This marks the third consecutive basketball season that the national media, NET rankings and, eventually, the NCAA tournament selection committee have slighted the ACC. The sequencing has become familiar.
A less-than-stellar collective performance in nonconference games, followed by media criticism, poor rankings and historically low NCAA tournament representation. Throughout, ACC coaches and administrators have pushed back because, well, that’s what coaches and administrators do.
They say November and December’s results vs. difficult nonconference schedules aren’t nearly as revealing as January and February’s 20-game ACC gauntlet.
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And each March, their teams have, to varying degrees, backed them up. The first week of this year’s tournament was especially emphatic, calling into question the NET’s formula — large victory margins can artificially inflate ratings — and selection committee’s evaluations of ACC teams.
For its first eight seasons with 15 schools, 2014-2021, the ACC landed 6-9 teams in the NCAA bracket. The number dipped to five in each of the next three years, with Pitt this season and North Carolina and Clemson in 2023 among the last four clubs excluded.
The Panthers this year and Tar Heels and Tigers last season finished a combined 37-23 in the ACC.
“I’ve been a head coach for 22 years,” Clemson’s Brad Brownell said after his Tigers defeated Baylor in a second-round NCAA contest Sunday. “I know when I’m playing against good teams, well-coached teams. And so I’m not surprised in the least that our teams are doing so well.”
Clemson joins league rivals North Carolina, N.C. State and Duke in giving the ACC at least four teams in the Sweet 16 for the 12th time, the fifth time in the last nine tournaments. During that same nine-tournament span, no other conference has produced four regional semifinalists in the same season more than once.
The Big 12 did so in 2018, the SEC in ’19 and the Pac-12 in ’21, meaning the ACC’s five years with at least four Sweet 16 squads are more than all other conferences combined in the last nine tournaments.
That’s pretty darn impressive.
Also striking: Each of the ACC’s Triangle schools — N.C. State, Duke and UNC — are together in the Sweet 16 for a fourth time. The others were 1986, ’89 and 2015.
The ACC’s 8-1 NCAA tournament record this March — Virginia lost to Colorado State in the First Four — is reminiscent of 2016, when the league’s seven tournament teams went a combined 12-1 the opening weekend, giving the conference a record six regional semifinalists.
That 2016 tournament also featured an unprecedented two all-ACC Elite Eight games: Syracuse-Virginia and North Carolina-Notre Dame. This weekend could produce a sequel with Clemson-North Carolina and Duke-N.C. State regional finals.
North Carolina and Duke advancing this year shocked no one. They finished 1-2 in the ACC regular-season standings and are the NCAA tournament’s No. 4 and 13 overall seeds, respectively.
The Tar Heels play Alabama in a West Regional semifinal Thursday in Los Angeles. The Blue Devils encounter Houston in the South semis Friday in Dallas.
Clemson and N.C. State are the outliers. Indeed, the Tigers and Wolfpack are the only remaining teams that won last week as an underdog.
The ACC tournament champion no one saw coming, N.C. State was a first-round pup against Texas Tech, a second-round favorite over Oakland, which had upset Kentucky to advance. The Wolfpack face Marquette in Friday’s other South Regional semifinal.
Clemson was an underdog to New Mexico and Baylor and plays Arizona in Thursday’s West semis.
Like many March party crashers, Clemson and N.C. State have had players defy trends.
Wolfpack forward Mohamed Diarra had two double-doubles the entire regular season. He has four in the past five games, two each in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.
Tigers forward RJ Godfrey, a 59.6% free throw shooter, went 4 of 4 from the line in the final half-minute to secure the win over Baylor. Teammate Chase Hunter scored 21 points against New Mexico and 20 vs. Baylor after cracking 20 only once during the regular season.
“I think just the way that the league is set up, the way the league has so much talent, so many great coaches, it’s going to prepare you for moments like these,” Clemson guard Joe Girard said after the Baylor game. “That’s why I think we’re so successful year in and year out in this tournament.”
Miami was the lone ACC team to reach the Sweet 16 last season, but the Hurricanes then advanced to their first Final Four. Two years ago, Duke and North Carolina made the Final Four, Miami the Elite Eight.
Three seasons with just five bids, three tournament performances that belied the critics and metrics.
“Our league is really good,” N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts said. “One of the reasons why we’re playing good basketball is because we’re battle-tested (in the ACC).”
Too battle-tested?
The conference’s decline in NCAA bids coincides with the ACC expanding the league schedule from 18-20 games to create added inventory for the fledgling ACC Network. The decision curbed teams’ ability to improve their NET rankings during the nonconference portion of the season, either by playing even more top-shelf opponents to improve their strength of schedule or by crushing underfunded and overmatched teams to inflate their efficiency ratings.
ACC officials this winter adopted a 20-game model for next season, when the conference grows to 18 teams with the arrivals of Stanford, Southern Methodist and California. But a return to 18 games in 2025-26 and beyond is possible.
“I’ve been outspoken about disagreeing with some of the metrics and how the way teams are judged,” Brownell said. “I don’t know the best way to do it. I don’t have the answers. But I know … you’ve got to hold up the banner of your league a little bit.”