ACC Brings ESPN Bracketologist To Spring Meetings - ESPN's Joe Lunardi met with coaches at the ACC spring meetings this week.

AMELIA ISLAND, FL- Brad Brownell has made it clear on multiple occasions that he thought the ACC didn’t get the respect it deserved last season.

At one time, the ACC was considered the premier basketball conference, but in recent seasons, deservedly or not, the league has lost some of that luster, and some of that could be due to legendary coaches like Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski and Jim Boeheim retiring. Despite that, the ACC still saw Clemson make a run to the Elite Eight and NC State make it all the way to the Final Four, with neither team finishing in the Top 4 of the regular season standings.

With so much emphasis placed on NET Rankings, which are heavily influenced by strength of schedule, coaches inside the ACC are doing what they can to shore up their schedules in an effort to gain some of that luster back.

“I think it will still be good, be competitive,” Brownell told The Clemson Insider at the ACC spring meetings. “We need our league to continue to provide enough Quad 1 and 2 games so that you don’t end up short at the end if you make the bubble, almost like what happened to us a couple of years ago.”

“This year our league was underrated, clearly. NC State, the tenth place team in our league goes to the final four. We finish fifth or sixth whatever it was, I think sixth, and we go to the elite eight. And I’m hopeful and it looks like our league is going to be pretty good again.”

While at the ACC spring meetings this week, the the league brought in an outside voice, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi, to help give coaches an idea of what they can do to strengthen the conference.

“We’ve had Joe Lunardi meeting with out men’s basketball group,” Brownell said. “He’s kind of done a little bit of a deep dive and a little bit of a preview on the teams in our league. He seems to think that the league looks pretty good again this year,”

Regardless of perception, Brownell thinks the league, as well as his own team, is in a good spot moving forward. The Tigers have out of conference matchups at home with Memphis and road contests against Boise State and rival South Carolina on the docket, as well as the ACC-SEC challenge.

“You kind of cross your fingers as a coach and hope that your schedule is as tough as you need it to be, or want it to be,” Brownell said. “To give yourself enough good games to give yourself a chance to make the tournament.”

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