ACC basketball was once king — so how has once-proud conference reached such a low?

By Andrew CarterThe News & ObserverRALEIGH, N.C.

Upon the discomforting speculation that the ACC might only send three teams to the NCAA tournament, one of the leagues coaches had this to say:People may think Im crazy, but theres just so many games left.

Its not out of the question that a team could catch fire or two teams catch fire.

I just think its incomprehensible that anybody could suggest with any kind of merit that there would only be three teams.This is not a quote from this week or last week or even this year.

Its not a quote from this century, actually.

Its from then-Wake Forest coach Dave Odom, in a February 1999 story in the Winston-Salem Journal.

Then, like now, the ACCs postseason prospects seemed a little dim.The main difference, in case youd tuned out some of the major events surrounding college athletics over the past quarter-century: the ACC back then was but a small, quaint, geographically-contained nine-team conference.

It just so happens to be twice as large now yet still finds itself at risk of similarly meager (and much worse, proportionally) postseason representation.The then-and-now, though, underscores just how far the ACC has fallen in its flagship sport.

With apologies and respect to the Big East of the 1980s, the ACC remained the nations premier mens basketball conference for decades.Everett Case and those early league tournaments in Reynolds Coliseum built it.

North Carolinas undefeated 1957 national championship season expanded the popularity.

Then came Dean Smith and David Thompson and Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Valvano and, by the 1980s and 90s, no other conference came all that close to the ACCs sustained legacy of basketball excellence.That is why Odom in 1999 really did find it incomprehensible that the conference might only receive three NCAA tournament bids.

But thats ultimately what transpired: Duke, Maryland and UNC were the leagues only representatives.

It happened that same exact way the next season, too, with those same three schools.Consecutive three-bid seasons in 1999 and 2000 signaled a basketball crisis, for its time.

It was fair to wonder what happened to ACC basketball, given that only 33% of its teams were good enough to make the tournament.

And yet if we only knew.

A little more than 25 years later, the ACC is twice as large and itd be kind (and wrong) to suggest its only twice as bad in mens basketball.

The reality is the league is immeasurably worse.

Unfathomably worse.In the first academic year of this 18-school coast-to-coast Frankensteinian concoction of a conference, its not only conceivable that only three ACC teams will make the NCAA tournament, but that possibility is growing more and more likely all the time.

And unlike 1999 and 2000, when Duke and Maryland were consistent top-10 teams, Duke is the only ACC team in that class now.The Blue Devils are almost assured of earning a top seed in the NCAA tournament next month.

Clemson and Louisville are safely in, but neither is projected to be a top-5 seed.

And as for the rest of the league? Well, Wake Forest can still play itself onto the right side of the bubble but dont count on it happening after the Demon Deacons debacle of a recent defeat against Florida State.

UNC and Pittsburgh, meanwhile, both have a lot of work to do.And, um, who knows maybe somebody else can pull off what N.C.

State did last year and come out of nowhere to win the ACC tournament.

Just dont expect it to be N.C.

State, which stands a good chance of missing the league tournament in the first year of its new format (and hey, you cant be dethroned if you dont actually lose a tournament game, right? Right!?).We can talk about the ACCs recent NCAA tournament performance, which has gone a long way toward atoning for its mediocre (or worse) regular seasons the past few years.

And its true: The conference has remained formidable in March.

But its also true that this has been a terrible regular season for a once-proud league, and that this poor season comes after a stretch of not-very-good seasons.

This one is so bad, though, that its arguably the ACCs worst regular season ever.How could the conference find itself free-falling into such a basketball abyss?Some reasons and ruminations:1.

Its the departed coaches.The 2018-19 season is probably the most recent one in which the ACC was what it was since, well, pretty much forever.

It remains the last truly great ACC mens basketball season.

Virginia won the national championship and, like Duke and UNC that year, was a No.

1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Florida State and Virginia Tech were both No.

4 seeds.Louisville made the tournament.

Syracuse made the tournament.Clemson and N.C.

State couldve and probably shouldve made the tournament with then-State athletics director Debbie Yow memorably reminding the college basketball public how We.

Beat.

Auburn, upon UNCs loss to that same team in the Sweet 16.Ah, yes.

The good old days.But compared to now, they really were the good old days.

The ACC was still arguably the best conference in the country, though ranked third and not far behind the Big 12 and Big Ten according to kenpom.com.

The leagues basketball dominance, showcased in an epic ACC tournament semifinal game between Zion Williamson-led Duke and a deep and talented UNC team, appeared in little danger.And why? Well, look at who was coaching in the conference back then:Mike Krzyzewski at Duke.

Roy Williams at UNC.

Jim Boeheim at Syracuse.

Virginia Tech still had Buzz Williams.

Virginia still had Tony Bennett.

Even the leagues non-tournament teams that season still had proven coaching talent notably Mike Brey at Notre Dame and Jim Larranaga at Miami.

