North Carolina is witnessing a notable season in basketball, and it's not solely due to the ACC teams, which are, in fact, underperforming. App State secured a victory against Auburn, UNCW triumphed at Kentucky, and UNCG achieved what Duke couldn't by winning at Arkansas. Here's a rundown of the current and projected standings of some non-Power 5 (P5) teams in the state as we approach the end of the out-of-conference (OOC) games.
High Point boasts a first-year head coach, while UNCC is under an interim coach who took over just before the season began, subsequent to losing key players and a head coach that bolted to be an assistant coach. Having visited Western Carolina once, it's impressive that they can attract students, let alone basketball players talented enough to nearly breach the top 100 mark.
As ECU faces an 11th consecutive season ranking over 200th in the RPI (NET only covers the past 5 years), it's disheartening to witness schools like App State or Western Carolina achieving this fundamental level of success. Particularly when ECU invests more in coaches, paying them nearly double or more in some cases and funding the program at a level within the top 125 (122). For example, UNCG is 177th, App State is 264th, and WCU is 319th in basketball budget.
Even schools currently experiencing a less successful season, such as UNCA, NC Central, Elon, and Gardner Webb, managed to crack the top 150 several times in the last decade-plus. Even a first-year Division I school like Queens performed nearly as well as ECU last season (188th NET vs. 204th).
It's embarrassing, especially with the availability of the transfer portal, not to resolve these issues promptly. The last time ECU finished within the top 200 RPI was due to transfers like Paul, Richmond, Armstrong, Kemp, etc., long before the existence of a transfer portal or free transfers, or even the capability to financially outbid numerous schools below ECU.
Some fans attribute ECU's struggles to the ACC, but ECU doesn't directly compete with the ACC. It's these in-state schools that ECU is more likely to encounter on the recruiting front, and they're surpassing ECU. This issue isn't confined to this particular area; it extends to neighboring states just over the boarder too where numerous successful programs have thrived in the past decade, such as Furman, JMU, ETSU, and many others as well.
