ACC with one ranked team ? lol….. it’s always been a top heavy league carried by Duke and UNC and to some extent UVA more recently, but holy canoli is that league just awful this year.
pulling from my post on....another forum....it's been a long slow decline:
Okay, what's become of ACC Hoops?
Era 1: Classic ACC. This is the pre 2007 timeframe. UNC and Duke were UNC and Duke. Maryland was around. GT and NCSU were knocking on the doors (it's even gaudier if you look back further)
Era 2: The first Doldrum 2008-2013 - This is the time before ACC broke up the Big East. The only particularly competitive schools were Duke and UNC. No other team finished in the top 15 for this entire 6 year stretch. That's a pretty incredible fall-off for a conference that had been top-3 every year which has data. Many ACC fans denied any such falloff, but the writing was on the wall for the old guard.
Era 3: Expansion and UVA. 2014-2019 - Virginia dominated the conference from a rankings perspective for 6 straight years. Filling in the gaps were hired hands Syracuse, Pitt, UL, ND, and Miami, who all had top 20 finishes.
Era 4: Current era. 2020 and later. Virginia was not able to sustain their success. The aforementioned hired guns have fallen off a cliff, and the ACC has finished about last or worse among power conferences every year. The lost coaching talent of Brey, Bennet, Boeheim, and Pitino have not been replaced. Davis has not shown he can keep UNC competitive year in and year out.
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