And at Georgia Tech, Josh Pastner was at least eternally entertaining.By the end of the 2019 season, the ACC was home to four coaches whod won a combined 10 national championships (with K and Ol Roy responsible for eight of those).

Bennett looked like hed be at Virginia for a long time.

The league had plenty of leadership depth.And since then? Well ...Roy Williams retired.

Coach K retired.

Boeheim retired.

Buzz Williams left for Texas A&M.

Mike Brey got out of college coaching.

Bennett retired before this season.

Larranaga retired during this season.

Florida States Leonard Hamilton announced hed be retiring after this season.

And not even a pandemic-era ACC tournament championship replete with the comically ineffective plastic facemask he wore during his postgame presser on Zoom could save Pastner.The ACC has, very literally, lost all of its most proven and successful head coaches in recent years.

And a few of them just so happened to be among the best coaches in college basketball history.

The result of all that turnover is what were now seeing.

The simplest and most concise explanation behind the ACCs basketball woes can be distilled to two words: coaching exodus.But also ...2.

The new hires havent exactly overwhelmed.Heres the complete list of current non-retiring ACC coaches whove won the conference tournament: Mike Young, Jon Scheyer and Kevin Keatts.

Thats it.

The list of current non-retiring ACC coaches whove led their teams to a Final Four is similarly short.

It includes Keatts, whose goodwill from the Wolfpacks miracle run of last March didnt even last one full season, and Hubert Davis, whos attempting to navigate his own crisis at UNC.Scheyer, in his third season at Duke, might just be the ACCs best coach but its difficult to make that argument so early into his tenure.

Hes certainly embraced the modern realities of a changing sport and positioned the Blue Devils for continued long-term success in a turbulent and unpredictable environment.

His hiring in 2022 of Rachel Baker, who was the first general manager in college basketball, looks especially prescient in hindsight.Outside of him, though, whos in the conversation for best coach in the ACC? Brad Brownell, who has been at Clemson since 2010, is poised to be the leagues longest-tenured coach and hes done an admirable job at a place where success hasnt come easily.

Still, the list of major accomplishments is lacking.

Keatts not long ago led State to its highest basketball high in 40 years, but the lows there have been far more plentiful, and the Wolfpack is in the midst of one of its worst seasons in school history.Davis UNC teams have been consistently inconsistent, and a legion of spoiled fans is in full-on tantrum mode.

And nobody else has either A) been around long enough to get a sense of the possibilities, or B) arrived in their positions with a proven record of success elsewhere.Its the second of those thats most concerning.

Head coaching jobs in the ACC used to be destination gigs.

It was the conference everyone wanted to get to.

It was the league where every coach wanted a chance to prove himself.

Outside of Scheyer and Davis two keep-it-inside-the-family hires, more or less appointed by their Hall of Fame predecessors the jobs that have actually been open in recent years havent exactly attracted star power.Theres been a ton of coaching turnover in the ACC, and the new class of coaches is full of those who are unproven at this level.

Some of them may indeed turn out to be fantastic.

Scheyer, for one, is well-equipped for these times and has a team capable of winning the national championship this season.

At Louisville, Pat Kelsey has worked wonders in his first season.But look around the ACC.

Among its head coaches, theres a lot of to-be-determined going on and thats in the best case, for some of them.Of course, attracting and hiring the best talent often comes down to ...3.

Money, money, money.No, the ACC isnt as wealthy as the Big Ten or SEC.

Yes, the relative lack of money matters especially as it relates to NIL compensation directed toward players.

The SEC, especially, has taken advantage of its riches and gone all out to enhance its profile everywhere.

That league has come a long, long way in mens basketball, and the progress has come quickly.Theres no denying that money matters more than ever in major college athletics, and that the gap is widening between the wealthiest schools and leagues and everybody else.

The richest of the rich can afford the most sought-after coaches, and can enhance their staffs with all manner of analysts and support personnel.

The most well-off NIL collectives are in a strong position to buy the best players or at least those who are most inclined to be driven by the pursuit of money.These are just facts.

It pays to be rich, more than ever.The ACC in the 1990s was, on a per-school basis, the wealthiest league in the country.

It remained pretty much even with the Big Ten and SEC through most of the 2000s, too.

Whats happened since has been well-documented: football became more and more important in terms of television ratings, and the value of that sport increased exponentially.

The Big Ten started its own TV network.

The SEC followed.

Those leagues began separating themselves, financially.And here we are.

Make no mistake: The ACC is far from impoverished.

To the contrary, the league continues to set revenue records, almost every year.

Its just no longer as rich as its two primary conference rivals.

Were starting to see the effects of a widening divide.

The SECs investment in basketball in recent seasons is clearly paying off.

The Big Ten has remained strong (despite not having won a national championship since Michigan State in 2000).Would the ACC be in a better position in mens basketball if the league were wealthier? Maybe.

Probably.

