While coaches like ACC COY contenders Virginia’s Tom Bennett, Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton and your likely leader Virginia Tech’s Mike Young lead their team to the NCAA tournament we don’t want to forget the other side.
We don’t want to leave the coaches who’ve underachieved, disappointed, and frustrated their fanbases without any hardware. There’s always something to play for, while these coaches won’t lead their teams to the Big Dance without finishing miracles there’s a bigger award at stake – the anti-ACC Coach of the Year.
Jim Christian – Boston College
Boston College has never finished higher than 10th in ACC in Christian’s 6 full years at BC, making Jim Christian a perennial anti-ACC COY candidate. In year 7 BC is a lock to finish worse than 10th yet again. At the moment Christian has BC in last place in the ACC by more than 2 full games over Miami with a 1-9 ACC record. Boston College is a horrendously bad defensive team ranking an incredible 313th in the country in defense and has only won 3 games the entire season. Boston College knows the value of having anti-ACC COY award, and with Jim Christian at the helm, the Eagles always have shot at the illustrious award.
Josh Pastner – Georgia Tech
Josh Pastner inserted himself early into the anti-ACC COY race by opening the season with disastrous losses to Georgia State and Mercer with what was considered by many to be his best team. A mid-season win over Florida State stunted Pastner’s opportunity at the anti-ACC COY, but losing 3 of his next 4 put him firmly back into contention. With All-ACC PG Jose Alvarado there is the potential for Georgia Tech to win too many games for Pastner to win the award, but if anyone can fail to meet expectations it’s Pastner. The current 10-8 (6-6) record is just what Pastner needed to position himself to contend for the title and become his 7th straight coached team to miss the Big Dance.
Mike Krzyzewski – Duke
Mike Krzyzewski has done it all in his Hall of Fame career – coaching teams to Gold Medals, Final 4’s, National Titles, ACC Titles, and nearly 1,100 career wins. He couldn’t end his career without an anti-ACC COY title, and even with stiff competition from the others on this list he’s putting his all into the winning the award. At 8-8 (6-6), this is the worst Duke team since the 1994-1995 season. The concern coming into this season was that a top 5 recruiting class could hamper Coach K’s title run, but Krzyzewski has he’s done throughout his career eyes the biggest of prizes. Ranking 257th in defense, and losers of their last 3 games prior to Saturday has Coach K is right there. He couldn’t afford to beat NC State Saturday, but Duke’s win has to hurt.
Kevin Keatts – NC State
Picked to finish 8th the ACC, Kevin Keatts has guided his Wolfpack to 12th place in the ACC as of today. Underachieving pre-season rankings is the type of coaching efforts we need to see for the anti-ACC COY title. At 8-9 (4-8), Keatts faced off against fellow title contender Mike Krzyzewski in a critical game. Keatts pulled through with a listless double digit home loss to Duke. Keatts isn’t just handing this title over, he’s a fighter. What works against Keatts is the unfortunate bad luck of losing leading scorer Devon Daniels for the season. While NC State has played with a seeming lack of energy and effort this season, Keatts is the darkhorse for the award with the injury to Daniels. Shot-Blocker Manny Bates has also missed games accounting for some of NC State’s issues. There’s still time for Keatts to move up this list.
Leader – Jim Christian
It’s going be tough to overtake Jim Christian. Christian’s experience at losing every way imaginable so consistently makes him the odds on favorite. While the other coaches have slipped from time to time, and won a few games they needed to lose, Christian’s razor like focus on losing has remained this year. That commitment to losing has been the hallmark of his Boston College tenure. He only plays two more homes games this season against UNC and Notre Dame while playing at Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Miami remain. That’s a path that can lead Christian to the title. He’s certainly got the inside track.
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