FanHouse Chris Singleton

College basketball is back, ladies and gentlemen! That means it is time for the first ACC Power Poll of the season. Most of this is based on projections, theories and guess-work.

There is always one team that surprises us each year (Miami was that team last year) and one that disappoints us (NC State). Let's begin!

1-North Carolina: There hasn't been a favorite this heavy in a long, long time.

2-Duke: Remember that the Blue Devils were a game from winning the ACC last year. Gerald Henderson is my darkhorse for ACC Player of the Year.

3-Miami-FL: The Canes have a great shot at the ACC Championship and a deep run in the NCAAs.

I haven't exactly been quiet about my feelings towards the White Sox and general manager Kenny Williams this winter. I've grown tired of hearing how the Sox were going to go after Torii Hunter, Kosuke Fukudome, Aaron Rowand, Miguel Cabrera, and Andruw Jones only to see every single one of them wind up elsewhere.

Oh sure, the Sox locked up a World Series appearance by trading for the vaunted Carlos Quentin, but Quentin shouldn't have to carry the load on his own!

Just when I was about to give up hope, the White Sox made an announcement on Thursday that while it won't help the team win any games, it will at least make listening to them lose a lot more tolerable. Steve Stone is going to be doing a few Sox games from the radio booth.

Stone, who has worked for WSCR-AM (670) the last two years as a baseball analyst, will expand his duties this summer for the White Sox' flagship station, joining radio team Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton in the booth for Friday home games.

'I'll get a chance to enjoy doing baseball in Chicago again,'' Stone said Wednesday. ''I've gotten along so well with [Farmer and Singleton], and [team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf] and I have been friends for a long time. He's one of the guys I really respect.

''It will be an unusual team. Ed will do play-by-play, and Chris and I will get to talk about how you set up hitters and go from there. It'll be fun.''

Stone filled in for White Sox tv analyst Darrin Jackson for a week last season, and that was by far the best week of the season to watch the White Sox on television. Yeah, they kept losing, but at least Stone made listening to the games tolerable. Instead of hearing about Hawk Harrelson's golf game, Sox fans were treated to actual analysis of a baseball game.

Hopefully Stone's tour in the radio booth will turn into a full time job come 2009, be it on the radio or television. The city of Chicago needs him.