ESPN Bracketologist Rips ACC For Its "Basketball Problem"

It has not been the strongest year for the ACC when it comes to basketball. There is a chance that there will only be three teams in the NCAA Tournament this year (Duke, Louisville, Clemson) and for a conference that has hung its hat in the past on being an elite basketball conference, it is disappointing. The SEC is going to get double-digit teams into this year's tournament and there has been a lot of discussion as to what the ACC can do to catch back up.

ESPN Bracketologist Joe Lunardi talked about the ACC in a recent teleconference during championship week:

“I got in a lot of trouble this time last year in reacting to the drumbeat from the ACC that there was a perception problem,” Joe Lunardi said. “The ACC does not have a perception problem. The ACC is the greatest basketball conference college basketball has ever seen historically. The ACC has a basketball problem.

I’m comfortable saying that publicly because they were either nice or stupid enough to invite me last year to speak to the coaches,” Lunardi said. “And I said it in a private room to 18 of them and put up enough numbers to choke on to try and prove it. Having grown up watching the ACC on the East Coast, that’s all we got when I was growing up… It pains me to say that, but whatever it is that’s driving the macroeconomics of the college athletics industry, and let’s be blunt and call it what it is, okay, is not favoring the ACC right now. So, this has to do with the players on your roster, and at the end of the day what are you willing to do in terms of compensating that?

I can 1-68 colleges and universities with the best of them, but on any of our datasheets, there’s not a column for NIL. At least, not yet. So, we’re not privy to what they’re spending at Auburn vs. what they’re spending at Pitt, let’s say. Something has changed in the macroeconomics that is causing, like three out of 18 [teams making the NCAA Tournament] is almost unthinkable to me. There’s still a chance for four or five,” Lunardi said. “But even five out of 18 is not going to be considered a win in Charlotte at ACC headquarters. So, I’ll simply say that they have work to do to catch the other power leagues both on and off the court.

The most common factor sighted has been the departure, retirement, what have you of all of the great longstanding Hall of Fame coaches, etc,” Lunardi said. “I would say that if all of those guys were on this call, Roy [Williams], and Coach K, and [Jim] Boeheim, and Tony [Bennett], and Leonard [Hamilton], and Jim Larrañaga, and whomever, they would say we need better players because they didn’t become Hall of Fame coaches by not having the best players. Okay? Something has changed in that realm. Until it changes back, it’s going to be a basketball problem, not a perception problem.”

There is no doubt that the ACC seems to be lagging behind in those areas. Virginia Tech was criticized for their NIL resources and when head coach Mike Young was asked what his team was missing this year, he was pretty honest:

"A lot was missing. A lot was missing, just call it what it is. They are great kids and a pleasure to work with. We have to get more talented and we are going to quick, all right?"

There is no denying that this was not one of the more talented teams in the ACC and some credit should be given to Young for still being able to get this team to finish 10th in the ACC, ahead of where they were projected to be at the start of the season.

Will this get turned around soon? Only time will tell.