Most things in college sports are cyclical. Even when a team or a conference is historically awesome, maintaining that success is nearly impossible. Meanwhile, unless a school is at an insurmountable resource disadvantage, it doesn’t have to stay in a losing rut for too long. That’s the nature of a sport with heavy roster turnover compared to the professional level.
After an extremely disappointing year, the ACC is hopeful to catch the upswing in the college hoops life cycle. Once the true powerhouse league of men’s basketball, realignment and shaky coaching hires diluted the ACC into the clear worst power conference in the nation in 2024-25.
Only four ACC teams made the NCAA Tournament, and UNC’s inclusion in the First Four was plenty controversial. Only Duke won a round of 64 game, and though the Blue Devils advanced to the Final Four, they could not cover up the league’s overall issues that were apparent as early as November.
The league’s 2-14 record in an early December challenge series against the SEC stands out most, but that debacle was only the beginning. In total, the ACC went 22-59 in nonconference Quadrant 1 and Quadrant 2 games, a significantly worse winning percentage (.272) than the other power conferences and worse than even the WCC, Atlantic 10, American and Mountain West. Ultimately, half of the ACC’s 18 teams ended outside of the NET’s top 100, and only three were in the top 40. In contrast, the 18-team Big Ten had 17 teams in the NET top 100 and eight in the top 30.
So yes, the league desperately needs a jolt of competence. SMU, California and Stanford did not exactly bolster the league’s basketball prestige in their ACC debuts, but a refresh on the sidelines for several schools could be just the shot in the arm the league needs.
Louisville’s terrific hire of Pat Kelsey showed what’s possible in the span of just one year: The Cardinals flipped from an 8-24 Kenny Payne catastrophe to 27 wins and an at-large bid with Kelsey in charge. Other recent ACC hires — Steve Forbes at Wake Forest, Red Autry at Syracuse, Damon Stoudamire at Georgia Tech, Micah Shrewsberry at Notre Dame — have not produced instant results, but four new ACC coaches this offseason will all hope to mimic Kelsey’s immediate success at Louisville.
Will Wade, NC State
Kevin Keatts’ run to the Final Four in 2024 turned out to be a flash in the pan, as the Wolfpack crashed back down to earth with a 12-19 (5-15) campaign in 2024-25. That poor campaign gave the NC State administration the justification it needed to send Keatts packing.
Enter Will Wade.
If Wade can build a powerhouse at McNeese, he should be more than capable of quickly electrifying Raleigh. He even beat an ACC opponent (Clemson) in the NCAA Tournament with the Cowboys, and he’s won big everywhere he’s coached (Chattanooga, VCU and LSU, in addition to McNeese).
Like Kelsey, Wade has ripped his new roster down to the studs; as of now, the only scholarship returner is guard Paul McNeil Jr., who played 8.7 minutes per game as a freshman.
To get the ball rolling, Wade also brought two big pieces with him from McNeese in Alyn Breed and Quadir Copeland, both of whom have power conference experience. He has since added huge recruiting wins in the incoming freshman class (top-40 wing Matt Able) and the portal (Michigan State veteran Tre Holloman), so some early winning is looking more and more possible.
Perhaps most importantly for the long-term upside of the program, Wade hired Andrew Slater as NC State’s general manager and chief strategist. Slater is one of the most well-connected people in the college basketball recruiting world and should be instrumental in helping Wade build NCAA Tournament-caliber (or better) rosters.
Ryan Odom, who made history by knocking off Virginia as coach of No. 16 seed UMBC, will look to bring the Cavaliers back to contention after two years at VCU. (Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
Ryan Odom, Virginia
By taking over the Virginia job, Ryan Odom completes the Rube Goldberg machine he started with his win over Virginia back in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. He now takes over a program in full reset mode, with zero rotation players back from last season and a stylistic overhaul pending with Tony Bennett and his disciples now gone.
Odom’s roster overhaul has had a clear theme so far: elite perimeter shooting, and a lot of it. Jacari White (North Dakota State) and Sam Lewis (Toledo) are both high-volume bombers on the wing who lit it up for very good mid-major offenses. Dallin Hall brings plenty of big game and postseason experience from BYU, and he gives Odom a bigger, skilled lead guard with some similarities to Max Shulga, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year under Odom at VCU last year.
