How would you rank the ACC coaches?

[Sean Miller Fan]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason and ad a realistic shot at all of them. In what order are you calling them?

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

 

[SteelCityChamps]

Young on there twice.
Forbes?
Brownell?

Agree. After Bennett and Larranaga it's either young coaches or no elite track records.

 

[gary2]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason, had a realistic shot at all of them.

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

You have a point

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

It is not an inspiring list. Pitino for instance would upgrade any of them except maybe UVA immediately.

 

[pschaum98]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason, had a realistic shot at all of them.

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

The ranking should be
1. Bennett
2. Larranaga
3. Hamilton
4. Scheyer
5. Young
6. Forbes
7. Shrewsberry
8. Capel
9. Autry
10. Stoudamire
11. Brownell
12. Grant
13. Keatts
14. Hubie
15. Payne
A far cry from the 15-16 cast of
1. Coach k
2. Roy williams
3. Rick pitino
4. Jamie dixon
5. Tony bennett
6. Jim larranaga
7. Buzz williams
8. Jim boyeniem
9. Leonard hamilton
10. Mike brey
11. Brad brownell
12. Matt gottfreid
13. Danny manning
14. Brian gregory
15. Jim christian

 

[upj87]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason and ad a realistic shot at all of them. In what order are you calling them?

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

you put a guy who has coached a total of two years in D 1 with a 9th and 10th place finish in his league ahead of a guy who had an NCAA tourney team 5 out of the last 7 years with a conference title to go along with it while having two sweet sixteens and an elite eight in that span....got it...

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

The ranking should be
1. Bennett
2. Larranaga
3. Hamilton
4. Scheyer
5. Young
6. Forbes
7. Shrewsberry
8. Capel
9. Autry
10. Stoudamire
11. Brownell
12. Grant
13. Keatts
14. Hubie
15. Payne
A far cry from the 15-16 cast of
1. Coach k
2. Roy williams
3. Rick pitino
4. Jamie dixon
5. Tony bennett
6. Jim larranaga
7. Buzz williams
8. Jim boyeniem
9. Leonard hamilton
10. Mike brey
11. Brad brownell
12. Matt gottfreid
13. Danny manning
14. Brian gregory
15. Jim christian

As I've been saying, look no further than the list of HC's to answer the question of what happened to the ACC. ACC programs arent spending the money like the SEC and others. ACC teams need to make ND-like hires and go get a P6 guy. Maybe Autry will be good, Stoudamire, who knows. But those arent SEC hires.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

you put a guy who has coached a total of two years in D 1 with a 9th and 10th place finish in his league ahead of a guy who had an NCAA tourney team 5 out of the last 7 years with a conference title to go along with it while having two sweet sixteens and an elite eight in that span....got it...

The thing with Hamilton is that he is so bad at actually coaching, you have to rely on him to get lottery picks to campus. And that's not something that you as an AD can rely upon. Forget age for this exercise, I would take Shrewsbury. Now if you can guarantee me somehow that Hamilton will parade lottery picks through campus, then sure, he'd be near the top of my list but if he doesnt have those, he is horrendous

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Curious why people are so down on Keatts. They have been to the tourney 2/5 years that there was one, he’s won 58 percent of his games and he’s at the 3rd best job in an hour radius.

Hasn’t been great but he’s certainly in the top 8. He’s proven more than a lot of people that are higher than him.

Also think most are overvaluing Shrew. I think he’s good but PSU was 10th in the big ten, was on the bubble until the tourney run. Too much recency bias to put him in top 4 already. He also has another difficult job in ND. He’s only had one good year. I’d put him behind Keatts.

Payne still has a TBD. Grant TBD. Bro we’ll has to be in bottom 5. He is what he is. Everyone else after top 3 is kind of a jumbled mess and could change daily but I’d probably lean towards Forbes 4.

 

[SteelCityChamps]

Four through twelve are all interchangeable based on preference. I don't think anything really separates them.

 

[whirlybird optio]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason and ad a realistic shot at all of them. In what order are you calling them?

