The ACC is a few notches below the SEC in college basketball, and several notches below the Big 12 and Big Ten. The league had eight teams in the 2026 NCAA Tournament, and only one — Duke — made it through to the Sweet 16. Yet, this was a good year for the conference. How can both things be true? Let’s discuss:
Reality check
The ACC losing seven teams in the first week of the NCAA Tournament is undeniably brutal. There’s no way to get around that. The ACC can’t be seen as a top-three college basketball conference when that happens. We can all admit that and move on. This is where the conversation gets interesting, however.
Not all ACC losers were failures — consider Miami
Miami won an NCAA Tournament game before getting knocked out by Purdue. The Hurricanes were a clear success story this season despite not making the Sweet 16. Jai Lucas looks like a very good hire, a young coach with a very promising future.
Virginia
Ryan Odom was spectacular in Year 1 at Virginia, but the Cavaliers probably were not as good as their No. 3 seeding in the NCAA Tournament. Tennessee sent the Hoos packing in the Round of 32. Virginia didn’t get to the Sweet 16, but the larger story around the program is positive. This is why the ACC had a good year despite a bad NCAA Tournament.
NC State
Losing to Texas in the First Four was a bitter failure, but one should expect Will Wade to upgrade his roster in Year 2 at NC State. Wade was open about his dissatisfaction with the kind of roster he had this past season. Expect him to make positive changes. State is in a position to be better next season. Now the portal beckons. The Wolfpack need to make a splash. Wade seems capable of doing that.
Louisville
Louisville not getting to the Sweet 16 is a disappointment, but with Mikel Brown being injured, one can’t really say Pat Kelsey underachieved. Louisville has had horrible injury luck under Kelsey. KaSean Pryor getting hurt was brutal for last season’s team, and Brown’s injury had a similarly huge effect on this year’s group. If Louisville can just get — and stay — healthy, it can be a serious national player. Once again: The fact that a team didn’t make the Sweet 16 doesn’t mean its future isn’t positive. This is life for a number of ACC basketball programs.
SMU
Andy Enfield got SMU to the NCAA Tournament in Year 2. SMU lost to Miami-Ohio, but Enfield has been a good coach at a program which fired its predecessor to put all its chips in the middle of the table and bank on Enfield’s ability. The move hasn’t been a home run, but it has been more positive than negative.
Clemson
Brad Brownell keeps making NCAA Tournaments, but so many times, his teams are outclassed in the first round. This was just such a case against Iowa last Friday. Brownell had one Elite Eight run in 2024 plus a Sweet 16 in 2018, but the lack of NCAA Tournament wins is a legitimate source of frustration. Those two seasons — 2024 and 2018 — are the only seasons in which Clemson has won a game in the Round of 64 in March Madness. Clemson has been a good program the past eight years — the previous several seasons under Brownell were failures — but it still should be better in March.
North Carolina
This is where the ACC basketball world undeniably has a huge headache. UNC basketball not being a heavyweight really drags down the league. Hubert Davis has held Carolina back, and the Tar Heels need to figure out a solution, with him or without him.
The bigger ACC basketball problem
The reason we can say the ACC has had a good 2026 season in spite of a bad NCAA Tournament is that the conference’s schools generally took forward steps. This means, however, that the conference was well behind the competition a year ago. It dug itself such a deep hole that it will take time to fully recover. Some recovery occurred this year, but not enough to fully make up the gap.
Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech hiring Scott Cross from Troy shows a seriousness about hoops that has been missing from a number of ACC basketball schools in recent years. The culture of ACC basketball is improving, even at schools that have been bad the past few seasons.
Syracuse
Hiring Gerry McNamara gives Syracuse a coaching upgrade from Red Autry. This is another positive step from an ACC basketball program that didn’t do anything good this past season.
Florida State
Luke Loucks shows signs of being the right hire at FSU. Give him two more years to fully get that program rolling; it’s going in the right direction in Tallahassee.
Stanford
Kyle Smith is an underrated coach who does more with less. Expect him to get Stanford to the NCAA Tournament by 2028 if not 2027.
California
Mark Madsen can coach, but he is dealing with the resource limitations of Berkeley. This is a wait-and-see situation, but Madsen needs time before we can judge him more fully.
Boston College
This program retained Earl Grant last season, the kind of move which explains why ACC basketball fell off the map. The program has finally pulled the plug on Grant and is now trying to hire his replacement. Let’s see what happens.
Virginia Tech
NIL commitments to the program have improved, but the Hokies didn’t have a complete roster this past season. They have to invest more and get some portal hits.
Wake Forest
Will Wake Forest keep Steve Forbes? The Demon Deacons have never made the NCAA Tournament in more than half a decade under Forbes. Retaining him, on the surface, makes no sense.
Notre Dame
Micah Shrewsberry has been a clear-cut disappointment in South Bend. One wonders if the coach might bail for a better opportunity elsewhere. Notre Dame joins Wake Forest, Boston College, Syracuse, and Georgia Tech as one of the ACC’s most disappointing programs this decade.
Overview
The 2026 NCAA Tournament was a disaster, but as you can see, several ACC basketball schools have improved their long-term outlook. North Carolina is the program that has to reverse course. Struggling ACC schools are mostly showing signs of beginning to do the right thing, but not all of them. On balance, ACC basketball programs are improving their understanding of what they need to do. 2027 might not deliver a big NCAA Tournament, but the main thing is for the ACC to continue to evolve as it did in 2026.
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This article originally appeared on College Sports Wire: ACC basketball requires patience after rough March Madness results
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