All eyes are on Louisville football right now, but Bloggin' Rick Pitino still wants you to know that ACC basketball is going to be incredible in 2016-17.
What an incredible football weekend. The town is alive, with national championship hopes definitely real. It should be a fun journey for a collective group of great athletes and terrific coaching on both sides of the ball. Congrats also to our soccer team with the upset of #1 ranked Notre Dame.
Practice is just around the corner and someone asked me if this year's Duke team could potentially rival my 96' Kentucky team. The answer is yes, but as Lee Corso would say ... "Not so fast my friend." Yes, they have awesome shooting, experience, and talented freshman. Certainly they are worthy of the pre-season hype. But in recent conversations with John Rothstein, who is more organized than crime, he points out the ACC could be a ten-bid league for the NCAA Tournament like the old BIG EAST from 2009-2011. By his count, 12 of the 15 teams will be in play for a bid.
According to his calculation:
Virginia Tech -€” Returns seven of its top eight from a 20-win team and gets back Ahmed Hill.
Clemson -€” Won 10 ACC games without a home court advantage and adds three transfers.
North Carolina St. -€” Improved their talent base.
Miami & Pittsburgh -€” Have key veterans.
Florida St. -€” Has terrific talent.
Let's add Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Syracuse, and Louisville who will be ranked in the top 20.
John also feels a lot of other leagues will be down.
The Big Ten should be loaded and the Pac-12 much improved.
You can read Pitino's full post here.
