In October, ACC Commissioner John Swofford boasted that the conference, with the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh to the traditional Tobacco Road powers, had put together the greatest-ever collection of college basketball teams.
At the halfway point of the season, the ACC has not come close to proving him correct.
While the league has rebounded from early-season losses to the University of South Carolina-Upstate, Oregon State, Belmont, Toledo, Indiana State and St. Francis (N.Y.), all of which came at home, and has improved its league RPI from 10th to fifth, the ACC is hardly the juggernaut Swofford foresaw.
That’s not to say it is bad. Five ACC teams are in the top 20 of the KenPom.com rankings, created by statistician and blogger Ken Pomeroy. That ties the ACC with the Big 10 for most overall — although they aren’t the names casual fans are used to seeing. Syracuse (18-0, 5-0 ACC), one of three unbeatens left, and Pitt (16-2, 4-1) are programs most casual fans associate with the Big East, not the ACC. That, combined with the so-so starts by regular powers Duke (14-4, 3-2) and North Carolina (11-6, 1-3) and a rebuilding year from defending champion Miami (10-7, 2-3), gives many the impression the ACC is down.
Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton is not one of those people.
“I think that’s a total and complete joke that people are not aware of what’s going on,” Hamilton said. “I understand that (Carolina) and (Duke) are the third- and fourth-winningest programs in the history of college basketball, and they’ve earned the right to be held in such high esteem. However, because of their success, they’ve really created an atmosphere that has created a lot of other people to raise themselves up, and it’s become more and more competitive.”
His is one of those programs. Thanks to its length and stout defense, FSU (11-5, 3-2) looks like a tough tournament team. Same goes for Virginia (13-5, 4-1), which owns a strong win over FSU and is 15th in the KenPom rankings. Next up are the Seminoles (18th) and Duke (20th). Clemson (13-4, 4-1) checks in at 32nd. Always-dangerous UNC is 40th. Miami (61st) and Maryland (64th) are next up.
The Big Ten may be the nation’s best conference right now with a nation-best nine teams with a .667 winning percentage or better and five teams in the top 14 of the KenPom rankings. The Big 12’s conference RPI is best in the land. The Pac-12 boasts the No. 1 team overall, Arizona, and the Big East, like the aforementioned others, ranks ahead of the ACC in RPI. It’s clear the ACC is lagging behind.
Overall, it’s hard to say the ACC is anything but healthy when it has Duke, UNC and Syracuse, which boast three of the country’s best coaches and are three of the five winningest college hoops programs. Adding Louisville next season will give the ACC the four best coaches in the land, and four of the top eight programs by winning percentage. Even without Louisville, last year’s national champion, the ACC has 13 titles (second all time) overall and six in the last 12 years.
“We all go through periods where we have to regroup,” Hamilton said. “It’s hard to stay at that magic level year in and year out. But at the end of the day, Syracuse and Pittsburgh are playing really well, Virginia’s playing really good basketball. I think what you’re going to see is just a reshuffling of where they are placed. I don’t believe our level of how good we are should be judged by only two teams (Duke and Carolina) because maybe they are regrouping.”
Last week, UNC coach Roy Williams was asked about the struggles of those premier teams. His answer could be extrapolated for the conference as a whole.
“Whether this is a bad year or a bad month or a bad week or two bad games, who knows?” he said. “My first inclination would be to say, ‘Listen, don’t bury us yet.’ ”
About the Author
