Yesterday we wrote about all the losing ACC men’s basketball was doing. Yep we have to distinguish from the women who have 5 teams ranked in the top 25 – Notre Dame, Duke, UNC, Georgia Tech and NC State.
How did we get here? How did it get so bad? Remember the ACC dominated the Big 12 last year 9-3 in the regular season and went 7-7 against the SEC in the SEC/ACC Challenge, and again was spectacular in March.
This season the bottom has fallen out.
It was a total confluence of events happening all at once.
The loss of several Hall of Fame Coaches – At one time the ACC had Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Mike Krzyzewski, Tony Bennett, and Jim Boheim. That’s 12 national titles and ton of Finals Fours. When Tony Bennett called it a day before the season started, that left the ACC without a single coach with a national title to his name.
Miami’s Jim Larranaga and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton are among the biggest winners in college basketball history, and it seems they’ve hung on too long.
Then you have teams that simply have underachieved this season, namley 6-5 North Carolina. The Heels entered the season in the top 15, and have beat one team with a pulse Dayton. They’ve collapsed late against Kansas, Michigan State and Florida. Hubert Davis is starting to remind UNC fans of Indiana’s Mike Davis with a fluke run to the national title game and little else.
Traditional basketball power Louisville was very much in the darkness under Kenny Payne. It’s going to take awhile to get out of there too, but Pat Kelsey gives hope.
Where are the future NBAers? If you’re not playing for Duke, it’s thin pickings in the ACC.
When you have a combination of a loss of great coaching, with mostly pedestrian hires, then just a general lack of talent across the league then this is the result so far.
It sounds really bad, is there anything positive going on in the league?
Duke – Duke is the one team that can play with anyone in the country and is a really talented team. Just ask Auburn.
Clemson is an NCAA caliber team that owns wins over Kentucky and Penn State. Pittsburgh can make some noise and has wins over LSU, West Virginia, and Ohio State. SMU just beat LSU has is a team to keep an eye on. Wake Forest has a win over Michigan.
The league still has a chance to salvage something out of a dreadful season, but there’s no denying it looks real bleak.
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