No one is going to argue that’s it’s been a largely a down year for ACC basketball outside of a handful of schools. The constant question is how did things get this bad?
The answer isn’t so complicated. No conference could withstand the losses of so many Hall of Fame coaches in such a short period of time. Coaches like Roy Williams, Coach K, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, and Tony Bennett all won national titles. Jim Larranaga and Leonard Hamilton will be in the Hall of Fame too. It’s not just money either – UConn won the last two national titles, and the Big 12 has remained a top basketball conference even if they have been passed by SEC.
We haven’t even got to March yet, where the ACC has been the best-performing conference over the last several years, but what is the overall depth of the league? Will it be better in the future? I think yes and so better get the ACC now.
The ACC is tied with the Big 12 with 8 Five Star players for 2025. Duke has the number 1 class in the country coming in. SMU is number 3. Notre Dame is number 4. UNC is number 9, and Syracuse 10. That is half the top 10 in recruiting coming from the ACC.
Looking further Georgia Tech is 22. That gives the ACC 6 top 25 classes. That’s tops in the country. Now how you do in the transfer portal will be key, and we’re just getting going for 2025, but the recruiting classes look good.
What about replacing all those coaches?
Pat Kelsey of Louisville looks like a home run hire, as he inherited a trainwreck left behind by Kenny Payne and could be your national coach of the year, at the very least the ACC COY for having Louisville 20-6 (13-2) and headed to the NCAA tournament.
SMU hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2017, and first-year coach Andy Enifield has them right on the bubble at 19-6 (10-4).
With Stanford, it’s been even longer, no NCAA appearance since 2014, and not even more than 16 wins since 2020. First-year coach Kyle Smith is having a solid 16-10 (8-7) season. That was for a team that was pre-season picked at or near the bottom of the ACC.
Clemson isn’t replacing anyone, but the patience to stay with Brad Brownell has resulted in Clemson’s best back-to-back seasons of basketball since at least the late 90s.
We also know North Carolina could turn things around quickly. UNC was ranked in the top 5 and a number 1 NCAA seed as recently as last year.
While it has been a rough ACC basketball season, don’t write off the future of ACC basketball just yet.
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