Even so, does not having as much as the Big Ten or SEC explain the ACCs demise?Its difficult to make that argument, for a couple of reasons.

For one, look at the Big 12.

That conference isnt as well off as the ACC, financially, and yet it hasnt precluded the Big 12 from maintaining its place as a basketball power in recent seasons.

Kansas is Kansas, yes, and Arizona, a Pac-12 refugee, has been among the nations elite for decades.But is there any reason why the likes of Houston, Texas Tech, Iowa State and Baylor have much stronger mens basketball programs than pretty much any ACC school outside of Duke? What do those schools have that ACC schools dont? Are you going to make the argument that Iowa State and Baylor have more advantages than, say, N.C.

State or Georgia Tech?And this says nothing of ACC schools that have, at times, been among the very best of the best but are now struggling to recapture the glory.

Were looking at you, UNC and Syracuse and N.C.

State and even Wake Forest and Georgia Tech and Virginia and Notre Dame.

Carolina, especially, should never be looking up to the likes of Iowa State or Texas Tech.

But the Tar Heels are, for now.The second clear example of why the money excuse is overused and overblown: Connecticut.The Huskies have managed to win consecutive national championships despite their home in the revamped risen-from-the-ashes Big East you know, the league that the ACC raided, twice, and nearly put out of business.

Indeed, the ACC is much better off than the Big East, in terms of money.

But that hasnt stopped UConn from becoming college basketballs most successful program over the past 25 years.If UConn can maintain its place as a national power and if the Big 12 can prove its might year after year, then there can really be no excuses for the ACC.

Its true that the league is not as wealthy as the two wealthiest conferences.

But its also true that theres still plenty of money for ACC schools to be a lot better than theyve been.

And yet in a league built on a tradition of basketball excellence, one of the main reasons for the decline in that sport is the sad reality that ...4.

What mattered for a long time matters a lot less.And theres layers to that reality, too.

In the micro specific-to-basketball sense, the college version of the sport has become more and more niche.

Not coincidentally, it has become more transient, too.

Rosters turn over year after year.

The very best and most talented players are gone after one season.

Long gone are the days of watching teams take shape over a span of years.Now they have a few months.

The season, itself, is something that happens between recruiting the transfer portal.

The good news is that teams are only ever a good transfer (or incoming freshman) class away from competitiveness.

Look at Louisville this season, for instance.

The bad news is that its difficult to define what a program really is anymore, given the constant turnover.In the ACC, Duke has blended the past and present to an enviable degree.

It has learned to play the game as it has to be played, if tradition-rich schools want to maintain their relevance.

UNC, meanwhile, is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

There, Davis has clung to tradition.

Theres been a resistance to adaptation.

Approaching the end of his fourth season, Davis has only recently concluded that, yes, a general manager is necessary; that the ways of the old no longer apply.College basketball has lost a lot of what allowed its rise in popularity throughout the 1980s and 90s.

Theres little continuity year-to-year.

Players are usually gone before the casual fan has a chance to remember them.

March is still March, yes, but the enduring popularity of that one month has come to overshadow everything else.

The sport is mostly a national afterthought until mid-February.

Even in the heart of Tobacco Road, its different than it used to be.Whats happened in recent years in the macro beyond-basketball sense has hurt, too.

Football has come to rule everything in major college athletics.

Or, to be more precise, the pursuit of football TV money has come to rule everything.

Schools feel immense pressure to raise their profiles in that one sport.

Conferences are desperate to maximize their football television inventory, which has led to realignment that has crushed old rivalries, led to the destruction of the Pac-12 and made for bizarre, nonsensical nationwide conferences.The ACCs basketball tradition is second to none, but how much does that matter in a football-first world?Parts of what made the conference such a basketball utopia are long gone.

The geographic proximity, for one.

The double round-robin, with every school playing each other home and away.

At Dukes game against California recently at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it became easy to think, Why? As in, why is this a conference game? Why did Cal travel back East for the third time since early January to play an ACC game? Why are we doing this? What are we doing?And the answer, of course, is obvious: Because of TV.

Because of football.If the ACC wants to get back to what it long was in mens basketball, its time for the conference to go back to its roots.

Bring back the Big Four Classic, for one.

Find a way for whats left of the ACCs core to play each other twice a year, home and a way.

Foster those old rivalries among the former Big East schools.

Minimize the travel to the degree thats even possible.Make it all matter again.

In recent years, the leagues emphasis has been on football at the expense of everything else.

The conference has been desperate to enhance its standing in that one sport.

Perhaps its understandable, to a degree.

Meanwhile, the sport that made the ACC has fallen by the (Tobacco) roadside, neglected.

Once, a long time ago now, the thought of the league sending only three teams to the NCAA tournament was incomprehensible, indeed.Not anymore, though.

The conference is twice as large as it was then, and not even half as good.

It has attempted to shed its identity as a basketball-first league and, in a way, that effort has proven more successful than it ever seemed possible..

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