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The arrival of Maryland at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday reminds us of an odd fact. The original seven members still in the ACC have had 17 head coaches who attended league schools. All but one of them had an alumnus at the helm at one point or another.
The exception is Duke, which employed two products of Everett Case's N.C. State program but none of its own.
A former Blue Devil did coach in the ACC - Charles Grice (Lefty) Driesell. He played for Harold Bradley and graduated in 1954, the first year of the new conference. Driesell of course worked at Maryland, which he's sorry to see leaving the league.
Driesell is the only Duke product who's ever coached in the ACC in its 61 seasons.
Three alums were in place when the league started in 1953-54: Clemson's Bank McFadden, Virginia's Evan (Bus) Male, and Wake's Murray Greason.
That leaves 14 hires after things got going.
Three schools stayed totally within the family - North Carolina, N.C. State and Virginia. Between them they've hired eight graduates, assuming you count Sidney Lowe as a Wolfpack alumnus. Lowe was a star point guard on the '83 championship squad, but scrambled to get an undergraduate degree from St. Pauls College in order to quality for employment at N.C. State.
The only original school currently coached by a product of its own basketball program is North Carolina with Roy Williams.
| CHIPS OFF THE OLD BLOCK ACC Alums Who Coached At Founding Conference Schools |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| School | ACC Alum As Head Coach | Coach, Tenure | Alma Mater, Year Graduated |
| Clemson | 1 | Banks McFadden (1947-56) | Clemson, 1940 |
| Duke | 2 | Vic Bubas (1960-69) | N.C. State, 1951 |
| Bucky Waters (1970-73) | N.C. State, 1958 | ||
| Maryland | 3 | Frank Fellows (1968, 1969) | Maryland, 1953 |
| Lefty Driesell (1970-86) | Duke, 1954 | ||
| Gary Williams (1990-2010) | Maryland, 1968 | ||
| North Carolina | 2 | Matt Doherty (2001-03) | North Carolina, 1984 |
| Roy Williams (2004-present) | North Carolina, 1972 | ||
| N.C. State | 3 | Norman Sloan (1967-80) | N.C. State, 1951 |
| Les Robinson (1991-96) | N.C. State, 1965 | ||
| Sidney Lowe (2007-2011) | N.C. State* | ||
| Virginia | 3 | Bus Male (1952-57) | Virginia, 1937 |
| Billy McCann (1958-63) | Virginia, 1941 | ||
| Jeff Jones (1991-98) | Virginia, 1982 | ||
| Wake Forest | 3 | Murray Greason (1934-57) | Wake Forest, 1926 |
| Bones McKinney (1958-65) | North Carolina, 1946 | ||
| Jackie Murdock (1966) | Wake Forest, 1957 | ||
| * Played at N.C. State, graduated from St. Pauls College in 2006. | |||