Back in February, we wrote about the lazy national narrative concerning ACC Basketball.
The Big 10 is ranked 2nd in the NET rankings, and most bracketologists have them as a 9-bid league.
Including the bottom of the ACC, the ACC won the ACC/Big 10 Challenge 8-6, and that was without 22-win NC State being in the challenge. The ACC and Big 10 have played 25 total games against each other, and the ACC has a 13-12 record against the Big 10.
If 25 games can’t tell you something about a league vs league nothing will.
Well the ACC can’t compete with the top teams in other leagues.
Baylor is 10-6 in the Big 12 and the top 10. Virginia beat them.
Nine teams in the Big 10 have winning conference records, an ACC team has defeated six of them.
In the NCAA Tournament Miami defeated two top 10 teams Big 12 Champion Texas, and Houston. They also defeated an Indiana team that finished 2nd in the Big 10. Miami finished the season ranked number 3. That is the highest-ranked Big 12, Big 10, Pac 12, SEC, or ACC team in the final college basketball poll.
Duke finished number 18 and Virginia number 23.
Let’s not forget Pittsburgh beat Big 12’s Iowa State and the SEC’s Mississippi State.
The ACC went 5-1 against Big 12, Big 10, and SEC in the NCAAs. They didn’t play a game against Pac-12.
Are those the results of the 7th best conference in the country? Of course not…
A 7-5 record in the NCAA tournament with a Final Four Team was a respectable showing for the conference.
Did it change the narrative of ACC basketball in 2022-2023? Kind of? Maybe it did? The NCAA tournament shouldn’t have had to change any narratives. It was clear the ACC was never as bad as the perceptions.
That said we can’t forget that the bottom of the conference was atrocious – Georgia Tech (179), Boston College (168), Notre Dame (186), Florida State (221), and Louisville (315) were 5 ACC teams with NET Rankings worse than 150. The ACC should never have more than 2 teams at 150+ if any.
It was the same before the NCAA’s 1-10 the ACC was pretty solid, and the bottom was terrible
Georgia Tech and Notre Dame have new coaches. Boston College was playing decent at the end of the year under Earl Grant. Florida State and especially Louisville can’t possibly be worse. Can they?
