With only a handful of games left to be played, I found it interesting after the Miami/Louisville game yesterday that Coach Rick Pitino mentioned the current ACC in the same breathe as the Old Big East....To paraphrase his comments, he said he thought of the ACC much differently before this year, and now sees the ACC much like the old Big East used to be with tough games night in and night out....Those postgame comments really did surprise me!
There's been countless threads debating the game today as opposed to what it was in the past, and most of us oldtimers see today's game much differently than today's younger generation, and we get frustrated at times with the lack of fundamentals that we see game-to-game, but I must admit that I'm starting to warm up to this new ACC that we have now....Of course, it will NEVER compare to the days when only a conference tournament champion got an NCAA invite at the end of the season because there was more on the line for teams back then....Today of course, there are as many as 7, 8 or more teams that have been invited to the big dance at one time or another, so the pressure to make it is certainly NOT what it was way back when....
With all that out of the way, I personally like the way that the ACC is currently trending:
1). Recruiting seems to be vastly improving for a lot of the mid-level to lower-level ACC teams, and that trend is likely to continue...FSU already has the number 3 class coming in for next year...
2).Coaching has been seriously upgraded in a short period of time with the additions of Louisville,Notre Dame,Syracuse and Pittsburgh....Not to mention, both Wake and Va Tech had big upgrades that has already impacted their recruiting class next season in a positive way with the hiring of Manning and Buzz Williams with the jury still out on BC's Christenson who seems to be doing an admirable job for the team that he inherited?....
3).The ACC has 5 teams that are currently ranked among the top 15 in the Country, and that has been the case for most of the season....A fact that is rarely mentioned or talked about, is the FACT that conference teams that are not among these top 15 or 20 teams often get much better as the season progresses, or that seems to be the case this year?....And it's probably because of the ACC competition that they are playing against on a night to night basis.....The old saying used to be was"You don't get any better by playing the Mary's school for the blind or any other schools like that", and I think that's what we are beginning to see in this whole new ACC....Schools are not going to be content about losing for very long, so expect Georgia Tech to make a change at the end of the season....ACC teams are now playing conference opponents more than they ever have....Granted, there are only 4 of those opponents that you play a home-and-home schedule with, but an 18 game ACC schedule is grueling and brutal compared to the past....
4). The ACC core schools of Duke,Carolina,Wake,State and UVA are all playing better as a collective group than they have in several years, and that trend will likely become part of the norm in the future, which bodes well for an ACC that also includes heavyweights Syracuse and Louisville and capables Notre Dame and Pitt.....Looking at the other ACC schools, Clemson, Miami and FSU have all improved the last several years with both the Canes and Noles recently claiming ACC tournament and regular season titles, while Clemson has won more ACC games under Brownell than they have in several years....BC and Ga. Tech are both capable of beating a team that is not focused, but both will have to improve, or will be beat down by the competition....
For me personally, I watch ACC basketball at every opportunity that I can, and I'll watch more mid-major conference matchups than I do the SEC,B1G,B12 or PAC12....Those other 4 conferences just don't interest me that much....The SEC is Kentucky and the 13 misfits....The B1G is Wisconsin and the 13 pretenders.....The B12 is Kansas and the 9 wannabees and the PAC12 is Arizona and a Utah team that nobody east of the mississippi, knows anything about...lol...The rest of the PAC12 is....well...pathetic!....I will watch this coming saturday's matchup between Northern Iowa and Witchita State because I like the way they play the game....Ditto for VCU,Dayton,Davidson,Rhode Island and a few others from the A-10.....I generally don't watch Kentucky because it's like watching an All-Star game....And hate to admit, but the only way Kentucky doesn't win the title this year is if Kentucky themselves blows it....Otherwise, I don't see any team beating the Wildcats when the tournament begins IMO because they seem to play better against better competition....
Opinions as always are welcomed!
There's been countless threads debating the game today as opposed to what it was in the past, and most of us oldtimers see today's game much differently than today's younger generation, and we get frustrated at times with the lack of fundamentals that we see game-to-game, but I must admit that I'm starting to warm up to this new ACC that we have now....Of course, it will NEVER compare to the days when only a conference tournament champion got an NCAA invite at the end of the season because there was more on the line for teams back then....Today of course, there are as many as 7, 8 or more teams that have been invited to the big dance at one time or another, so the pressure to make it is certainly NOT what it was way back when....
With all that out of the way, I personally like the way that the ACC is currently trending:
1). Recruiting seems to be vastly improving for a lot of the mid-level to lower-level ACC teams, and that trend is likely to continue...FSU already has the number 3 class coming in for next year...
2).Coaching has been seriously upgraded in a short period of time with the additions of Louisville,Notre Dame,Syracuse and Pittsburgh....Not to mention, both Wake and Va Tech had big upgrades that has already impacted their recruiting class next season in a positive way with the hiring of Manning and Buzz Williams with the jury still out on BC's Christenson who seems to be doing an admirable job for the team that he inherited?....
3).The ACC has 5 teams that are currently ranked among the top 15 in the Country, and that has been the case for most of the season....A fact that is rarely mentioned or talked about, is the FACT that conference teams that are not among these top 15 or 20 teams often get much better as the season progresses, or that seems to be the case this year?....And it's probably because of the ACC competition that they are playing against on a night to night basis.....The old saying used to be was"You don't get any better by playing the Mary's school for the blind or any other schools like that", and I think that's what we are beginning to see in this whole new ACC....Schools are not going to be content about losing for very long, so expect Georgia Tech to make a change at the end of the season....ACC teams are now playing conference opponents more than they ever have....Granted, there are only 4 of those opponents that you play a home-and-home schedule with, but an 18 game ACC schedule is grueling and brutal compared to the past....
4). The ACC core schools of Duke,Carolina,Wake,State and UVA are all playing better as a collective group than they have in several years, and that trend will likely become part of the norm in the future, which bodes well for an ACC that also includes heavyweights Syracuse and Louisville and capables Notre Dame and Pitt.....Looking at the other ACC schools, Clemson, Miami and FSU have all improved the last several years with both the Canes and Noles recently claiming ACC tournament and regular season titles, while Clemson has won more ACC games under Brownell than they have in several years....BC and Ga. Tech are both capable of beating a team that is not focused, but both will have to improve, or will be beat down by the competition....
For me personally, I watch ACC basketball at every opportunity that I can, and I'll watch more mid-major conference matchups than I do the SEC,B1G,B12 or PAC12....Those other 4 conferences just don't interest me that much....The SEC is Kentucky and the 13 misfits....The B1G is Wisconsin and the 13 pretenders.....The B12 is Kansas and the 9 wannabees and the PAC12 is Arizona and a Utah team that nobody east of the mississippi, knows anything about...lol...The rest of the PAC12 is....well...pathetic!....I will watch this coming saturday's matchup between Northern Iowa and Witchita State because I like the way they play the game....Ditto for VCU,Dayton,Davidson,Rhode Island and a few others from the A-10.....I generally don't watch Kentucky because it's like watching an All-Star game....And hate to admit, but the only way Kentucky doesn't win the title this year is if Kentucky themselves blows it....Otherwise, I don't see any team beating the Wildcats when the tournament begins IMO because they seem to play better against better competition....
Opinions as always are welcomed!
