We aren’t even out of the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament, and the ACC, save Duke, has flamed out so far. Clemson played its worst first half of basketball in recent memory, losing in an upset to McNeese State. Louisville, despite a home court advantage, was run off the court by Creighton, and UNC continued to fall behind big, comeback, and lose in a defeat at the hands of Ole Miss.
The league only had 4 teams make the NCAA’s and nobody could argue the ACC was way down this year.
We admitted as much back in February, We also said you better get the ACC now, but how did it get so bad?
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.
At NC State they aren’t replacing a Hall of Famer, but we know with the right coach that program can win big. Even with Kevin Keatts they made the Final 4 as recently as last year. Virginia is replacing future likely Hall of Famer in Tony Bennett, who won a national title in 2019. There’s no question Virginia is capable of being an elite program with the right hire.
I think they both moves will pay off sooner rather than later.
NC State hired Will Wade formerly of that McNeese State team that beat Clemson. Will Wade has a checkered past, but so did coaches like Bruce Pearl and Kelvin Sampson who have number 1 seeded teams in Auburn and Houston. They both found new life at their current jobs. That can happen for Will Wade who can flat coach.
He won at VCU, where he had 2 NCAA tournament appearances in two years. Then he went to LSU where he had the Tigers among the top 3 or 4 programs in the SEC with 3 NCAA appearances in 4 years. That’s where some colorful recruiting practices were exposed and Wade ended up at McNeese State where he went to 2 more NCAAs in his 2 years there.
There is absolutely no reason why Wade can’t start winning at NC State. Pat Kelsy had a bigger restoration project at Louisville and look what he did in just 1 year.
Virginia hired Ryan Odom of VCU. Odom is from North Carolina, worked at Virginia Tech, and has coached for the last 2 years at VCU. He’s been a consistent winner his whole career. He was the coach of UMBC when they knocked off number 1 seed Virginia as a 16 seed. He then took Utah State to the NCAA tournament and then VCU this year. He’s won 64% of his career games.
These are not coaches with minimal head coaching experience or on-off great seasons. Both have solid track records and know the ACC region.
One of them will have their teams in the NCAA tournament within the next 2 years, and I’d wager even the sweet 16.
That’s how high I am on Wade and Odom as coaches.
I hope you got the ACC this year…
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