Your opinion:
1.Is the rise of SEC basketball and fall of ACC basketball related or coincidental?
KQ- It is a timing thing more than anything. The ACC since 2021 has had Roy Williams, Coach K, Tony Bennett, Jim Boeheim and now Jim Larranaga and Leonard Hamilton all retire. Six HOF coaches. Louisville bungled their post-Rick Pitino era with a series of missteps. Replacing all of that and the slide at Miami and FSU with two guys staying at the party too long has led to the issues. The SEC has invested heavily on up and coming coaches or successful guys while Duke, UNC, Cuse, UVA, and even Louisville all hired essentially internal candidates for at least one season or more during the last 5-10 years. I know Louisville had the failed Chris Mack experiment before Kenny Payne. That is a big issue at play here. Autry, Scheyer and Davis wouldn't be hired at GT if the GT job was open and they were looking for a gig. That is the honest truth of it. Scheyer may end up winning something but yeah...
Hell throw in Mike Brey getting forced out too.
Let's look at the seven SEC teams in the Sweet 16
Alabama- hired Nate Oats from Buffalo after 3 NCAAT in four years there and a 96-43 record
Arkansas- hired John Calipari who is one of the winningest MBB of all-time after he ran out of gas at UK.
Auburn- hired Bruce Pearl once the NCAA stink settled off him after a great run at Tenn 2 Sweet 16s and an Elite 8.
Florida- hired Todd Golden from San Francisco after a strong run there
Kentucky- hired alum Mark Pope who did a good job at BYU though he was robbed on a likely deep NCAAT by covid with his best team there in 2020.
Ole Miss- hired Chris Beard like Pearl coming off a scandal and gave him a second chance after a great run at Texas Tech and a strong start at Texas.
Tennessee- hired Rick Barnes who had won a lot at Clemson and Texas but couldn't get the Horns over the hump. HOF coach even though I'm not a big fan.
In comparison
Duke- promoted Coach K's lead assistant Scheyer, never been a HC
Louisville- fired Chris Mack and hired a former assistant who had never been a HC in Kenny Payne who won 12 games in two season TOTAL
Miami- coach quite midseason left with an interim HC.
North Carolina- promoted Hubert who had never been a HC
Syracuse- promoted Adrian Autry never been a HC
Virginia- coach quit before the season and left them stuck with an interim HC.
Those are four of your marquee teams and Miami who has spent a lot of coin on coaches.
That is how you get there.
2. Is greater excess $$ generated from football the primary engine for the SEC’s dominance in basketball, women’s basketball, baseball, etc; or are there other reasons?
KQ- see above
3. What does the ACC need to do to reassert itself in basketball or is it as simple as stop making a lot of bad coaching hires?
KQ- Stop making terrible hires. The best two probably best Xs and Os coaches aside from Pat Kelsey in the ACC are Steve Forbes and Mike Young at two of the programs with the least resources which isn't helping either. Forbes is trying to get the WV job and tried to get the Iowa job as well this cycle because he knows he is screwed at Wake.
A lot of pieces need to come together on def across dline, LB, and secondary.
- How are each of the defensive position groups looking in spring practice?
The DL will be fine. They have enough guys and look fine there.
The secondary has some nice pieces they just need to figure out the five starters. They are not blowing up the whole defense either.
- What is the defensive staff doing to optimize personnel? Anything scheme wise? Moving players around to different positions? Any color here would be helpful
- How's Gideon doing? Any sense for his outlook?
What are our weaknesses on the men's basketball team coaching staff?
KQ- That is a hyperspecific question. Are you trying to get Damon Stoudamire pissed off at me? How about coming up with different phrasing? That is like asking you which one of your wife's friends is the ugliest.
Also no one outside of the staff would be able to really give you an answer. This isn't like football where things are very obvious. We watch like one full practice a year and maybe a bit here or there the rest of the time. I would be a jerk to make any assumptions off that. No one is walking around trashing another coach or staffer either to anyone.
Who are our best recruiters?
KQ- Damon, Hobbs and Pershin are the main recruiters
Do you think there will be staff changes?
KQ- Probably, it is uncommon to not have a few staff changes here and there just depending on how gets jobs and people's lives and priorities.
How many guys do you think hit the portal? I was told 3, but I trust you more.
Reeves and Sutton come to mind, can’t think of a third.
KQ- Three sounds about right. There is always someone who we don't expect to enter. Doryan is in, I think Sutton stays, his market value isn't great right now. It will just depend on a lot of factors who else goes in. I could see Reeves trying to find a larger role somewhere and having a fun final season somewhere else.
