With coaching titans retired, league adjusts with new faces
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When forward Benny Williams signed with Syracuse, he was eager to play for Jim Boeheim and compete in an Atlantic Coast Conference that featured two other Hall of Fame coaches leading marquee programs.
Less than three years later, things look very different.
Changes that began in the past three years for the league have accelerated. Big names — faces of the sport itself — have headed into retirement: North Carolina’s Roy Williams in spring 2021, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski a year later and Boeheim this spring to end a 47-year tenure.
That leaves the tradition-rich league with no Hall of Fame head coaches for the first time in more than two decades and only one who has won a national championship. Seven of the league’s 15 schools are led by coaches in place three years or fewer.
“It’s weird,” Benny Williams said Wednesday during the league’s preseason men’s basketball media day. “Ever since I can remember Boeheim, Roy Williams and Coach K have been the coaches.”
Throw in the departure
of Notre Dame’s Mike Brey after 23 seasons last spring, and it’s left what ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips acknowledged was “a void” even with the return of longtime coaches such as Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton and Virginia’s Tony Bennett.
“The league is strong and we have really good young coaches that have been mentored by really good people,” Phillips said in an interview with The Associated Press. “So I have confidence that the league will carry forward. And this is just a period of time that came together like no other.”
To Phillips’ point, the Hall of Fame retirees were succeeded by their assistants.
Former UNC player Hubert Davis is entering his third year at No. 19 North Carolina after taking over for Williams and making an unexpected run to the NCAA title game in his debut season. Jon Scheyer is entering Year 2 as Krzyzewski’s successor at No. 2 Duke and won the program’s league-record 22nd ACC Tournament title. Neither had been a head coach before.
Now it’s former Syracuse All-America player Adrian Autry’s turn, facing the pressure of taking over for a coaching legend as a firsttime coach.
“If I thought and I put it into the context you just did,” Autry said, “I probably wouldn’t get out of bed.”
Still, it represents a massive change in star power for the league at a time rosters turn over quicker with freer player movement through the transfer portal, making top coaches the most identifiable and lasting presences than ever before.
The retired Hall of Fame trio had more than 3,200 wins, 27 Final Four trips and nine NCAA titles. Their mere sideline presence was a constant reminder of success. And they had the credibility to advocate or voice concerns about college basketball.
The league had four Hall of Famers as recently as 2017 with Rick Pitino at Louisville after the Cardinals joined the ACC in 2014.