After a few off-season changes, I started to think about how the ACC coaches stack up compared to each other. It was not as easy to differentiate and rank the 15 coaches as I thought. In some cases it's important to balance historical achievements with where a coach is today. One of my realizations from this exercise is how loaded the conference is right now. Indeed, this may be the golden era of ACC coaches, up there with the Dean/K/Lefty/Cremins/Valvano era in the 80s.

A few notes:

- Every coach on this list has at least one NCAA appearance, and had that appearance came before their current school. That would appear to be a requisite that all ACC ADs have in hiring a new coach - a very reasonable one at that. That makes the decision to hire JJ all the more appalling.

- Four coaches have won NCAA titles. Nine have been to the Elite Eight. Eleven have been to the Sweet Sixteen.

- Collectively, the 15 coaches have 179 NCAA appearances.


1.) Mike Krzyzewski

Love him or hate him, he's won five titles over a 24 year span. He's won two Olympic gold medals, and should win a third next month. Duke is a consensus # 1 heading into next season and seems to be ascendant on the recruiting trail. It wouldn't be shocking to see him coaching into the 2020s.

2.) Rick Pitino

He's won two titles at different schools (though they are both powerhouses) over a 17 year period. He may be a scumbag and dresses in an a questionable manner, but the guy can coach and his teams never seem to "rebuild." The president of the school stepped down in June due to a variety of reasons, but his decision to ban the team from postseason play this March did not help his cause.

3.) Roy Williams

Two titles. Eight Final Fours. The results speak for themselves. I hadn't appreciated how polarizing Ol' Roy is until their title game appearance in April when quite a few questioned his coaching prowess. I tend to question some of his in-game decisions, but it's hard to question his rings. He is the only coach in NCAA history with 350 wins at two schools. I know some folks, including our own Chris Coleman, seem to think he's due to retire soon, but I'm not so sure.

4.) Jim Boeheim

He's the longest tenured coach at his school in D1 Hoops (Krzyzewski is #2.) He won the 2003 national title with 'melo (after 27 years at Syracuse) and has been to four other Final Fours. Losing the 98 wins due to the NCAA violations stung quite a bit, and supposedly he only has two more seasons before Mike Hopkins takes over. Taking the 2016 team to the Final Four was nothing short of amazing.

5.) Tony Bennett

The guy has built a juggernaut in Charlottesville. As much as it hurts to say, it's fair to say that we'd all love to have a comparable program in Blacksburg. For all of Littlepaige's questionable hires with the football program, we can agree he got this one correct. They are 89-19 overall the last three seasons, including 45-9 in the ACC. This may be the season they break through to the Final Four.

6.) Jim Larranaga

I think Larranaga, Brey, and Buzz are potentially interchangeable based on how the most recent season at each program turned out, but I ranked Larranaga the highest based on his Final Four appearance. Taking Mason the Final Four in 2006 may not seem that remarkable today, but it was incredible back then. He closed out his run with four straight postseason appearances at Mason before finally taking a leap to the ACC after several other opportunities. He hasn't done too shabbily with the U, either, with two Sweet 16 appearances and a pair of NIT appearances. He's 66, so he may not be around forever.

7.) Mike Brey

I went back and forth on flipping Brey and Buzz. I ultimately went with Brey on back-to-back Elite Eights the last two tournaments. Rumor has it that Weaver was interested in Brey back in '99 and Brey laughed at the salary. In retrospect we should have ponied up the additional $300,000 or whatever it was he wanted. He's had pretty consistent success in the Big East and now ACC. His team will take a step back this year, but I don't think it will last long.

8.) Buzz Williams

When I started on this list, I wouldn't have guessed Buzz would be this low. But when I take an impartial look at the list, it seems fair due to the caliber of coaches in the league. He could possibly be above Mike Brey or Larranaga, but I think being in the middle of the pack is about right, and he has the potential to move up over the next two or three seasons. He took Marquette to five NCAAs in seven seasons, including an Elite Eight in 2013. I think it's fair to say that only a super PATT would have predicted an NIT appearance at this point in his tenure, especially given where we started in January. An NCAA berth looks promising for 2017, but we will see how things progress.

9.) Mark Gottfried

He won at Murray State and took 'bama to an Elite Eight before quitting mid-season in 2009 for reasons unknown. It seemed like he was Debbie Yow's 79th choice to take over for Sidney Lowe, but things have worked out pretty well. He took NCSU to four consecutive NCAAs (including two Sweet Sixteens) before having a drop-off this season. I think Sweet Sixteen may be his ceiling, but the 'pack fans should be happy with that for a while after the Lowe debacle.

10.) Leonard Hamilton

It seems that every FSU team under Leonard Hamilton is exactly the same. A lot of tall, rangy guys who are good defenders, rebound, push the ball, but ultimately are unable to score in the half court. He's taken the U and FSU to the Sweet Sixteen, though they haven't made the Dance since 2012. His last few teams haven't been stellar and it feels as though the program has plateaued. He's 67 and I think it's safe to say the program's probably not going to take the next step under him at this point, though they are a fringe top-25 team for '16-'17.

11.) Kevin Stallings

He was a postseason regular at Vanderbilt, which isn't the easiest job in the world. That being said, they really trailed off over the last four years, and barely made the First Four this past season, despite some pretty high preseason expectations. I don't think anyone at Vandy was sorry to see him leave for Pitt. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for him.

12.) Brad Brownell

Back when it became obvious we were going to get rid of JJ, I thought we should look for a hire like Brad Brownell - someone who had relative success at a lower level program then a mid-major. Brownell did both at UNCW and then Wright State. He took Clemson to the NCAAs his first year (with Oliver Purnell's players) but hasn't been back since then, with only one NIT appearance to show. I'm not sure whether Dabo's success adds or relieves pressure for him to be a consistent NCAA team.

13.) Jim Christian

He's coached at four programs since the the '02-'03 season: Kent State, TCU, Ohio, and now BC. He had a lot of success at Kent State, going to multiple NITs and NCAAs. He leveraged this into the head job at TCU, a graveyard for coaches. He managed a .500 season his last year and bailed out for the Ohio job, which he held for two seasons before BC came calling. He ripped the program to the studs, going 0-18 this year. We'll see if he's able to rebuild the program to where they were during the best of the Al Skinner years. I'm not sure that will be the case.

14.) Josh Pastner

I thought this was an uninspired hire by GT. Pastner took over the Memphis program after Calipari left for UK. The program did not crater at all, with an NIT appearance followed by four consecutive NCAA appearances. That being said, Cal created a monster at Memphis and the fans expected more than Round of 32 appearances. Memphis didn't make the postseason the last two seasons, so it seems fair to say there were few tears shed when Pastner left for Atlanta.

15.) Danny Manning

He took Tulsa to a CBI appearance and an NCAA before moving to Wake. I'm not sure anyone remembers "Danny and the Miracles" or his time in the NBA. That being said, it's hard not to be better than Jeff Bzdelik.