The top basketball recruits headed to the ACC for 2020-21
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The ACC took a bit of a step back in 2019-20, with three league teams KenPom’s top 25 the year after five ACC squads ranked in the top 15. But with Florida State and Louisville looking more like consistent contenders than teams that simply enjoyed a great year, and expected bounce-backs from North Carolina and Virginia, who were below their usual standards, the conference could be back among college basketball’s elite in 2020-21.
The foundation of that position is in the coaches. Three ACC coaches — Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Virginia’s Tony Bennett — have won a national title since 2015. Over that same span, nine* league coaches have reached at least the Sweet 16, with seven* going to at least the Elite Eight.
*Louisville’s Chris Mack is the only coach of those groups to do it at a different school since 2015, with Mack leading Xavier to the Elite Eight before taking the Louisville job.
But those coaches have hardly been going into games with bare-bones rosters.
Not only does the ACC have a strong crop of returning players, no conference in America can boast the kind of incoming elite talent that the ACC can: 10 players ranked in the top 35 of the 247Sports Composite. To put that into perspective, the No. 35 player would rank as a top five incoming prospect in the Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12. That doesn’t account for the fact that eight of those 10 players received five-star rankings, the most of any league. The SEC is second with six such players, and the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 have seven five-star players combined.
So who are the best of the best headed to the ACC this year?
Read More: The top basketball recruits headed to the ACC for 2020-21 2020-05-21 15:27:06