hinson, and Fede all of a sudden becoming really good ACC players all at the same time is a bit lucky. But every team needs that. We always talk about JJ Moore or Dante Taylor, those are kids that didnt develop and that's not Jamie's fault. Sometimes it just never happens.