Sales Pitch discussion -- Which ACC coach would you want your kid to choose?
Our panel on which ACC men's basketball program does the most with the least, and other finer points of recruiting in the conference.
- ESPN staff
Follow this link to read what anonymous coaches said about recruiting in the ACC.
Which ACC coach do you think is the most underrated for their ability to recruit, or to construct a team?
Medcalf: Leonard. Hamilton. Since 2016, five Florida State players have been first-round NBA picks. Only one of those players, Jonathan Isaac, was a five-star recruit on ESPN.com. Two of those players, Devin Vassell and Mfiondu Kabengele, were not even top-100 prospects. And Scottie Barnes is a projected lottery pick in this summer's NBA draft.Within basketball circles, Hamilton is respected and praised. But he has been overshadowed in a league that has won half of the national titles since 2015, a league with teams anchored by Tony Bennett, Mike Krzyzewski and, until his retirement, Roy Williams. But his résumé is tremendous. He has finished in the top 45 in adjusted offensive efficiency and defensive efficiency for the past five seasons. Hamilton's ability to identify the right players for his style of play and develop those players over time has fueled his success. Players get better when they go to Florida State and compete for Leonard Hamilton.
Gasaway: The winner of any award with the word "underrated" in it is going to be Hamilton more often than not, and some day some historian is going to have to explain how exactly that happened. Just look at last season. Florida State had just said goodbye to starters Trent Forrest and Vassell and key reserve Patrick Williams. No problem for Hamilton, he added Barnes to a core made up of MJ Walker, RaiQuan Gray and Anthony Polite and secured the program's third top-four seed in the NCAA tournament in the past four brackets. The coach has been a model of consistency, and ordinarily that should mean that at some point he would cease to be underrated. Go figure.
Borzello: I'm with Myron and John, it's clearly Leonard Hamilton. There are two things that really stand out to me about the way Hamilton constructs his roster. One, it's the height and size in the frontcourt. Every year, the Seminoles seem to have a handful of 7-footers who find ways to contribute over the course of their careers in Tallahassee. One grassroots coach once told me a story about a visit to Florida State's campus, where the coach spotted a 7-footer he had never heard of, let alone seen before, on a visit. He asked Hamilton who it was, and Hamilton responded, "Oh, we found him. He's coming next year." It's just a pipeline of shot-blockers at this point.
The second thing is depth. Most coaches are shortening their benches and having trouble keeping seven or eight guys happy. Hamilton routinely uses 10-11 guys every season and rarely does he have chemistry or personnel issues.
Lunardi: Nothing at all against Leonard Hamilton, but aren't we missing the obvious answer? In the six years leading into the pandemic, Virginia won the most games in college basketball, garnered four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament and won the 2019 national championship.
Tony Bennett recruits to a system unique in the ACC, gets consistent buy-in for that system and produces ongoing results at the highest level possible. This at a school that had won exactly one NCAA tournament game in the previous 18 years. If that isn't at or near the very top of any team-building list, I'm watching the wrong sport.
Which ACC school would you identify as a "sleeping giant," with the ability to establish fresh momentum on the recruiting trail?
Gasaway: A "sleeping giant" has to be a program that was awake at some point, and on that basis one could suggest that NC State is due to hear its alarm go off anytime now. Mark Gottfried had a good recruiting run a decade ago, bringing in the likes of T.J. Warren, Cat Barber, Rodney Purvis (a top-20 prospect nationally), Tyler Lewis, BeeJay Anya, Abdul-Malik Abu and Caleb and Cody Martin. One might even add Dennis Smith Jr. and Omer Yurtseven to this who's-who list, though of course Smith's recruitment later resulted in the NCAA investigating the NC State program. In any event, there's no shortage of players who wore the Wolfpack uniform, however briefly, and are now playing professionally somewhere in the world. Kevin Keatts can and most likely will build on that legacy.Lunardi: They call it the Research Triangle, but too often North Carolina State's leg is missing from the Duke-Carolina stool. Questionable hires, poor athletic department leadership, dumb scheduling and shady off-court activities have all contributed to many years of underachieving. Either that or NC State simply isn't a good job in the shadow of Chapel Hill and Durham, requiring a generational icon like Jim Valvano to thrive. I don't believe it. With the right guy, the Wolfpack should at least occasionally run with the giants of the ACC.
Borzello: I'll go with Georgia Tech. It has been a long time since there was any sustained success in the Yellow Jackets' program, but they're starting to build momentum on the court after reaching the NCAA tournament this past season. If they can replicate that in 2021-22 with another postseason trip, that could start making Tech a more attractive option for prospects from the Atlanta area. It's maybe the most fertile, talent-rich area in the country the past several years, but it's also hard to keep kids home. If Pastner manages to keep a couple more high-level guys in the city for college, that could be a huge boost for the Yellow Jackets.
Wake Forest is another possible shout. The Demon Deacons have had periods of success in the past 20-30 years, and Steve Forbes seems to be spending this spring churning his roster to suit his system a bit better. Forbes is a guy who has consistently won, both recruiting and on the court, at all levels of college basketball. I think he'll continue that in Winston-Salem.
Medcalf: I think new Boston College head coach Earl Grant is an intriguing addition to the league. He had success at College of Charleston and was a key assistant during Brad Brownell's first four years at Clemson, where he recruited Gabe DeVoe, Jaron Blossomgame and other standouts for the Tigers. He's an energetic 44-year-old leader who is trying to boost a program that sits in a hotbed of talent. His school should help him soon with his efforts. Boston College recently announced plans to build a new practice facility, which would enhance Grant's efforts and help the program compete with other top schools in the area. Because of BC's challenging past, the bar isn't that high. Any momentum, I think, will feel like fresh momentum at BC.
