Hoops coaches talk up ACC's reputation

GREENSBORO -- Clemson's Oliver Purnell looked around Sunday while the ACC's basketball coaches were meeting.

Somebody had just jokingly asked whether anybody in the league had a team that wouldn't be any good.

"I didn't see anybody that I didn't think was going to be good," Purnell said, smiling.

North Carolina's NCAA title in 2009 gave the ACC's backers momentum as coaches and players met with the media Sunday at the ACC's Operation Basketball event at the Grandover Hotel and Conference Center.

Having a defending champion gives the ACC a key talking point in the debate over whose conference is best as it enters its fifth season after the expansion from nine to 12 schools was completed.

"You get a sense of [the ACC's] competitiveness when you look at North Carolina winning the national championship with three losses," ACC commissioner John Swofford said. "Each of those losses was to an ACC school -- three different ACC schools."

There are plenty of other intriguing ACC basketball story lines. Despite losing longtime roster anchors Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington, North Carolina tied Duke atop the ACC media poll.

The conference is awash with talented big guys, such as Duke's Kyle Singler and Clemson's Trevor Booker. There's uncertainty in the backcourts, though, after the departures of top-notch guards such as Toney Douglas (Florida State), Jeff Teague (Wake Forest) and Tyrese Rice (Boston College).

But conference strength always resonates as a topic. The ACC's Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) numbers show that it consistently has been the strongest conference in the nation.

In five of the last six seasons, the ACC has been the top-ranked conference in the RPI, a mathematical formula that considers winning percentages and schedule strength.

But some experts believe the Big East has surpassed the ACC in recent years. Among them is TV analyst Mike Gminski, a former Duke player who lives in Charlotte.

Gminski said the Big East is better even though it's weak at the bottom and has an unwieldy 16-team membership.

"Their top 12 is awesome," Gminski said.

March sadness

There is statistical support for Gminski's stance.

The ACC has performed poorly since expansion in what some consider the ultimate barometer in college basketball -- the NCAA Tournament. The ACC's NCAA Tournament winning percentage over the last four seasons ranks fifth among the six "power" conferences, behind the Big East, Big 12, SEC and Pac-10.

The ACC still holds the best all-time winning percentage in tournament history.

What's changed? Veteran TV analyst Dan Bonner said the road environments of the pre-expansion ACC prepared teams better for the NCAA Tournament. If Clemson plays at Boston College or N.C. State visits Miami, Bonner said, the environment simply isn't as highly charged as it was for all the ACC games in years past.

"Even when teams weren't very good, there was such passion about the whole thing," Bonner said. "... Maybe that has something to do with the way they are not playing very well in the NCAA Tournament, because the crucible of the ACC just isn't what it used to be."

Blue chips on the way

Recent recruiting results provide some hope that the ACC is improving.

According to Scout.com's rankings, the ACC signed more top-25 players in the current freshman class than any other conference. After point guard Kyrie Irving's commitment to Duke last week, the ACC also has four top-25 commitments from current high school seniors.

That also leads all conferences.

Without doing an exhaustive breakdown, All-Star Sports recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons said the ACC has more than held its own in recruiting in recent years.

"I don't think any conference has recruited top to bottom any better than the ACC unless it's the Big East," Gibbons said. "And it's very close."

Seth Greenberg, who coached Virginia Tech in the old Big East and now in the ACC, said there's no concrete way to settle the argument.

Greenberg gives the ACC a slight edge because of the intensity of games at on-campus venues in the ACC.

"I'm sure someone else could create an argument for the Big East that would be as compelling," Greenberg said. "I do know that in terms of tradition, in terms of venues, one through 12, you're going to have a hard time finding a league better than this one."

That much was obvious to Purnell as he looked around at the coaches meeting Sunday.

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