Perhaps the most underappreciated addition, though, will be forward Devin Tillis. A veteran of the UC Irvine victory factory, Tillis is offensive versatility personified. He can use his wide frame in the post, step out and hit open triples, or attack closeouts with his clever dribble-drive game. He’s extremely well-schooled defensively, as well, and his bulk helps him win the positional battle.
The job is far from done, though, as Odom desperately needs to find more defense and athleticism. Incoming freshman Silas Barksdale helps a little, and classmate Chance Mallory brings a ton of speed, but Virginia remains a work in progress in multiple areas. The early returns are encouraging for improvement relative to last year’s disappointing 15-17 campaign.
Luke Loucks, Florida State
Leonard Hamilton finally reached the end of the line, stepping down from his head coaching post after 23 years at FSU following a fourth straight disappointing season. Since arriving in Tallahassee in 2002, Hamilton epitomized the “rise and fall and rise again” nature of program-building, but the sport’s shifting culture ultimately undid him (FSU basketball has been notoriously short on NIL resources in this new era).
The FSU administration plucked one of Hamilton’s former players, Luke Loucks, from the Sacramento Kings’ staff to take over. Loucks has quickly accumulated a core of players that seem to fit together, and though the Seminoles won’t push the ACC titans like Duke and UNC for the most talent in the conference, they have the foundation of a team that should compete.
FSU reeled in Jacksonville’s Robert McCray V, a bigger point guard whose career began at Wake Forest, to be the linchpin. Another ACC defector, Clemson’s Chauncey Wiggins, and Lajae Jones (St. Bonaventure) give Loucks interchangeable wing/forward types that can shoot or mix it up inside. Kobe MaGee (Drexel) and Martin Somerville (UMass Lowell) could be two of the better shooters in the conference, and high-upside Division II transfer Alex Steen (Florida Southern) is a defensive demon with a ton of mobility within his 6-foot-8 frame.
If Loucks rounds out the roster with a few more solid pieces, Florida State could vault toward the bubble in the 35-year-old’s first season in charge.
Jai Lucas, Miami (FL)
Like Loucks, Jai Lucas is taking over for a legend in Jim Larranaga after the veteran coach decided to step down during the 2024-25 season. Larranaga did not finish out the year, though, and Miami plummeted to its worst season since 1994. Lucas is also young (36) and without any head coaching experience, but he has a reputation as an ace recruiter, and the former Duke assistant is off to a terrific start in building a roster.
Tre Donaldson, a proven winner at Auburn and Michigan, gives the Hurricanes stability at the point guard spot. Tru Washington (New Mexico) is a big, physical off-guard who can be a lockdown defender. And big men Malik Reneau (Indiana) and Ernest Udeh (TCU) are hyper-productive per-minute players who could bludgeon other ACC frontcourts together.
Lucas has also shown off his recruiting prowess via incoming freshmen. He scooped up Dante Allen, a former Villanova commit and AAU teammate of the Boozer twins, who is a big-bodied wing and proven winner. Lucas also managed to flip Shelton Henderson, a 5-star small forward who was initially headed to Duke (where Lucas was the lead recruiter); Henderson chose Miami instead over the weekend.
That all adds up to a team that could, like Kelsey at Louisville, quickly erase memories of a disastrous year.
That’s four ACC teams who struggled badly in 2024-25 that could take significant strides forward. Add in potential upticks from Syracuse, which is in line to have its best roster of Red Autry’s tenure so far, and Notre Dame, which finally has some real experience to go with a top-20 recruit in Jalen Haralson, and some of the dead weight in the ACC is suddenly showing signs of life. Duke will always be Duke, but the conference needs more depth to claw back some of the luster it has lost.
These turnarounds are not guaranteed. For every Kelsey and Dusty May at Michigan who engineer instant rebuilds in Year 1, there’s a Steve Lutz (Oklahoma State) or Danny Sprinkle (Washington) who cannot get the car out of neutral. But at minimum, the ACC has made solid strides in the right direction to bring in new blood, and all four new hires have found early success in building their rosters.
The ACC may be back very soon.
(Top photo of Will Wade: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
