Duke Is Up, but A.C.C. Basketball Is Down (original) (raw)

Usually Elite, A.C.C. Receives a Harsh Lesson in Mediocrity

Jan. 24, 2011

As the defending N.C.A.A. men’s basketball champion and pre-eminent team in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, Duke has been fixed in the national spotlight. But the prominence of the Blue Devils cannot disguise the malaise that is afflicting the other teams in the league.

Besides Duke, which relinquished the top spot in the polls and is now No. 3 after losing to Florida State on Jan. 12, the Seminoles are the only other A.C.C. team to make an appearance in the Associated Press top 25 poll since November. They moved into the rankings at No. 22 on Monday.

It is a troubling state of affairs for a conference that is defined and elevated by basketball, has produced the last two N.C.A.A. champions in Duke and North Carolina (2009) and 5 of the past 10. It could be a costly decline, too. The N.C.A.A. tournament selection committee is not likely to embrace a conference with so few teams rated highly in the R.P.I., the formula for ranking based on wins, losses and strength of schedule.

The problem? That depends on whom you ask.

“We don’t have ranked teams but we do have some young teams in our conference and in new situations,” North Carolina State Coach Sidney Lowe said last week. “No question it has something to do with it. It’s just with experienced players, they have an edge. They just have an edge.”

Young players, he said, “have to make a lot of adjustments, and they don’t play as well especially early as they will later.”

The Wolfpack is loaded with highly rated young talent, led by the freshman forward C. J. Leslie, but has struggled to a 12-7 start in part because the veteran power forward Tracy Smith missed 10 games with a knee injury. Injuries have been widespread in the conference. Virginia Tech opened the season in the top 25 but lost four players to injuries and is 13-5, and 3-2 in A.C.C. play.

Duke (18-1, 5-1) has not been spared, either. The Blue Devils lost the freshman point guard Kyrie Irving, perhaps for the season, when he injured his toe on Dec. 4 against Butler. Duke was the odds-on favorite to win the title with Irving, projected to be perhaps the best player in the league, but is still a top contender because of its overall experience, including the seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith.

Beyond injuries and youth, new coaches are also mentioned as a reason for the slip in the polls. Three teams had coaching changes in the off-season: Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest. Virginia’s Tony Bennett is in his second year. Wake Forest, an N.C.A.A. tournament team a year ago, has struggled the most under its new coach, Jeff Bzdelik. The Demon Deacons are 7-13, 0-5 in the conference.

The transition has not seemed to hurt Boston College as drastically. Steve Donahue, who arrived from Cornell, has the Eagles at 14-6 over all, 4-2 in the conference. Still, the Eagles lost to Harvard, Yale and Rhode Island during their nonconference schedule. They did not receive a single vote in the latest polls. Harvard had one. Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he thought the polls were not rewarding teams for their overall success so far.

Image

Much of the A.C.C.'s talent comes from younger players like the North Carolina State freshman forward C. J. Leslie, above.Credit...Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer

“I think the league is strong,” he said. “And it just started out with a lot of newness this season, and now it’s kind of settling in.”

Another reason some give for the A.C.C.’s struggles is lack of talent.

“The fact the A.C.C. has dropped so far off, I think it’s because they’ve had a lack of consistency of coaching and the fact that they just don’t have the players they used to have,” said Billy Packer, a former college basketball analyst for CBS and NBC who called 34 consecutive Final Fours through 2008.

Dave Telep, a recruiting analyst for ESPN, said he did not think the conference lacked talent.

Telep said the conference had been top-heavy for too long, with no teams emerging to challenge Duke and North Carolina.

In that regard, the A.C.C. is not as top-heavy as it used to be. North Carolina (13-5) has dropped well behind Duke in their rivalry. The Tar Heels are having a second consecutive season of relative mediocrity after winning titles in 2005 and 2009.

And it is becoming ugly in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina missed the N.C.A.A. tournament last season, and the fans have been so frustrated this season that they have taken it out on Coach Roy Williams. Some called in to his weekly radio program on Jan. 17 and criticized the team. After a victory over Clemson the next day, Williams criticized fans for failing to support the team.

“I think this was true about their team last year: they were extremely young not only in age but in physical maturity and in basketball knowledge,” Packer said. “And that holds true for this team as well. And sometimes, a coach gets caught in this position as Roy Williams is: they have very low basketball I.Q. as a team and as individual players and, in most cases, they are physically immature for their class.”

Want another theory on what’s wrong? Virginia Tech Coach Seth Greenberg points to parity.

“I think that obviously there is greater parity in college basketball,” he said. “Everyone wants to point to the A.C.C. I don’t think it’s an A.C.C. issue. I think it’s across college basketball.”

Whether it is injuries, youth, new coaches, lack of talent, lack of depth or parity, those who would diminish or dismiss the A.C.C. may need to reconsider down the road. This is the A.C.C., after all. As Maryland Coach Gary Williams said, it will not be down for long.

“I see some really good players around the league,” he said. “And they will be good players in a year or two who can play with anybody. So that’s where we are right now.

“So, if you want to say our talent’s down a little bit, that’s fine, but just remember, the A.C.C.’s won 5 out of the last 10 national championships and has won more N.C.A.A. tournament games in the last 20 years than any other conference. So we’ll be there. This might be a little down year, but we’ll be back.”

A version of this article appears in print on , Section

, Page

of the New York edition

with the headline:

Usually Elite, A.C.C. Receives A Harsh Lesson in Mediocrity. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT