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ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : Is Virginia’s 2019 basketball title like Clemson’s 2016 football title?
This is a very interesting question to wrestle with, for so many reasons.
It is a cross-sport comparison. It involves two programs which have substantially changed their identities and reputations this decade. Both programs continue to get good news — and results — in either recruiting or the transfer market if not both. The two schools are led by coaches who are hardly old relative to industry measurements or normal coaching lifespans (unlike Nick Saban in football and Coach K in basketball).
There is so much one can say about Clemson football and Virginia basketball today, after UVA’s De’Andre Hunter was taken No. 4 in the NBA Draft on Thursday night and Ty Jerome also went in the first round. The parallels do stand out, in addition to the ones mentioned above.
Clemson was the No. 1 seed in 2015 but did not win the national title. It broke through the following year. Virginia was a No. 1 seed in 2018 but needed one more year to break through.
Both programs suffered memorable blowout losses they had to overcome on the road to national championship supremacy — Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl against West Virginia, UVA against UMBC in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Both programs had to live in the shadow of national ridicule — Clemson with the now completely obsolete label of “Clemsoning” (it was obsolete in 2013, but some people kept using it), and Virginia with all the jokes and barbs about the Cavaliers’ style of play and overall basketball aesthetic.
Both schools seem poised to be great for several more years. The standard of recruiting and the quality of coaching are extremely high. Dabo Swinney and Tony Bennett have instilled such a deeply-rooted culture that these programs’ identities are likely to endure.
The question, though, was if Virginia’s 2019 basketball title was like Clemson’s 2016 football title.
In terms of the timing relative to the developmental arc of the program? They are certainly similar.
In terms of solidifying recruiting and making sure there was no appreciable dropoff or lingering sense of disappointment at either program? Yes — that is a particularly strong and relevant connection.
In terms of catapulting the programs to another level? Maybe… but this is the dimension of the question where I can locate and explain a difference between the two programs… which is really not about the programs themselves, but their overall situations.
The big difference between Clemson football and Virginia basketball right now is that Clemson doesn’t exist in an especially robust ACC. Virginia does.
Clemson has not become dominant because the ACC has slipped from its majestic and soaring 2016 height in football. Clemson would have done what it did regardless of how strong the ACC is. Clemson is one of those schools which — much like Alabama — can be great even when its conference isn’t great.
The more precise point of emphasis here is that Virginia has to deal with a loaded ACC in basketball. Duke and North Carolina have fielded and will continue to field extremely talented teams. Sure, Virginia should still be a top-two-seed-quality program for many years, with lots of great chances to make Final Fours and win national titles, much like Clemson in football. However, the strain of playing in a stacked conference can mean the difference between being a 1 seed close to home and a 2 seed in the West Regional. Those details don’t always matter, but they can.
2016 Clemson football and 2019 Virginia basketball create a compelling and rich comparison with lots of parallels… but the strength of ACC football versus the strength of ACC basketball is the big difference between the two programs, the detail which makes it advisable to not link these programs too closely. They have some common threads, but also a few very important differences largely connected to their surroundings, not their own inner circles.
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