ACC Basketball: Ranking all 18 head coaches for 2024-25 season

2. Jim Larranaga (Miami)

Larranaga has had quite the success across a long coaching career. He was an assistant in the ACC forty years ago at Virginia when Ralph Sampson was dominating the basketball world. Larranaga then had long stints with success at both Bowling Green and George Mason. Most notably he led the Patriots to a shocking Final Four run as an 11-seed back in 2006. Five years later he was back in the ACC when he took the job at Miami.

The Hurricanes have had some great success under Larranaga’s leadership, winning the ACC in his second season. The recent results have been more notable, as he’d lead Miami to their first Elite Eight in 2022 and their first ever trip to the Final Four the following season. That breakthrough success is enough to ignore that Miami has been under .500 in four of the last six years. Larranaga has gotten results and shattered expectations at multiple schools, though at 74 years old his career is nearing its sunset.

1. Tony Bennett (Virginia)

With significant retirements in recent years, Bennett certainly stands out as the most successful head coach in the ACC, though it hasn’t always been greatness. A former point guard at Green Bay, Bennett got his head coaching start by succeeding his father at Washington State, taking those Cougars to the Sweet Sixteen way back in 2008. He took the Virginia job a year later and now has 15 years in Charlottesville under his belt.

Virginia has won six ACC regular season titles during that tenure, with the clear standout being the program’s national championship back in 2019. The Cavaliers have been upset several times in the Big Dance, but have a few other decent Tourney runs and continue to be in position for the postseason on a regular basis. Until someone else in this league wins a title, it’ll be really hard to usurp Bennett as the top coach in the ACC.