Why the ACC Is Poised to Retake Its Place as the Best Conference in the Land

John Feinstein captured the competitiveness of the 1997 ACC season in his book, A March to Madness, perfectly.

He tailed all nine schools (at the time), from the start of the season to the end. He captured the highs and lows of that season very well.

Little did we know that those were the last days of a competitive ACC.

The general thought is that the ACC will recover eventually and it won’t necessarily be a two horse race between North Carolina and Duke. Occasionally Maryland nips either at the heels but that’s as worrisome as the bite of a chihuahua.

The Sporting News warns about the dangers of expansion to improve one sport, football, and the negative effect it may have on another, basketball. It also sites the ACC as a cautionary tale to any other conference looking to expand.

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Plus, as an exasperating side effect, the storied basketball league has been reduced to the Big Two and Little 10. North Carolina and Duke still do what they do, winning back-to-back national titles in ’09 and ’10, with the Tar Heels reaching the Elite Eight last season.

The rest? Eight of the other 10 programs have changed coaches in the last three seasons. The last program to reach the Final Four besides the Tobacco Road rivals was Georgia Tech in 2004. Yes, the last season before the expansion.

As noted often since, then-Maryland coach Gary Williams and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski both insisted that football expansion would hurt basketball. Their prophesies fell on deaf ears, probably because they were drowned out by the ringing of cash registers.

With several new coaching changes recently, there is an optimistic feeling that this will breathe new life into the ACC.

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Three Big East tams joined the ACC by 2005 bringing the total number of teams to 12. Miami and Virginia tech joined in 2004 and Boston College a year later.

Football may been the reason for the addition of new teams but the losing teams in the ACC have no one to blame but themselves for sticking with under performing coaches for years.

Sidney Lowe had five losing seasons at his alma mater, North Carolina State, before being given an opportunity to step down.

Now Mark Gotfried probably hopes to return State back to the days of Herb Sendek, who was fired for not progressing too far in the NCAA tournament. At least Sendek made the NCAA tournament five straight years before he was fired.

Incredible how the bar has dropped. Sidney Lowe was meant to improve on Herb Sendek’s form. Now Gotfried has two years to make it to the NCAA tournament to obtain a contract extension. NC State has taken a step forward only to end up two steps backward.

One upon a time an ACC coaching job would have been a coveted position, but now, Birmingham News reports, several coaches turned down the NC State job, before ESPN Analyst, Gottfried said yes.

Paul Hewitt rode that 2004 Final Four appearance for years, turning out an inferior product at Georgia Tech. Now he has sailed off into the sunset with a 7.2 million dollar buyout.

Brian Gregory, former Dayton coach, will be picking up the pieces.

That Final Four season was Hewitt’s only winning season in the ACC. A Final Four appearance should only guarantee job security for about two seasons. Hewitt probably was able to keep his job by constantly teasing the fan base with prized recruits, but they were just tear drops in a tsunami.

A championship on the other hand guaranteed Gary Williams a job for life doing it his way or no way for Maryland. There is no doubt Williams is a great coach but what if his recruiting was much better? He liked finding the gems such as Juan Dixon and Greivis Vasquez and letting them mature at their own pace.

That may have been fine 10 years ago but we live in the "now moment." Those tactics belong in a mid major conference and not the ACC.

Let’s hope that Mark Turgeon, who has Left Dreisel’s blessing, is truly the right man for the job.

Turgeon comes to Maryland after successful stops at Wichita State and Texas A&M.

Boston College got rid of their winningest coach after 13 years. Al Skinner has been replaced by Steve Donahue, formerly Cornell coach. He will try to build the Eagles back to prominence.

Frank Haith escaped from Miami before the Hurricanes were hit with some severe accusations of violations. Haith has yet to be implicated on these violations but well done to him for finding a way to sell himself to Missouri after a dismal 43-69 ACC record.

Jim Larranaga has done very well at George Mason but can he step up to the plate this late in his career? At age 61, Larranaga can expect rivals to use his age against him in recruiting, though those advance years do not seem to slow down Roy Williams (61) or Krzyzewski (64).

At least Miami is in better hands with Larranaga. Let’s hope the NCAA does not kill that program in light of the recent infractions.

Tony Bennett had a successful program at Washington State so he should light a fire under Virginia.

Not many people are sold on Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest but he has an opportunity to prove himself.

Brad Brownell completes the list of hires at Clemson. He had four seasons at Wright State where he went 84-45. He replaced Oliver Purnell who left Clemson for DePaul.

With these eight coaching changes the ACC has shed some dead weight, even though it had to pay a hefty price (Georgia Tech’s hefty Hewitt buyout) but the only way is up.

It is sad that none of these coaches have shown the kind of enthusiastic injection expected for a program on the rise. We have seen the formula to return a program to prominence. Say what you like about Bruce Pearl or John Calipari but they made Tennessee and Kentucky, respectively, relevant again.

They did this by restoring hope to the fan base even before they played their first game. Their showmanship was able to keep their new schools relevant at all times, even to the end in the case of Pearl who eventually got himself fired for telling a barefaced white lie to the NCAA.

These new ACC coaches do not have to dominate Sports Center with controversial thoughts but they need to win sooner rather than later.

They cannot be intimidated by Roy Williams or Mike Krzyzewski, the bullies in the conference either. John Calipari never backed down from the blue bloods of basketball. He knows the mindset of the Kentucky fan base. They yield to no one.

He has taken on Rick Pitino, openly challenges Mike Krzyzewski and is bringing Roy Williams to Rupp Arena as early as December next season. No wonder the fan base are so fiercely loyal to him. In him they have found someone who gets them.

That’s what the ACC needs. Not some guy quietly building a powerhouse. Hype sells. Who cares who wins a game between North Carolina and Kentucky in early December?

Unless they are both ranked No.1 and No. 2. Add to that they are North Carolina and Kentucky. John Calipari versus Roy Williams. With so many angles, bragging rights will go through the roof!

The ACC was great when Gary Williams was the fifth best coach in the conference, not the third, especially since he was the same coach, more or less.

That has to change now that Williams is gone. Someone has to knock a stick off the shoulder of Krzyzewski or Roy Williams very soon.

Once if you compared the ACC to the Big East, arguably the most competitive conference, you would have a lively debate about who is better. These days it’s a bludgeon to the champions of the ACC living on the glory of years gone by.

Once North Carolina and Duke had to load up on easy victories in their non-conference schedule to ease their players into the bloodbath that was the ACC. Now both teams have to take on some serious contenders to maintain prestige now that the ACC is the cake walk.

Leonard Hamilton should be commended for his success at Florida State. He has been knocking on the door of the big boys for the last three years in which he made the NCAA tournament and placed either fourth or third in the ACC standings.

Next season he has a good chance of supplanting Duke or UNC (more Duke than UNC) at the top of the ACC standings. The new coaches should put Hamilton and Seth Greenberg of Virginia tech on notice. Mediocrity is a thing of the past.

Greenberg seems to think that his job is to make the NIT yearly as he has played in this post season tournament four straight years.

First job of business for these coaches is recruiting. So far Maryland has had commitments from two top 50 recruits in the class on 2012. A huge change from the Gary William days, but there are plenty more top recruits unsigned from that class.

The ACC is down right now, but there is hope. First they have to win the ACC / Big ten challenge which the ACC has lost two years in a row after winning 11 in straight.