Court Vision: Jim Larrañaga’s retirement, NIL lawsuit for FSU's Hamilton come amid ACC decline

Happy New Year, everyone.

Or to those of you who have been tapped into college hoops since November, happy ongoing season.

This week marks the full pivot to conference play which is exciting for some leagues and less so for others.

Lets start with the latter.

1.

Jim Larranagas surprise retirement, and the ACCs ongoing decline The fact Miami coach Jim Larranaga, who made the Elite Eight in 2022 and Final Four in 2023, abruptly retired last week was not a tremendous surprise.

After all, Larranaga is 75 and his team was going nowhere.

The Hurricanes were 4-8 when he stepped down Dec.

26.

And when we spoke on the phone the week before his decision, he didnt sound like his typical thoughtful, playful self.

Advertisement He sounded tired, frankly.

Or as he said at his retirement news conference, exhausted.

Like Virginias Tony Bennett before him, Larranaga cited the changing nature of college basketball as a key reason for retiring.

Its the system, or the lack of a system, he said.

I didnt know how to navigate through this.

It sounded like a more fleshed-out version of what we discussed on the phone, when he missed the old days, when players stuck around multiple seasons.

Still, Id be lying if I said after that call that I expected hed walk away within a week.

So, my biggest takeaway from Larranagas retirement? Maybe wrongly so, but its not how college sports shifting priorities led another legend out the door.

Rather, my mind went straight to the ACC and how the league could little afford to lose another of its coaching titans.

If you take George Mason and Miami to the Final Four, winning over 700 DI games in the process, then yes, youre a titan in my book.

I believe Larranaga should be in the Hall of Fame one day.

Consider the coaches the ACC has lost since spring 2021: Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Mike Brey, Bennett and now Larranaga.

Collectively, they accounted for 30 Final Four berths and 10 national titles.

That doesnt even include Rick Pitino, who was fired by Louisville on the eve of the 2017-18 season.

Those names made the ACC the nations most celebrated college basketball conference for decades ...

and their departures have had the opposite effect.

Its impossible to tell the story of the ACCs slippage without direct ties to that dramatic coaching turnover.

But about that slippage.

It is, sadly, very real.

The holidays always make for a lean few weeks of college hoops, which has meant an unusual number of ACC games on my office TV.

And, well, I get why the league is trending toward only three, maybe four bids this NCAA Tournament.

Duke is a lock and, by virtue of beating up on the leagues lesser teams, may compile its way to a No.

1 seed.

Clemson and Pitt have strong paths, too, barring any horrendous defeats.

But I dont feel particularly confident in any of North Carolina, SMU , Wake Forest or Louisville, which constitute the leagues fringe hopefuls.

UNC and Wake Forest each have at least one solid nonconference win UCLA for the Tar Heels , Michigan for the Demon Deacons but their resumes and on-court product are still lacking.

Advertisement Toto, were not in 2019 anymore, when the ACC produced three No.

1 seeds.

I dont say all this to beat up on the league I grew up watching most often, but Larranagas retirement really drove home the point of how far the league has fallen and the reality that it might still have further to drop.

2.

How damaging will lawsuit be for FSUs Leonard Hamilton? Because Florida State didnt have enough bad publicity in 2024, the Seminoles sneaked in one more doozy before the calendar changed.

Six former FSU players sued head coach Leonard Hamilton on Monday, alleging he never paid them the $250,000 in name, image and likeness money he had promised each player.

The $1.5 million lawsuit which directly names Hamilton as the defendant, rather than FSU or its collective even detailed a player boycott in February due to the unpaid funds.

All of this, obviously, is a terrible look for Hamilton, the ACCs longest-tenured coach but its also not exactly uncharted waters.

Georgia backup quarterback Jaden Rashada is suing people connected to Florida , the school he previously committed to, over a similar issue.

Former UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka stopped playing midseason due to alleged non-payments.

But what makes the Hamilton situation tougher is what it illustrates about the reality of college coaching.

Say youre a top high school or transfer portal recruit considering Florida State in the spring.

You can pretty much forecast how those recruiting considerations are going to go: Hey, Florida State wants me.

Thats pretty exciting! I heard Tallahassee is a beautiful place to live, and you get to play at the high-major level.

Isnt that the coach who didnt pay his players? And, scene.

The recruiting implications from accusations like this, even if theyre not true, can be fatal for a coachs tenure.

Its not unlike when a coach loses the support of a schools donors; even if hes a good coach, even if hes beloved by his players, even if hes won recently, none of it matters if the money people cut off the spigot.

Hamiltons 26-39 record the past two seasons was already uninspiring FSU is 9-4 this season, with no wins over top-100 opponents but now you add this into the mix? Its entirely possible the combination of the two is enough to force the administrations hand.

(Maybe it gets packaged as the 76-year-old Hamilton retiring, but just read between the lines.) To be fair, Florida football coach Billy Napier has largely recovered from the Rashada mess .

Advertisement But any talk about the end of Hamiltons tenure, however premature, brings up a somewhat sad trivia question: After Hamilton, who are the ACCs longest-tenured coaches? Anyone? Bueller ? No.

2 is Brad Brownell, who has turned Clemson into one of the more consistent programs in the ACC after being hired in 2010.

No.

3? That would be NC States Kevin Keatts, whose miraculous NCAA Tournament run last March effectively saved the job hes had since 2017.

No disrespect, but Hamilton, Brownell and Keatts arent exactly Krzyzewski, Williams and Dean Smith.

