Four Tiers in ACC Hoops - StateFans Nation StateFans Nation

After today’s action, all ACC teams have played 5 or 6 league games. It seems to me that some symmetry is starting to emerge. You can categorize these teams in the following groups of three:

Tier I (Excellent) – Duke, UNC, Wake Forest. All of these teams are legitimate Final Four contenders. Once the polls come out, Duke will ascend to #1 nationally, meaning that 3 Tobacco Road programs will have held down the top spot this season. So much for the “but there’s no room at the top with UNC and Duke down the road!” theory. If the small private school in Winston-Salem can do it, there’s no excuse for the large state university in Raleigh to accept second-class status.

Tier II (Good) – Virginia Tech, Clemson, Miami. All of these teams should make the NCAA tourney, and I could see each of them reaching the Sweet Sixteen. As I predicted before ACC play started, Virginia Tech has indeed shaken off its typical December struggles, landing impressive road wins against Miami and then #1 Wake Forest. It’s not a talented enough group to compete for the league title, but as usual, Basketball Grobe is getting the most out of what he’s got. Miami’s loss to the Hokies assures they will come into Raleigh hungry on Tuesday night – lucky us.

Tier III (Mediocre) – Florida State, Maryland, Boston College. Meet your NIT and CBI participants. These teams are all fundamentally flawed and, especially in BC’s case, very inconsistent. These teams are very glad for the heavily populated league cellar. This tier also contains two fairly hot seats (those belonging to Leonard Hamilton and Gary Williams). It’s not comforting that NC State has suffered two double digit losses to Tier III opponents.

Tier IV (Shitty) NC State, Virginia, Georgia Tech. The largest dropoff in quality is between Tiers III and IV. These teams have beaten nobody but each other. No team has a realistic path to any post-season whatsoever. Epic meltdowns and uninspired play are hallmarks of Tier IV. Paul Hewitt saved his job (barring a league first 0-16 season) by signing Derrick Favors, and Sidney Lowe works for Lee Fowler. Dave Leitao has no such life raft available.

131 Responses to Four Tiers in ACC Hoops

Gene 01/27/2009 at 2:35 PM #

Wasn’t Doherty a National Coach of the Year award winner, while at Notre Dame?
wufpup76 01/27/2009 at 3:10 PM #

^Doherty won NCOY during his first season at the Hole
redfred2 01/27/2009 at 5:10 PM #

I was actually comparing the problems that Matt Daugherty had with certain player’s egos and attitudesas well as the same feelings of entitlement, more than comparing Daugherty to Sidney Lowe in particular.

But, since you brought it up, wasn’t it also Matt Daugherty who definitely improved recruiting over that of his predecessor, and didn’t someone else step in to take ultimate advantage of those successes just a few years later?
Gene 01/27/2009 at 6:24 PM #

If you talk to Carolina fans, Daugherty didn’t actually recruit anybody. The Tarheel brand is what recruited them and Daugherty was just the beneficiary of working for the brand at the time.
redfred2 01/27/2009 at 8:21 PM #

If you talk to Carolina fans…

Nuff said.
tvp1 01/27/2009 at 10:42 PM #

After tonight’s games, I think you need to bump FSU up to tier 2, drop Miami to tier 3, and drop Maryland to tier 4. Maryland has only beaten GT and UVA at home, and (Christ Allmighty) Dave Neal is their only big man seeing serious minutes.

In fact, right now we are probably the 9th best team in the ACC. Huzzah!