All year long, the coaches, players, and fans of the Atlantic Coast Conference have felt disrespected by the lack of national attention and praise shown towards the conference.
Last week’s AP Poll only had three ACC teams in the top 25: Virginia (No. 7), Miami (No. 15), and NC State (No. 23). However, at the time of those rankings, the team that was at the top of the conference — Pitt — was not even in the top 25.
Pitt head coach Jeff Capel has seemingly always made it a point to pump up the conference as head coach of the Panthers, and now especially, he doesn’t know why more people aren’t giving the league the same amount of respect.
“It’s interesting,” Capel said. “For me, I only hear that it’s down when you talk about those teams [Pitt, NC State, and Clemson], you don’t hear about it when you talk about Virginia. Maybe it’s because of what Virginia has done nationally during the time that Tony has been there. He’s done an unbelievable job — they’ve maybe been the premier program if you look at accomplishment, definitely if you look at the last 8 to ten years.”
Virginia is currently leading the conference at 13-3 in league play. One of those three losses came to the Panthers, who have also beaten Miami and NC State, the league’s two other ranked teams.
In addition, several popular metrics in the sport have the ACC as one of the worst power conferences in college hoops. USA Today’s Jeff Sagarin’s ratings have the ACC as the No. 6 conference in college basketball, behind the Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, SEC, and the PAC-12. KenPom
“I don’t really understand it, to be completely honest with you,” Capel continued. “I don’t know that Coach Smith, Coach K, Coach Williams, I don’t know if its because they’re not here anymore, so the national reputation of that — Coach Pitino, same thing. But I don’t really get it. When you look at the success that we’ve had in the NCAA Tournament, and you look at the success we’ve had in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, if you look at what our guys have done nationally, as far as coaching, as far as players, as far as talent, as far as draft picks, all of those things, it’s more than anyone. I’ve never really understood it. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”
Capel and the Panthers fell to Virginia Tech this past weekend, snapping a six-game winning streak. The Panthers’ leader said that the night before his game in Blacksburg, while watching the ACC Network, he realized something else about why the conference continues to receive disrespect.
“I don’t think it helps when we have our own network, and there I was watching when we were at Virginia Tech,” Capel said. “The night before, I am watching our own network, and one of the first questions that comes up is, ‘Is it perception or reality that the ACC is down?’ I never see that on the Big Ten Network. I watch the Big Ten Network a lot because one of my best friends coaches in that league, and so I am watching them. And man, they are always, always pumping the Big Ten. Always. And I think it’s a really good league, but I think ours is too. And I wish the people that represent us would have the respect and pump our league and be positive instead of looking at negative things.”
Pitt continues its ACC slate on Tuesday night against Georgia Tech, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. at the Petersen Events Center.
Just commented on this the other day. When the 2 blue bloods are down….the conf must be down. Or if Pitt is up, well lordy lordy the conf must really be down. Seriously some of these clowns have the Mountain West better than the ACC. LOL
Same clowns said the BigEast was down, when Pitt first started again dominating
that league 20-21 years ago. They couldn’t stick with it long, since UConn was winning NC’s and Pitt was beating them or finishing 2nd to them.
ACC Down or Not ? It’s going to be a point of contention until March Madness is over. Then it will be, “we told you so” or “but, they got lucky” or “we were wrong”. H2P !
I actually think that ESPN does their best to destroy the ACC. The ACC is locked into a TV contract for like forever. Watch how PITT is always placed into a head to head tv game with PSU. The exception occures like this year, PSU mad a top tier game. Then you have the ACCN that actually dispises Pitt. And their social media is even worse. God I hate the ACC
The metrics have been created to get an objective measuring point of all Division 1 teams. When I read a coach make self serving comments I tend to take it with a grain of salt. Don’t like the rankings? Don’t get beat by 25-30 points by lower tier teams in other Power 5 conferences. Don’t lose to 8-20 schools. Pretty straightforward. This concludes my TED talk
“Pitt is currently 18-7 over all and 11-3 in ACC. It has a road record of 7-2, is 4-2 in quad one games and is 12-3 in its last 15 games but that’s not worthy of being ranked lol” “Instead of paying attention to what is going on, actually watching games, looking at results it’s easier to form an opinion and cast a vote after where you see a computer has teams slotted” Couple of quotes from Mike Vukovcan’s article from last week…makes quite few other good points including how computers had N Carolina ranked ahead of Pitt despite Panthers… Read more »
Try an original thought instead of regurgitation.
Happen to agree with Mr Vukovcan’s thoughts concerning computer generated rankings. Not being a professional writer, doubt that I could articulate his remarks any better.
Yeah I have absolutely no doubt that you’re incapable of an articulate response.
To Capel’s point about the ACCN: They have to pump up all the teams. All the sports. After the Pitt bowl game win the first highlight was Patti’s interception. No mention of his 300 yds total offense. No mention of 10 regulars not playing in the game including Izzy. Not only after the game but also during next seasons preview. The ACCN, ESPN and the writers have to adapt to the idea that with the transfer portal good TEAMS can be made in a year and must be acknowledged.
The talent on the ACC Network pretty much sucks. I TRY to watch Mark Packer, Tre Boston and Taylor Tannenbaum on their show and it’s awful. It’s all so low-energy, low-budget, and amateurish. It’s pretty much unwatchable.
For football season, that crew is a clown show.
You have fans that WANT more ACC coverage, but what ACCN provides is so bad.
Have you ever watched a Pitt baseball game? It’s often just a single camera pointed at home plate. (But, I think that’s more of a Pitt Studios issue than ACCN).
Packer is the best of the lot, imo. The two others around that round table are amateurs and just there for……