Adam Gold over at 850 the Buzz lays out the ACC coaches in nice and orderly fashion. He has Roy Williams at #2 behind Mike Krzyzewski:
2-Roy Williams, North Carolina…1 National Title, 6 Final Fours, 6 conference titles (4 Big 8/12, 2 ACC), 590 wins and an .810 winning percentage. Roy just might be the greatest recruiter in the history of the game. He’s a great coach, and seems to get more from young players than anyone else in the game. Here’s an incredible stat: Roy has had at least a share of the regular season title 13 times in 21 years!
If we look at the full depth of their respective career, you have to put Kryzewski ahead of Roy. The three national titles has something to do with that. If we consider just this decade, it is a even match with even an edge to Roy. Starting in 2000, Roy Williams has been to four Final Fours(2 at Kansas, 2 at UNC) and won a national title. Kryzewski has one national title and two Final Four this decade, none since 2004. It will be interesting to see how it plays out in this NCAA Tournament. UNC and Duke could be on a collision course to meet in Detroit.
The rest of the list is fascinating. Gold goes with Gary Williams in 3rd on the strength of a national title and the fact his recruits are nothing special. He is followed by Al Skinner, Oliver Purnell and the empty chair in the UVa basketball office. That's right, whoever takes the Virginia job is probably a better coach than Seth Greenberg, Paul Hewitt, Sidney Lowe, Dino Gaudio, Frank Haith and Leonard Hamilton. I can't say I disagree with that notion. Virginia Tech teams tend to be undisciplined at times on the court. Hewitt has boatloads of talent but nothing resembling a working offense. Lowe has never seen a player rotation he did not try to nonsensically implement. Gaudio lost control his team and everyone's early pick for ACC POY Jeff Teague despite the team being good enough to beat UNC and Duke. Haith's Miami team sucked on so many levels even though they had Jack McClinton and what more can we possibly say about Leonard Hamilton? His coaching gaffes are numerous and UNC fans are immensely grateful he decided to not guard Ty Lawson with three seconds left in Tallahassee. At least he knows he cannot coach which is why he allowed his assistant coach to explain the final play versus Wisconsin.
I imagine there is some correlation between the ACC's performance in the NCAA Tournament and where the coaches fall on this list. Gold is basically saying there are six good coaches in the ACC, five if you only count the ones who are currently active. Of those five Roy, Kryzewski and Gary Williams won an NCAA Tournament game with the two guys at the top going to the Sweet Sixteen. Skinner and Purnell got bounced early as did Gaudio and Hamilton. So scratch that, we are basically looking at three top tier coaches, two middle of the road guys in the four and five spots, possibly Tubby Smith at Virginia and then the rest is crap. Perhaps the ACC ADs need to take notice and understand, success does begin at the top.