Ranking the Basketball Coaches of the ACC

Nope, sorry Goonberg.  Not #1.

Whiling away a lazy Friday afternoon...

Here's my ranking of the 11 ACC basketball coaches (NC State is still coachless as of this writing).  Commentary included!  If you disagree, please post a comment of your own!  (Speaking of which, just please post comments in general --- I love receiving the feedback.)


#1 Mike Krzyzewski, Duke
What does it say about me that I didn't have to look up how to spell his name?  He's a coaching legend.  He's even giving me a run for my money on the ownership of the letter "K."  Despite his all-too-often NCAA Tournament flameouts, he has to rank #1 on a list like this.

#2 Roy Williams, North Carolina
He has elevated the "aww shucks" huckster approach to coaching to an all-new artform.  He's a phenomenal recruiter, and though his system probably requires over-the-top levels of talent, since he's able to recruit so well he can usually pull it off.

#3 Gary Williams, Maryland
Can you believe that Maryland fans are so delusional that they are trying to nudge Williams toward the hot seat right now?  That fanbase never fails to completely astound me.  He erupts like a volcano during games, but he might be the conference's best pure Xs and Os guy.  His struggles in recruiting and the general shittiness of Maryland are the only things holding him back from multiple national championships.

#4 Tony Bennett, Virginia
Look, I'm a homer.  So sue me.  That said, I would stack Bennett's system and ability to recruit players who fit that system [and the school] against any other coach outside of K.  I'm still drinking the kool-aid; I'm gulping it down.  To coax a 7-9 ACC record out of the group he put on the floor this past season?  Outstanding.  And really, a living testament to his coaching chops.

#5 Brad Brownell, Clemson
He was great at UNC Wilmington and Wright State, and just led Clemson to its first NCAA Tournament win since 1997 ...in his first year on the job... and without Trevor Booker.  I think he'll go on to do great things at Clemson, which (like Virginia) is a bit of a sleeping giant in the world of college hoops.

#6 Leonard Hamilton, Florida State
He's got an m/o: recruit long, bouncy athletes and apply a system of tight on-ball pressure defense.  That approach worked well enough to take a moribund Miami program to 22+ wins and the Sweet Sixteen, and he has repeated the feat at FSU.  I think there's a fairly low ceiling here, but that ceiling is much higher than anything Florida State basketball was formerly used to.

#7 Seth Greenberg, Virginia Tech
He's improving as a recruiter, but his failure to make it to a single NCAA Tournament with the Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen core is a damning indictment of his coaching and motivational ability.  This guy is probably about the best VT can hope for, but in my opinion he's just a mediocre college basketball coach.

#8 Steve Donahue, Boston College
Of course you remember Cornell's run to the Sweet Sixteen last year, with Donahue at the helm.  He's a solid coach, but the jury is out on his ability to attract ACC-level talent to BC.  The Eagles are about to take a nosedive with the graduation of so many key seniors, but if Donahue can recruit the right kind of players he should be able to rebuild this program on a sustainable foundation.

#9 Brian Gregory, Georgia Tech
It's really pretty simple:  He's a good recruiter, but a relatively bad coach.  To me, this was a highly underwhelming hire for Georgia Tech, which should be able to tap a nice coaching talent.  However, if Gregory can properly recruit the ATL while maintaining GT's pipeline to New York, he could dumbass his way into a nice collection of talented players... good enough to overcome his poor Xs and Os.

#10 Frank Haith, Miami
In my opinion, the Miami job is by far the worst in the ACC.  Haith, a coach who seemed destined for a career as a top assistant, is probably about the best the Hurricanes will ever be able to get, unless they throw a pile of money at a young up-and-comer and get lucky.  He's actually been reasonably successful at Miami, though I'm hearing that their administration is beginning the hand-wringing over one NCAA appearance over the course of his seven seasons in Coral Gables.

#11 Jeff Bzdelik, Wake Forest
This guy's average tenure at any one place is 2.5 years.  There's a reason for that.  He sucks!  I honestly have no idea why Wake fired Dine Gaudio (not a very good coach, but a damn fine recruiter) in order to hire this stiff.

Not pictured: NC State, whose search is reportedly down to VCU's Shaka Smart, Notre Dame's Mike Brey, and Arizona's Sean Miller.  I'm impressed by this list of names, as I think NC State is kind of a no-win type of job.  You'll never be able to compete with Duke and UNC for the hearts and minds of the North Carolina public.  But since I'm a gamer, here is where each of those coaches would rank on my list: Smart -- #9 (I'm not sold on the guy, sorry*), Brey -- #6 (he's decent), and Miller -- #3 (I think this guy is the real deal).

* Okay, here it is.  He's been the coach at VCU for two years.  He didn't have a particularly good regular season, and barely made it into the Tournament off of the bubble.  He's riding the hot shooting of four senior starters and he's winning with players he didn't recruit.  He might be the best college basketball coach of all time, but I'm not sold yet.