Now for the real doozy: Half of the ACCs 16 full-time coaches are in their third year or fewer with their program including top brands Duke, Louisville and Syracuse .

Miami and Virginia are already open jobs for next year.

How many more vacancies could emerge? Id count four that at least have the reasonable potential to open: FSU, Virginia Tech , Syracuse and ...

North Carolina.

If this does end up being Hamiltons last season in Tallahassee, it wont just be because the Seminoles have slipped on the court.

Itll be because no coach can overcome even the perception of not paying players in this era.

A word to the wise, as myself and my colleagues learned this summer while reporting our NIL confidential series : Dont promise any recruits money that you dont have committed or already sitting in an account because this is what can happen.

3.

One of the best players hiding in plain sight Scan KenPoms National Player of the Year list, and youll find some of the biggest stars in the sport: Auburn s Johni Broome , Dukes Cooper Flagg , Marquette s Kam Jones and ...

West Virginia guard Javon Small ? You betcha.

Small the former East Carolina and Oklahoma State transfer has been one of the better players in the country who not nearly enough people are talking about.

But that should change after Tuesday, when he led the Mountaineers to the programs first victory over Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse.

Small played all 40 minutes and was a pick-and-roll nightmare for the Jayhawks all game including on the game-deciding possession with under 10 seconds left.

Small got the switch on Kansas freshman center Flory Bidunga , and when he got Bidunga to leave his feet, Small wisely leaned in and drew the contact that led to his game-winning free throw.

That play was really a microcosm of what has made Small so effective this season.

Per Synergy, the 6-foot-3 senior is averaging 1.02 points per possession as a pick-and-roll handler, which rates as excellent and in the 85th percentile nationally.

Among high-major guards with at least 60 pick-and-roll possessions this season, Small is fifth in efficiency, trailing only Ohio State s Bruce Thornton , Louisvilles Chucky Hepburn , Rutgers Dylan Harper and Jones and thats including the fact he went 0-for-6 from 3 against Kansas, with four of those six attempts coming out of pick-and-roll situations.

Advertisement What makes Small so good in ball-screen scenarios is actually his midrange finishing.

He doesnt always have the pure speed to get all the way to the hoop, but per CBB Analytics, Small is shooting 41.7 percent in the midrange this season, more than 6 percentage points better than the national average.

That includes plenty of runners, like this: But also instances where Small makes something out of nothing.

Here, KJ Adams Jr.

actually walls up fairly well even bumping Small off his feet but the senior guard knows the shot clock is winding down and just makes a play: That isnt to say Small cant get all the way to the rim from ball-screen scenarios, because he can.

Hes just very intentional about it, which youd expect from someone in his fourth season of college basketball.

Watch how he keeps Dajuan Harris Jr.

a three-time Big 12 All-Defense honoree in constant motion via back-to-back ball screens until he finally sees a window to drive: West Virginia has been better than expected this season, already knocking off Gonzaga , Arizona and Georgetown before this weeks win at KU.

The Mountaineers only two losses are at Pittsburgh, a borderline Top 25 team, and in overtime versus Louisville on a neutral court.

Early on, Tucker DeVries the two-time Missouri Valley Player of the Year who followed his father, Darian, to Morgantown this summer was the driving force behind that mojo.

But he has missed the past four games and is out indefinitely with an upper-body injury.

Since then, Small has taken his game to another level, averaging 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, while making 91.7 percent of his free throws.

Its probably unreasonable to expect Small to keep this rate up for the duration of Big 12 play, but he looks like an all-conference player through two months, which is more than anyone outside of West Virginia wouldve expected.

4.

A slammed Saturday of conference play Whats that? Arctic-level cold fronts are due to sweep across the United States? Oh no guess well have to sit on the couch all Saturday and occupy ourselves.

Might I suggest binging the first slammed Saturday slate of the conference season? Youre guaranteed a good matchup in practically every window starting with undefeated Florida at No.

10 Kentucky at 11 a.m.

ET.

The Gators beat North Carolina in a de facto road game in Charlotte, N.C., but otherwise have no top-50 wins; beating UK at home would be further validation of Todd Goldens team as a true national contender.

In the afternoon, No.

25 Baylor travels to No.

3 Iowa State in a matchup of two of the 10 best offenses in America.

(Yes, really.) The difference? ISUs top-20 defense is as good as it usually is under T.J.

Otzelberger, and Baylors defense is ...

not.

If Baylor can knock off the Cyclones in Hilton Coliseum especially after ISU went undefeated at home last season then it would be one of the better Big 12 wins all season.

You can toggle between this one and Arkansas at No.

1 Tennessee, but Id bank on the Vols handling business at home and maybe without much fuss.

Advertisement Then in the early evening, No.

12 Oklahoma puts its undefeated record on the line at No.

5 Alabama, in a situation not too dissimilar from Florida and Kentucky.

Theres no shame in the Sooners dropping that one, but for a team that claims top-50 wins against only Arizona and Michigan , beating the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa would cement Porter Moser as one of the early favorites for coach of the year.

If were lucky, Jeremiah Fears and Mark Sears turn that one into a fun back-and-forth affair.

The list goes on UCLA at Nebraska, in their first conference meeting (LOL); Duke at SMU, another hilarious conference affair; San Diego State at Boise State , for the Mountain West enthusiasts among us but you practically cant go wrong.

Its the sort of day the YouTube TV quad box was born for.

Who are we not to use it? (Photo of Jim Larranaga: Carmen Mandato / Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.