Throughout my entire life as a basketball fan, there’s one thing that I knew to be true. The ACC was the best conference in college hoops and it wasn’t even a debate. With Duke, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisville, and Syracuse it has without a doubt the most big-name programs. It showed on the court too as most of these teams were consistently in the top 25 and leading the nation. But over the past few years everything has changed and the conference I once loved has fallen off of a cliff. It gets frustrating to watch games in the ACC and teams in the conference routinely struggle mightily in non-conference play. So what happened?
Legendary Coaches Left
College sports are entirely based on coaches. With players coming in and out each year, it’s the one constant. Unlike in professional sports where one player can lead a team for years, it’s all about coaching. The ACC has lost Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Mike Brey, Tony Bennett, and Jim Larrañaga in the past few years and those coaches are close to impossible to replace. We all know of Adrian Autrys struggles. Huebert Davis can’t seem to consistently put together good teams at UNC. Micah Shrewsberry was a good coach at Penn State but is under .500 with Notre Dame. Tony Bennett and Jim Larrañaga both left their teams this year and those squads are two of the worst in the conference. Without the great coaches, the top programs just aren’t what they used to be.
SEC Football Money Has Been Used For Basketball
The Southeastern Conference has taken over as the premier conference in the sport. Its pretty simple why. They have so much money from elite football teams and TV deals. SEC coaches are getting paid an absurd amount, which has translated to wins. Nate Oates, Rick Barnes, Bruce Pearl, John Calipari and other SEC coaches are getting football money. Of course, now that money is also used for NIL which has completely changed the game.
Elite Offensive Efficiency
As I said earlier, it gets very frustrating to watch some ACC games with how bad some offenses are. That’s not the case in the SEC where almost every offense is elite. The top four teams in KenPom’s offensive efficiency all come from the SEC. These teams mostly all play fast, shoot the three well and have styles of play that cater to the changes we’ve seen in modern basketball. ACC teams just don’t have the skill level and entertainment facture that SEC offenses do.
