ACC Breakdown: New coaches struggling to keep teams afloat in ACC

By and large, it takes years for newly hired coaches to build reputable college basketball programs.

There are a few exceptions, and 11th-year Pitt head coach Jamie Dixon is one of those outliers.

After replacing former head coach Ben Howland in 2003, Dixon blew off the “rebuilding” phase that new coaches undergo. Dixon guided his team to four Big East Championship appearances in his first five seasons, and he holds the all-time NCAA Division I record for most wins after eight seasons as a head coach.

But for new coaches in the ACC, success hasn’t come as easily.

Two second-year coaches, four three-year, two four-year and a fifth-year coach make up the ACC landscape, and most of their teams are clumped together at the bottom of the conference.

Dixon sees the correlation.

“I think our conference in the ACC will continue to get better because it does have some coaches who are rebuilding programs,” Dixon said last week.

In this week’s edition of the ACC Breakdown, Syracuse remains at the top with Pitt and Duke not far behind. After that, there’s a fierce scramble for fourth place between six teams.

Reminiscing on his first several seasons in the Big East, Dixon said his teams started in similar positions. They weren’t projected to finish as the top team, but slowly climbed their way into the top three, where they have pretty much remained for a decade.

“I had a hard time moving up in the league standings because there wasn’t a real drop at the top,” Dixon said. “If the other teams don’t drop, there’s nowhere to go.”

Still, all 15 teams receive invitations to the ACC Tournament. Analysts have yet to determine if the ACC is a deep conference or a weak one, but Dixon advised them to remain conscious of middle-of-the-pack teams.

“You talk about Connecticut [in 2011], where they can come in 9th place [in the Big East] and win the league and win a national championship, and then you have teams like Syracuse who are really good and then may have a down year and then are really good the following year afterwards,” he said. “There’s not much difference in these teams.”

North Carolina (12-7, 2-4 ACC) is a team that has unmistakable qualifications to begin a late hot streak in the last full month of ACC play.

The Tar Heels have wins over No. 3 Michigan State, No. 12 Louisville and No. 14 Kentucky, but have had a miserable January, dropping three straight before beating Clemson on Sunday.

Tar Heels sharpshooter Leslie McDonald was reinstated from suspension last month, and several weeks later, Pitt’s Durand Johnson sustained a torn ACL and meniscus injury, ending his sophomore season.

Dixon said that every member in the ACC could feel the effects of Johnson, who is an injured player from a top team, and commented on other teams facing similar issues.

“We just lost one of our best players [in Johnson]. [Notre Dame] Coach [Mike] Brey just lost one of his best players. There are going to be challenges,” he said. Dixon added that his early teams “took a step in the right direction” when top Big East teams went down with injury and fatigue.

Pitt will wrap up its first half of ACC play Sunday afternoon, when Virginia (15-5, 6-1 ACC) comes to town. The Cavaliers are a win against Pitt away from bursting toward conference supremacy. Their resumé, though, is still marred by two bad early season losses.

Here are this week’s rankings:

Syracuse (19-0, 6-0 ACC)

The Orange beat Boston College, North Carolina and Miami twice by an average of just 8.75 points, causing some to wonder when they’ll fold for the first time in ACC play.

T-2 Duke (17-4, 6-2 ACC)

Granted, the Blue Devils beat both their second-place competitors, but they recorded horrific losses to Clemson and Notre Dame. In both games, Duke guard Andre Dawkins was a combined 1-8 from 3-point range. Dawkins had 20 points on a 6-7 shooting night against Pitt. 

“He is either on, or he is not,” ESPN commentator Jay Bilas would later say of Dawkins, who has led the Blue Devils to a 10-0 record when he scores in double figures.

T-2 Pitt (18-3, 6-2 ACC)

Pitt is 0-3 against ranked opponents and hasn’t beaten a team with a top 50 RPI, but will face two such teams in two weeks. The Panthers play Virginia, a team that could conceivably be better than Duke, on Sunday, and then host Syracuse Feb. 12. The NCAA Tournament’s selection committee isn’t very generous to teams without signature victories, so the Panthers will need to snag at least one of the two.

T-2 Virginia (15-5, 6-1 ACC)

The Cavaliers have the easiest schedule in the ACC, playing home-and-home series against Virginia Tech, Florida State and Maryland. They finished their month of January with a convincing win over a surging North Carolina team and then blew out Virginia Tech, but have a rude entrance into February, when they hit the road at Notre Dame and at Pitt.

Wake Forest (14-6, 4-3 ACC)

The Demon Deacons will look to upset a Syracuse team that has bent but not broken during a handful of games. Tip-off is at 9 p.m.

Florida State (13-6, 4-3 ACC)

The Seminoles have a higher RPI than their next seven opponents and are serious about receiving their fifth NCAA Tournament berth in six years.

Clemson (13-6, 4-3 ACC)

Head coach Brad Brownell and the Tigers look to avoid a three-game losing skid Saturday at Florida State.

North Carolina (12-7, 2-4 ACC)

With a win tonight at Georgia Tech, the Tar Heels will have won three of four with games against North Carolina State and Maryland coming up.

North Carolina State (13-7, 3-4 ACC)

It took an overtime effort and a T.J. Warren running jumper with 6.2 seconds left to beat Georgia Tech 80-78 on Sunday.

Maryland (11-9, 3-4 ACC)

The Terrapins have dropped four of their last five. “We’re trying to figure it out,” head coach Mark Turgeon admitted after losing 83-79 at home to Pitt on Saturday.

Notre Dame (11-9, 2-5 ACC)

The Irish beat Duke on Jan. 4, but have lost five games since to bottom-half ACC teams. They have yet to play their old Big East foes Syracuse and Pitt.

Georgia Tech (11-9, 2-5 ACC)

After facing the Heels, the Yellow Jackets will travel to Wake Forest on Saturday and to Clemson on Tuesday.

Miami (10-9, 2-5 ACC)

The Hurricanes kept it close against Syracuse, losing 64-52. They’ll take on Maryland at 9 p.m.

T-14 Boston College (5-14, 1-5 ACC)

The Eagles have dropped 10 of their last 12, setting up a last place showdown against Virginia Tech at 7 p.m.

T-14 Virginia Tech (8-11, 1-6 ACC)

The Hokies lost 65-45 to Virginia on Saturday, their sixth-straight defeat.