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

I would say by tiers:

Bennett

Giant massive gap

Larranega
Scheyer
Shrewsberry
Forbes
Hamilton
Young
Capel
Keatts

Smaller Gap


Brownell
Grant
Hubie

Tiny gap

Autry
Stoudamire
Payne


I think Forbes could easily be 2 on this list if he just got some players. He’s a really good coach. But you can shuffle up these tiers in almost any order and I’d be ok with it. I mean, if Capel has another big year he could go to like 3 on this list, a bad year and he drops to the Brownell tier.

The coaching gap in this league vs the SEC, Big East (which is a murderer’s row), Big 12 (which adds Sampson) and even the Big 10 is fairly wide. Our league is more like the PAC-12 east, maybe a little stronger, and definitely room for teams like Pitt to move up. You aren’t going to get buried in this league.

 

[Pitt2009]

Curious why people are so down on Keatts. They have been to the tourney 2/5 years that there was one, he’s won 58 percent of his games and he’s at the 3rd best job in an hour radius.

Hasn’t been great but he’s certainly in the top 8. He’s proven more than a lot of people that are higher than him.

Also think most are overvaluing Shrew. I think he’s good but PSU was 10th in the big ten, was on the bubble until the tourney run. Too much recency bias to put him in top 4 already. He also has another difficult job in ND. He’s only had one good year. I’d put him behind Keatts.

Payne still has a TBD. Grant TBD. Bro we’ll has to be in bottom 5. He is what he is. Everyone else after top 3 is kind of a jumbled mess and could change daily but I’d probably lean towards Forbes 4.

I see Keatts as middle of the pack but above the guys with no track record. They’ve been a bubble team and first weekend exit ever since Gottfried got there. Keatts hasn’t done anything to elevate the program but has been consistently good.

That being said, NC State would be silly to move on from a guy like Keatts. He has them playing tough and in the conversation most years at a place that isn’t easy to win.

 

[LGP1989]

Curious why people are so down on Keatts. They have been to the tourney 2/5 years that there was one, he’s won 58 percent of his games and he’s at the 3rd best job in an hour radius.

Hasn’t been great but he’s certainly in the top 8. He’s proven more than a lot of people that are higher than him.

Also think most are overvaluing Shrew. I think he’s good but PSU was 10th in the big ten, was on the bubble until the tourney run. Too much recency bias to put him in top 4 already. He also has another difficult job in ND. He’s only had one good year. I’d put him behind Keatts.

Payne still has a TBD. Grant TBD. Bro we’ll has to be in bottom 5. He is what he is. Everyone else after top 3 is kind of a jumbled mess and could change daily but I’d probably lean towards Forbes 4.

2/5 tournaments with consistent Top 30 recruiting classes are exactly why people are down on him as a coach.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

2/5 tournaments with consistent Top 30 recruiting classes are exactly why people are down on him as a coach.

It’s almost like winning is hard. They would’ve went in the Covid year too so it would’ve been 3/6.

We have people who want to extend capel for a similar record with similar classes

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Curious why people are so down on Keatts. They have been to the tourney 2/5 years that there was one, he’s won 58 percent of his games and he’s at the 3rd best job in an hour radius.

Hasn’t been great but he’s certainly in the top 8. He’s proven more than a lot of people that are higher than him.

Also think most are overvaluing Shrew. I think he’s good but PSU was 10th in the big ten, was on the bubble until the tourney run. Too much recency bias to put him in top 4 already. He also has another difficult job in ND. He’s only had one good year. I’d put him behind Keatts.

Payne still has a TBD. Grant TBD. Bro we’ll has to be in bottom 5. He is what he is. Everyone else after top 3 is kind of a jumbled mess and could change daily but I’d probably lean towards Forbes 4.

The 3rd best job in Raleigh/Durham is meaningless. Duke and UNC are national jobs. NC State is probably the best job in the ACC 12 and be dominating that conference within a conference but they dont. NC State, going back many coaches, recruits as well as any other "regional school" but they dont win at the rate they should. Look at this year. Should they have been 12-8 and squeaking in the NCAAT losing Round 1?

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

I would say by tiers:

Bennett

Giant massive gap

Larranega
Scheyer
Shrewsberry
Forbes
Hamilton
Young
Capel
Keatts

Smaller Gap


Brownell
Grant
Hubie

Tiny gap

Autry
Stoudamire
Payne


I think Forbes could easily be 2 on this list if he just got some players. He’s a really good coach. But you can shuffle up these tiers in almost any order and I’d be ok with it. I mean, if Capel has another big year he could go to like 3 on this list, a bad year and he drops to the Brownell tier.

