Syracuse Basketball: Food For Thought, Is The ACC Awesome, Or Overrated?

A lot of choice tweets from a certain member of the CBS crew has stirred controversy. Is the Syracuse basketball team apart of an awesome ACC or an overrated one?

Jon Rothstein, a college-basketball insider for CBS Sports, recently sent out a few interesting tweets that I believe warrant a closer examination.

"Have a look: “The ACC eats the unprepared and the non-focused. Best league from top to bottom in the history of college basketball. Doesn’t seem close. … Would be surprised to see any ACC teams left out of the bracket this year with a 9-9 league record. Conference is too good top to bottom.”"

Of course, Rothstein has gotten all kinds of “feedback” from the Twitter universe – mostly negative.

I’m not here to trash Rothstein’s tweets, or sing him praise. Rather, I think this is something worth considering.

How excellent – or over-rated – is the ACC?

First and foremost, before I make any grand proclamations, let’s keep in mind that there are plenty of regular-season games left to play, and then the conference tournaments, before the Big Dance gets going in mid-March.

A lot can transpire in the coming weeks, especially as rivals face off one, two or even three times – beating up on each other.

And, honestly, how does one measure a conference’s strength in a particular year? Total number of bids to the NCAA Tournament? Or how those teams actually perform? Are Final Four appearances, as well as actual national titles, the ultimate barometer?

It’s seemingly so subjective, and I don’t pretend to have the answer.

Here’s what I will say: in 2011, the Big East sent a record 11 of 16 member schools to the NCAA Tournament, including our beloved Syracuse.

Impressive to say the least. However, only two programs reached the Sweet 16 – the eventual

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national champions, Connecticut, as well as Marquette, which squeaked by the Orange amid a controversial ending in the Round of 32. That’s a pretty sub-par overall showing.

Says Rothstein, addressing this topic, in several more tweets: “The strength of teams at the bottom of this league (the ACC) are better than 2011 Big East. Not close. … Pitt is in last place and won at Maryland and beat Virginia. … DO NOT solely rely on the numbers. Watch the games. Evaluate quality wins as a whole. MUCH MORE than just numbers.”

In the 2016 Big Dance, the ACC had seven of 15 get an invite, which is obviously four fewer than the Big East of five years prior. Yet six Atlantic Coast Conference squads advanced to the Sweet 16, a record. Four got to the Elite Eight (tying a record set by the Big East in 2009). And two – North Carolina and Syracuse, yay! – made it to the Final Four.

The 2011 Big East had more teams in the NCAA Tournament, but they didn’t do as well, although UConn won the national title. The 2016 ACC had fewer schools get to the Big Dance, but they collectively went further, although the national champions (Villanova) came from another conference.

If you head back to 1985, the Big East saw three clubs – Georgetown, St. John’s and Villanova – secure spots in the Final Four, with the Wildcats taking home the trophy in a huge upset over the Hoyas. Does this make that year’s Big East the best of the best?

You could probably make a reasonable argument for any of the above examples, and likely several supplementary case studies from the ACC, the Big East and other conferences in different seasons.

Fast-forward to the Atlantic Coast Conference of today. On Jan. 30, the most recent mock bracket from ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had 10 ACC outfits in the NCAA Tournament, as well as Georgia Tech in the “Next Four Out” category.

At CBS Sports, Jerry Palm, also as of Jan. 30, is projecting 11 in the Big Dance, along with Pittsburgh in the “First Four Out” category.

Neither, by the way, is including Syracuse to this point, which is fine. The Orange has only one signature win (against then-No. 6 Florida State this past Saturday), no road victories, and no quality out-of-conference triumphs. However, plenty of opportunities await SU to pad its resume, beginning with tonight’s visit to N.C. State.

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Back to Rothstein’s assertion at this article’s opening. Is the Atlantic Coast Conference, as it stands now, the deepest league in college-basketball history?

Certainly, when perennial powers like Duke and Syracuse are middle-of-the-road teams, that could reflect depth. It could also signify that the Blue Devils and Orange, at least in the 2016-17 campaign, aren’t all that terrific.

"An additional Rothstein tweet, this one from Tuesday night: “Pitt – the last place team in the ACC — just took UNC to the wire and lost by two on the road. What does that tell you about this league?”"

My take is this: it’s wonderful to have a bunch of schools consistently ranked in the top 25 throughout the regular season, but what counts is the post-season, and what you achieve then. SU head coach Jim Boeheim has said as much.

Another Rothstein tweet: “The main to remember when looking at the ACC and the possibility of double-digit bids? Not many bids coming from A 10, AAC, SEC and MWC.”

If this year’s ACC does snag 10 or 11 bids to the Big Dance, a slew of programs gets to the second weekend, two squads reach the Final Four, AND one captures the national title, then one might logically believe that the present Atlantic Coast Conference is the deepest – and best – ever.

That’s a tall order. It may happen. But, for the time being, we’re all just speculating for the fun of it.

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We’ll save the more serious discussion for late-March. And, maybe, early April.

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