Busting Brackets
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ACC Basketball: Ranking all 18 programs after additions of Stanford, Cal, and SMU

By Tristan Freeman

Feb 5, 2023; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach Jerod Haase during the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 5, 2023; Boulder, Colorado, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach Jerod Haase during the second half against the Colorado Buffaloes at the CU Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /
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ACC Basketball
ACC Basketball Virginia Cavaliers head coach Tony Bennett Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Virginia Cavaliers

With the recent retirements in the league, there’s just one NCAA Basketball head coach with a national title on their resume. And that’s Tony Bennett, who won it all with the Cavaliers in 2019. It was the end of a 6-year stretch where the program made the case of being the best overall, winning on average around 30 games a season.

The past three years have included a missed NCAA Tournament appearance, along with two early-round exits. And yet for 90% of the teams on this list, that would be a perfectly fine three-year span. That’s the level that Coach Bennett has taken Virginia Basketball, who has been a good program before as well.

Bennett is now the top coach in ACC Basketball at the moment and the team is recruiting at its highest of levels right now. So there really isn’t anything to be concerned about if you’re a fan of this team. We’ll see how the new coaches at Duke and UNC work out but if they don’t, Virginia is in a great position going forward.

This upcoming season will be interesting, as it’s a test of how effective all of the newcomers will be in this new system. In the era of constant roster turnover, that could be the one flaw in Coach Bennett’s style of play.