It was halfway through March when the ACC went from a punching bag to delivering punch lines.
Miami’s Jim Larrañaga, fresh off a win over Iowa State in Chicago that propelled his underdog Hurricanes into the NCAA tournament’s Elite 8 for the first time, took the occasion to set up his own joke after the league had been pilloried all season for its lack of top teams.
When the NCAA tournament played out, No. 2-seed Duke and No. 8 North Carolina joined No. 10 Miami giving the ACC three of the final eight teams.
“We had a down year,” Larrañaga said with a wry grin. “Normally we would have four or five.”
Then he paused.
“Okay. Somebody laughed at that.” he cracked.
The ACC, long a standard-bearer as college basketball’s top conference, found itself in unfamiliar territory when the NCAA tournament began. Throughout most of the season, the league only had one team — Duke — ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.
UNC returned to the poll on March 8, at No. 25, after it beat Duke, 94-81, in the regular-season finale. But the Tar Heels dropped back out after losing, 72-59, to Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament.
But the five ACC teams that made the tournament’s field of 68 did major damage. UNC and Duke both made the Final Four, with the Tar Heels winning an epic semifinal battle against the Blue Devils to reach Monday night’s NCAA tournament championship game.
Even with UNC’s 72-69 loss to Kansas in the title game, the ACC’s five teams — Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, Miami, Duke and UNC — racked up an impressive 14-5 record in NCAA tournament play.
By contrast, the Big Ten had nine teams make the field, but only two, Purdue and Michigan, survived the first weekend. Both were knocked out in the Sweet 16, with Villanova beating Michigan and Saint Peter’s upsetting Purdue.
Six SEC teams made the field and only one, Arkansas, made it past the first weekend. Duke eliminated the Razorbacks, 78-69, in the West Regional final and moved on to the Final Four.
ACC men, women make deep runs
According to Ken Pomeroy’s advanced analytics, the Big 12, SEC, Big Ten and Big East were all considered better conferences than the ACC in his rating system this season.
But, the NCAA tournament allowed the ACC to flex its muscle and make a statement about its power once again.
“Obviously I thought the ACC was pretty good,” Duke center Mark Williams said during the tournament’s first weekend in Greenville, South Carolina, as ACC teams kept advancing. “I think people are starting to see that a little bit more with the tournament going well.”
In women’s basketball, the ACC put one team in the Final Four as Louisville advanced to the national semifinals before losing to eventual national champion South Carolina.
N.C. State was a No. 1 seed before a double-overtime loss to UConn in a game played in Bridgeport, Connecticut, kept the Wolfpack from its first Final Four appearance since 1998. North Carolina’s women’s team advanced to the Sweet 16 before being eliminated in Greensboro by the eventual champion Gamecocks.
ACC men’s basketball produced two Final Four teams for the first time since 2016, when UNC and Syracuse both made it that far. Since then, the league also produced national champions in 2017 (UNC) and 2019 (Virginia).
Also in the 2019 tournament, the ACC saw three of its teams — Duke, UNC and Virginia — anointed as No. 1 seeds in their regions.
After the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 NCAA tournament to be canceled, the ACC placed seven teams in the 2021 tournament field. But only two — Florida State and Syracuse — survived the opening two rounds and they were both eliminated in the Sweet 16.
From early slump to the NCAA title game
With the league’s early-season struggles this past November and December against nonconference competition, it looked like the ACC was in a full-fledged slump compared to the other conferences.
But the NCAA tournament has eased those concerns.
“All during the season, I tried to explain that our league is really, really good,” Larrañaga said. “And everybody recognizes that Duke and Carolina, those programs are traditionally very, very strong. But the other teams in our league are very, very talented, very deep, have great coaches. And our games -- we played like 17 or 18 games decided on the last possession. There’s a reason for that. That opponent that we were playing was really good too.
“But very proud of being a part of the ACC. It’s always been my favorite league. And it’s going to continue to be.”
