The mighty Atlantic Coast Conference, largely considered the biggest, baddest and overall best conference in NCAA Division I men’s basketball, choked in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. With the Sweet 16 round of the tourney set, only UNC-Chapel Hill remains from the ACC.
Nine ACC teams heard their names called on Selection Sunday, marking a conference record. Nine teams making the tournament from a single conference is second only to the Big East’s remarkable 11 bids following the 2010-11 season.
Wake Forest was the only team to participate in a play-in game in Dayton, Ohio. The Demon Deacons were forced to play on Tuesday because it was one of the last teams into the tournament. For the 11-seed Deacs, the big dance lasted only one night, with a 95-88 defeat at the hands of Kansas State.
Tuesday – Eight teams left.
In an uncharacteristically and unpredictably predictable first true day of the NCAA Tournament, Thursday saw four ACC teams take the court.
The No. 5 seed Virginia Cavaliers from the East Region matched up with upset-minded and dangerous mid-major UNC-Wilmington in the first round. In a game that many believed could go either way, Virginia guard Marial Shayok banked home a clutch jumper with just under 30 seconds remaining to seal the 76-71 win.
Also playing on Thursday in the first round was No. 9 seed Virginia Tech. The Hokies went one-and-done in its first tourney since 2007, falling 84-74 to a grossly underseeded Wisconsin team.
Fresh off its ACC tournament runner-up finish, No. 5 seed Notre Dame nearly blew its first-round matchup to No. 12 seed Princeton. The Ivy-league champion Tigers came one 3-point clunk off the rim from upsetting the Irish, ultimately falling 60-58.
The final ACC team to play Thursday was the No. 3 seed Florida State. The Seminoles matched up with Florida Gulf Coast in Orlando. The sunshine state themed matchup stayed true to the hype, with Florida State moving on in the 86-80 thriller.
Thursday – Seven teams left.
Friday saw the remaining four ACC teams take the court in Miami, Louisville, Duke and UNC.
No. 8 seed Miami was utterly dominated by No. 9 seed Michigan State in its first-round game. Tom Izzo’s Spartans took the lead with 4:19 remaining in the first half and never looked back, sending the Hurricanes packing 78-58.
Louisville, the No. 2 seed from the Midwest Region, used an all-around team performance to avoid the upset and handily dispatch Jacksonville State 78-63 in Indianapolis.
No. 2 seed and reigning ACC Tournament champions Duke had no trouble in its first-round game, routing No. 15 seed Troy 87-65. The No. 1 seed from the South Region Tar Heels followed suit, romping Texas Southern 103-64.
With the first round in the books, the ACC had fared well, surviving all upset bids and having only three teams sent home.
Friday- Six teams left.
Saturday was not a good day for the ACC, as two teams many saw as potential Final Four contenders exited the tournament. The conference went a combined 0-3 on the day.
First up, Notre Dame was quite simply manhandled by No. 4 seed West Virginia. The Mountaineers led wire-to-wire en route to an 83-71 win over the Irish.
The first real ACC upset came when No. 3 seed Florida State fell by 25 points to No. 11 seed Xavier. The Seminoles were outplayed in every phase of the game by the Musketeers, who reached the Sweet 16 after two-straight upsets.
Both Notre Dame and Florida State were popular picks to win the West Region over No. 1 seed Gonzaga.
Finally, No. 5 seed Virginia matched up with No. 4 seed Florida in the second round. After the final buzzer sounded, the Cavaliers had managed to score only 39 points. Virginia’s season-long struggle to score caught up with them, and Tony Bennett’s team left the tourney after a disgraceful 65-39 mauling to the Gators.
And so, after a promising first round saw six ACC teams remaining in the field, Saturday promptly cut that number in half, raising some eyebrows and leaving many brackets busted.
Saturday – Three teams left.
Sunday marked both the end of the first weekend of NCAA tournament games and the second round.
No. 2 Louisville was the next check on No. 7 seed Michigan’s win streak. The Wolverines came back from an 8-point halftime deficit to unseat the Cardinals 73-69 and reach the Sweet 16 while extending its win streak to seven.
Hall of Fame Mike Krzyzewski’s red-hot Duke Blue Devils suddenly and inexplicably imploded Sunday evening when they were upset by No. 7 seed South Carolina in the second round 88-81.
Duke’s peculiar season, which began as NCAA title favorites, roller-coastered through the regular season with injuries and suspensions, then put it all together to win the ACC Tournament, ended much earlier than was expected. The Blue Devils 5-1 odds to cut the nets in Arizona were the best of any team in the field.
The lone team to reach the Sweet 16 in the ACC was none other than NC State’s archrival, the Tar Heels. The 72-65 victory over No. 8 Arkansas was anything but easy for Roy Williams and company; though, as the Heels had to come back from 5 down with under three minutes remaining to advance to the next round.
ACC teams after Sunday (second round) – one.
With the second round in the books, the powerful ACC and its nine NCAA bids has been reduced to one school. What many experts believed could easily be a three-ACC Final Four turned into a one-ACC Sweet 16.
With the surprising turn of events for the conference, many skeptics will no doubt begin to question the legitimacy of the ACC’s claim to college basketball’s best conference. Seeing as the conference underperformed in the first weekend, those doubts have every right to surface.
