Something occurred to me watching Virginia’s 73-68 victory over Louisville today. In a well played highly competitive game where Virginia did just enough to win, I think we are seeing the beginning of what will be the ACC’s next great coaching rivalry.
The ACC was built on great coaching rivalries – Mike Krzyzewski vs Dean Smith vs Jim Valvano, Mike Krzyzewski vs Gary Williams, Mike Krzyzewski vs Roy Williams and on and on.
Can’t talk about ACC rivalries w/o mentioning: Everett Case vs Frank McGuire vs Bones McKinney vs Vic Bubas vs Dean vs Lefty. Case is credited for bringing Indiana b’ball to state of NC, w/ McGuire recruiting NYC kids. Dean played under Phog Allen, coached by James Naismith.
— Mike Lewis (@Mikeysurf) March 10, 2019
Tony Bennett came to Virginia in 2009 and has built the Cavaliers into one of the country’s premier programs. He just won his 4th ACC Regular season title in 6 years, and despite some March hiccups the Virginia program is on solid footing. It is just a matter of time before Virginia gets to a Final 4. I think he’ll win a national title at some point at Virginia. UVA is a top 10 fixture, and Tony Bennett isn’t even 50 years old yet.
That leads me to Chris Mack at Louisville. For much of this year he was the front-runner for ACC COY. He’s turned a Louisville team predicted to finish 11th in the ACC into one that will make the NCAA. Yes Louisville has hit some bumps late in the year due to a somewhat limited roster, no one expected the Cardinals to reach the Big Dance.
Mack’s 2020 class at Louisville is a consensus top 6 group. The talent is coming, and Mack has more than proved his coaching chops when he was at Xavier.
In 9 years at Xavier, Mack won nearly 69% of his games, went to 8 NCAA tournaments, 3 Sweet 16s and 1 Elite 8. He was the coach Louisville fans wanted, and he’s only 49 too.
Bennett has obviously been at Virginia longer than Mack at Louisville. The Virginia program is already well established will be a #1 seed in this years NCAA tournament. They’ve been awfully good for a number of years. There’s no reason to think they won’t be really strong for the foreseeable future.
Mack in just one year at Louisville is already exceeding expectations. His success at Xavier plus his start at Louisville makes it hard for me to think he won’t be wildly successful in the future with Cardinals.
So there you have it, two relatively young coaches who’ve already achieved quite a bit success in their careers. It has all the makings of a future that will feature a whole lot of top 10 battles. Throw in a 46 year old Buzz Williams into the mix, if Virginia Tech can lock up Williams long term and we may be talking about the future of ACC basketball having to include the Virginia\Kentucky area along with Tobacco Road.
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