The coaching gap in this league vs the SEC, Big East (which is a murderer’s row), Big 12 (which adds Sampson) and even the Big 10 is fairly wide. Our league is more like the PAC-12 east, maybe a little stronger, and definitely room for teams like Pitt to move up. You aren’t going to get buried in this league.

This is good. I would say you could move Brownell into that middle group. He is a pretty good coach but has a hard time getting difference-making talent to rural northern South Carolina.

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

The 3rd best job in Raleigh/Durham is meaningless. Duke and UNC are national jobs. NC State is probably the best job in the ACC 12 and be dominating that conference within a conference but they dont. NC State, going back many coaches, recruits as well as any other "regional school" but they dont win at the rate they should. Look at this year. Should they have been 12-8 and squeaking in the NCAAT losing Round 1?

Ah yes, the old because they were good in 1983 argument it’s a good job. Lol.

1. Duke/UNC
2. Louisville
3. Miami (NIL)
4. UVA (Bennett)
5-15 a bunch of schools you could put in any order. Nc State is absolutely not a better job in my lifetime than the 4 mentioned above and you could make an argument Cuse, FSU and Clemson have higher floors and Pitt/BC/ND and others have as ceilings

 

[BballinsiderfromPitt]

Nc state couldn’t lure Cal away for MORE money than Memphis back in the day and settled for Gottfried. Then they hired the coach from UNC Wilmington. What are we talking about here

 

[Pitt2009]

Ah yes, the old because they were good in 1983 argument it’s a good job. Lol.

1. Duke/UNC
2. Louisville
3. Miami (NIL)
4. UVA (Bennett)
5-15 a bunch of schools you could put in any order. Nc State is absolutely not a better job in my lifetime than the 4 mentioned above and you could make an argument Cuse, FSU and Clemson have higher floors and Pitt/BC/ND and others have as ceilings

I hate to say it but NC State basketball is the equivalent to Pitt Football. Dominate during the 70s and 80s. Average to above average since.

 

[LGP1989]

It’s almost like winning is hard. They would’ve went in the Covid year too so it would’ve been 3/6.

We have people who want to extend capel for a similar record with similar classes

And I'd say that Keatts and Capel are on very similar footing.

 

[Pitt2009]

It’s almost like winning is hard. They would’ve went in the Covid year too so it would’ve been 3/6.

We have people who want to extend capel for a similar record with similar classes

NC State was suspended from postseason play in 2021-22 too (infractions under Gottfried). With the ease of transferring these days, who’s wants to come to/stay on a team that can’t play in the postseason? Nice bounce back season for Keatts.

 

[Eastern Eight]

I would say by tiers:

Bennett

Giant massive gap

Larranega
Scheyer
Shrewsberry
Forbes
Hamilton
Young
Capel
Keatts

Smaller Gap


Brownell
Grant
Hubie

Tiny gap

Autry
Stoudamire
Payne


I think Forbes could easily be 2 on this list if he just got some players. He’s a really good coach. But you can shuffle up these tiers in almost any order and I’d be ok with it. I mean, if Capel has another big year he could go to like 3 on this list, a bad year and he drops to the Brownell tier.

The coaching gap in this league vs the SEC, Big East (which is a murderer’s row), Big 12 (which adds Sampson) and even the Big 10 is fairly wide. Our league is more like the PAC-12 east, maybe a little stronger, and definitely room for teams like Pitt to move up. You aren’t going to get buried in this league.

How many on this list are actually proven power 6 coaches? Over time. Not just a good year or tourney run, but over several years. Not that many. I can’t consider anyone who has coached for a couple of years proven over time. There’s several on this list who could grow into proven winners over the long haul, but this really is an unproven if not uninspiring list now that it’s laid out like this. Bennett, Larranega and Hamilton is it and Hamilton is likely towards the end of his run. All the rest have a ways to go to develop any kind of legacy.

 

[whirlybird optio]

How many on this list are actually proven power 6 coaches? Over time. Not just a good year or tourney run, but over several years. Not that many. I can’t consider anyone who has coached for a couple of years proven over time. There’s several on this list who could grow into proven winners over the long haul, but this really is an unproven if not uninspiring list now that it’s laid out like this. Bennett, Larranega and Hamilton is it and Hamilton is likely towards the end of his run. All the rest have a ways to go to develop any kind of legacy.

