College Basketball: 5 Ways Adding Syracuse, Pitt Will Impact ACC Recruiting

Realignment of major college athletics continues to reshape what is and what will be in collegiate sports for many years to come.

Teams will face different opponents on the field and on the court. The reconfiguring of conferences will also affect one of the most fundamental areas in which athletic programs go head-to-head: recruiting.

Here are five ways in which adding Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC will impact recruiting within the conference.

Historical Success of Syracuse and Pitt

One of the ways that adding Syracuse and Pitt to the ACC will affect recruiting is the simple aspect of both of the teams' success over the last several years.

The ACC isn't adding two doormats, but a pair of elite programs.

Syracuse has won 281 games since 2000. 

The Orange have won an NCAA Championship, made it to three other Sweet Sixteens and won the Big East Tournament twice in those 11 years.

In that same time period, Pitt has rung up 292 victories,

The Panthers have made it to the Elite Eight once, reached the Sweet Sixteen four times and have won two Big East Tournament championships.

Because of the exceptional success of these two teams, they will create further competition for top-tier players.

Exceptional Reputation of Boeheim and Dixon

These two programs' successes are largely due to the two men who lead them.

Jim Boeheim is one of college basketball's leading coaches in terms of overall wins (856 in 36 seasons).

In eight seasons, Jamie Dixon has won more games (216) than almost any other coach in NCAA history. 

Not only have these two men won lots of games, they both have good reputations for the kind of programs that they run.

Bringing two more highly respected coaches into the ACC makes its recruiting scene that much more competitive.

Dixon's Recruiting Philosophy

Some have wondered why Pitt "can't recruit any better" than they have, citing the limited number of four and five-star recruits whom Dixon has secured.

It may actually be that Dixon uses a strategy that doesn't put recruiting class rankings at the top of his wish list.

In an article by Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com, Dixon states that he doesn't "recruit numbers, we recruit winning and character. Sometimes when you get five highly ranked guys, they may not fit well together.”

A good example of a Dixon recruiting find was Ashton Gibbs (pictured), who was not a top-100 guy. He was the No. 34 shooting guard in the nation in the Class of 2008

So, not only will the upper-tier ACC teams, who are going after McDonald's All-Americans, be challenged with Pitt moving in, so will everyone else.

Style of Play

Anyone who has watched Syracuse or Pitt play knows that they bring a tough, defensively-driven brand of basketball.

They are in your face from the time you get off the bus.

Most of Syracuse's guards weigh in at or above 200 pounds. Last year, Brandon Triche (pictured) and Scoop Jardine both weighed in at 200, but Triche finished the season at 215.

Even though blog.syracuse.com reports that both of the Orange's guards have been working on their weight over the summer, that doesn't mean that Boeheim's style of play will change.

Other teams may not adopt the Orange's 2-3 zone or the Panthers' menacing man-to-man defense, but they will have to face them every year.

Because of this, we may see a slight shift in some of the ACC teams' recruiting. They might look differently at certain prospects based on how they face a more physical style of play.  

Focusing on Philly

Philadelphia is (and has been for a long time) one of the true hot spots in the country for high school basketball.

You don't have to go back any further than the last few years to see how many top players have come out of Philly: Wayne Ellington (UNC), Gerald Henderson (Duke), Tyreke Evans (Memphis) and the Morris Twins (Kansas) all came from the City of Brotherly Love.

Both Syracuse and Pitt recruit Philadelphia annually and extensively.

On last year's roster alone, the Orange had Rick Jackson, Scoop Jardine and Dion Waiters (pictured).

Pitt had both Brad Wanamaker and Nasir Robinson (actually from nearby Chester, PA).

The other ACC schools may already recruit in Philly, but now they have to go head-to-head with Boeheim and Dixon from within the conference.

This could be interesting.