The ACC is limping towards another unremarkable finish in hoops

January 31, 2010 by John Stansberry

When defending national champ North Carolina started flaming out last month, I thought that was the first sign that all wasn’t well with ACC hoops. When Georgetown beat Duke yesterday, it convinced me that the league is heading for another uninspiring March.

If you take away Carolina’s title run last season, you’ll find it’s been a pretty unremarkable last five years for the league perceived by many as having the nation’s best hoops.

In 2006 and 2007, the conference didn’t have any of its members make the Final Four. That marked the first time since the Carter adminstration that the ACC had failed to put a team in college basketball’s championship weekend in back-to-back seasons.

When is the last time Gary Williams had a truly great team at Maryland? Did Virginia basketball essentially take the last two decades off from being competitive? And does NC State even try to put a decent basketball team on the court anymore?

While the league’s traditional powers have had some postseason issues in recent seasons, the middle tier teams in the ACC haven’t exactly lit it up, either. Florida State hasn’t won an NCAA Tournament game since 1998 and Clemson hasn’t turned the trick since 1997.

Frankly, I don’t see a team in the ACC that’s capable of making the Elite Eight this year. Hey, I’m not saying it’s outside the realm of possibility that Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech or Clemson could warm up and make a surprising run through March Madness. Much stranger things have happened.

But it doesn’t appear that there’s a team in the ACC that could play a Big East schedule and be better than fifth or sixth in that conference right now. If you’re an ACC loyalist, you’d better check your bias at the door before filling out your tourney bracket a month and change from now.