With Leonard Hamilton’s retirement, ACC’s basketball coaching brain drain complete
Leonard Hamilton has to turn out the lights when he goes at the end of the season, the trailblazing coach from Gastonia having announced his impending retirement Monday. He’s the last one out the door from the last great generation of ACC coaches.
Which isn’t to say the next generation can’t make a name for itself, but it hasn’t yet, and the amount of experience (and success) that has walked out the door in the past few years is like a miniature hall of fame of its own.
In Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim and Tony Bennett alone, the ACC lost coaches who had won 10 national titles and gone to 30 Final Fours. Throw in Hamilton, Mike Brey and Jim Larranaga, all departing since Williams retired in 2021, and that’s a brain drain of epic proportions.
That leaves Brad Brownell as the dean of ACC coaches, at Clemson since 2011, and he and the other 17 current coaches have a combined two Final Four appearances: Hubert Davis in 2022, Kevin Keatts in 2024.
And that’s it.
Jeff Capel has assumed the role of spokesman the legends once shared among themselves, but without the postseason success yet at Pittsburgh to back it up. Pat Kelsey’s off to a promising start at Louisville. Jon Scheyer has his best chance yet in the NCAA tournament with Cooper Flagg after two tournament disappointments at Duke.
Everyone else is either rebuilding or yet to build, especially among the rest of the Big Four, at one point the granite foundation of ACC basketball. N.C. State’s glorious renaissance lasted a month. North Carolina is on the verge of a second NCAA tournament miss since that Final Four run. Steve Forbes feels perpetually on the verge of a breakthrough at Wake Forest but hasn’t yet.
And then there’s Brownell, who for all his longevity at a football school has yet to win an ACC title or get to a Final Four, although Clemson did make the Elite Eight last year and is one of two ACC teams all but guaranteed to make the NCAA tournament this March. Maybe his time has come.
That could be the answer to the pressing question for ACC basketball, always a coach-driven league: Who’s going to step forward to replace the old guard that has now completely moved on?
Kelsey has shown at Louisville that this doesn’t have to be a lengthy process, especially in the NIL era. The right commitment, the right funding, the right coach, and the Cardinals popped right back onto their feet after two years as a regional embarrassment.
But Louisville is also one of very few ACC schools truly committed to basketball success on a national level, as the school’s sport of record, and willing to do what it takes to win in this era. The same is true at Duke and, to a slightly lesser extent, Pittsburgh. SMU seems to be making the right noises, at least.
Bennett was supposed to be the bridge to the next generation, but he had enough of the state of college sports and walked away. That’s his choice. But there are other coaches out there adapting, meeting college basketball where it is now instead of pining for days of old. The ACC needs them, and now.
It may be less a question of whether the ACC can find talented, up-and-coming basketball coaches who get the way the game is today than it is how hard the ACC is looking for them.
Either way, the ACC can’t afford any misses. Virginia and Miami and Florida State have to get these hires right. Capel and Brownell and Forbes need to take the next step. Keatts and Davis have to get things going again. There’s enough dead weight already in an 18-team league, and no legends left to bail everyone else out.
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This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 4:46 PM with the headline "With Leonard Hamilton’s retirement, ACC’s basketball coaching brain drain complete."
