ACC sending message this March: It’s still the king of college basketball
LOS ANGELES — The ACC has had great success in the men’s NCAA Tournament. The people least surprised by that? The teams.
Only five ACC teams made the tournament this season, tying last season for the fewest teams sent in the past decade. Virginia was among the last four teams to make the tournament and had to play a First Four game, which it lost in resounding fashion to Colorado State. So the conference only had four teams in the first round for the first time since 2013.
But it’s been perfection for the ACC since.
North Carolina, Duke, Clemson and No. 11 seed NC State have survived and advanced to the Sweet 16. The ACC has gone from a mediocre conference to one that’s flexing its muscles when it matters most — no conference has more teams remaining in March Madness.
Two of those teams are in the West Regional in Los Angeles, with No. 1 seed North Carolina stomping its way to a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 4 seed Alabama. On the other side, No. 6 seed Clemson had one of the most surprising wins in the second round over No. 3 Baylor and will play No. 2 seed Arizona to kick off the second weekend of the tournament.
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Clemson head coach Brad Brownell believes the different playstyles in the conference prepared his team, and likely others, for the NCAA Tournament.
“I’ve been in our league 14 years. I knew the quality of play that we had this year. I thought we were extremely deep,” Brownell said. “I just think that there’s great parity in our league.”
The players hear the noise as well.
“Every year we get not enough respect and disrespected all year – ‘the conference is down’ – and then we come here and start waxing people,” said Clemson senior center PJ Hall.
“That’s what I like in non-conference. You come back in-conference and everybody is like, ‘oh, it’s imploding on itself.’ No, it’s because we have a lot of good teams from 16 to 1,” Hall added. “There’s definitely not a dip in talent.”
“This year there were a lot of ACC teams that were deserving that didn’t get a chance to make it in,” Bacot said. “Hopefully everyone sees after this year how competitive ACC basketball is and how good the teams are.”
North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis believes the conference didn’t have to prove anything — in his mind the ACC has always maintained its position atop the college basketball world. The ACC claims the most men’s college basketball national championships and has been represented in 13 of the past 22 Final Fours.