I don’t disagree at all, but I was just sort of saying my preference. Obviously Hamilton has a top 3 resume.

 

[Eastern Eight]

I don’t disagree at all, but I was just sort of saying my preference. Obviously Hamilton has a top 3 resume.

I think so too. Sustained success over multiple recruiting classes. That would be my criteria.

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

Bennett and Larranaga are clearly the two best head coaches. You could have a debate over quite a few of them. Payne is the worst HC.

 

[Drew1208]

That's a sad list right now.

 

[yourhired]

Bennett would be number 1 followed by Hamilton he had an off year

 

[TheSpecialSauce]

That's a sad list right now.

It really is when you factor in Hamilton turning 75 before next season. SU and L’Ville should have made better hires.

 

[Pitt2009]

It really is when you factor in Hamilton turning 75 before next season. SU and L’Ville should have made better hires.

Neither were flashy hires but don’t you think it’s too early to judge?

Obviously Payne struggled in year 1 but Louisville closed the previous year losing 15 of 18. They have a top 5 recruiting class and could be a player in the ACC next season.

I honestly have no idea what to expect from
Autry but I’m not sure anybody else does either.

 

[pschaum98]

It really is when you factor in Hamilton turning 75 before next season. SU and L’Ville should have made better hires.

Autry has had offers for a few years but became the coach in waiting. Ville was in a bad spot when they hired payne after having mack fail. The issue is the hubie hire for unc.

 

[rockypanther]

Lets say you are the AD of a mediocre program and your choice for your next coach had to come from the ACC and for whatever reason and ad a realistic shot at all of them. In what order are you calling them?

1. Bennett

2. Scheyer
- this one is really hard because he is coaching Duke and has only been there a year

3. Larranaga
- taking his age out of it, another hard one since they've been buying players for awhile

4. Shrewsbury

5. Hamilton
- terrible coach but gets lottery picks semi-consistently who win in spite of him

6. Young

7. Forbes

8. Keatts

9. Brownell

10. Grant

11. Capel

12. Davis

13. Autry

14. Stoudamire

15. Payne

I think this list shows you what a coaching problem the ACC has.

The Big East has Pitino, Cooley, McDermott, Miller, Shaka

The SEC has Cal, Pearl, Wade, Muss, Beard, Jans, Buzz

The B12 has Drew, Self, Huggy, Dixon, Sampson, Tang

That’s a disgusting list.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I think in ranking the coaches Ty Webb had it right. Rank them by height.

 

[JD1976]

Bennett and Larranaga 1-2 unquestionably. Payne 15th. The rest you can throw in a blender in my opinion. Leonard Hamilton had never had my respect as a coach going all the way back 1993 when he forgot to get his team back on the floor and Pitt made an uncontested game-winning layup at Miami. Who here remembers that game??!

Leonard does seem like a first-class human though.

 

[4Mark_Marty]

Bennett and Larranaga 1-2 unquestionably. Payne 15th. The rest you can throw in a blender in my opinion. Leonard Hamilton had never had my respect as a coach going all the way back 1993 when he forgot to get his team back on the floor and Pitt made an uncontested game-winning layup at Miami. Who here remembers that game??!

Leonard does seem like a first-class human though.

Was it that long ago? I remember the play.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Bennett and Larranaga 1-2 unquestionably. Payne 15th. The rest you can throw in a blender in my opinion. Leonard Hamilton had never had my respect as a coach going all the way back 1993 when he forgot to get his team back on the floor and Pitt made an uncontested game-winning layup at Miami. Who here remembers that game??!

Leonard does seem like a first-class human though.

Hamilton does seem like a great guy but he cant win unless he has lottery picks.

 

[73CAV]

Everyone is making pretty good and sound judgements in this thread. Of course, it is also worth remembering that of the two most successful coaches in ACC basketball history (Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski), one was promoted from an assistant's position after the head coach was forced to leave, and the other was hired from an Army program which had a losing record. Krzyzewski's last Army team was 9-17, and Dean Smith was hanged in effigy by Carolina fans his first year. I'm not exactly sure what this says except that previous experience and/or coaching records, and early performance, have to be taken with a grain of salt.