Virginia took its well-deserved body blows after a pitiful performance in a blowout, First Four loss to Colorado State. Since then, the ACC has been the biggest March Madness winner. The four ACC teams who made the field of 64 have cruised into the Sweet 16. No other conference had more teams advancing to the second weekend.
And they all did it in a convincing fashion.
Top-seeded North Carolina punked Michigan State with a devastating 17-0 run in Sunday’s 85-69, second-round victory. Duke put James Madison in a blender with a barrage of Jared McCain triples in the 93-55 rout. Sixth-seeded Clemson unleashed the best 80 minutes of basketball it had played all year right after its worst 40 minutes of basketball in the ACC Tournament loss to Boston College.
And then there is N.C. State. Seven games and seven wins in 11 days isn’t anything for the big, bad DJ Burns who cooked both Texas Tech and Oakland to lead the formerly left-for-dead Wolfpack to the second weekend.
It’s the second time in the last three years that the ACC has flexed on its counterparts with four of its five entrants making the second weekend, and it has kickstarted a firestorm of dialogue around the ACC’s place in the college basketball pecking order.
The ACC owned the fifth-highest rating in college basketball this year, per KenPom, behind the Big 12, Big East, SEC and Big Ten.
Expanding it – vs. other top 10 leagues (add WCC, A10, Amer, MW)
Big 12: 43-29 (59.7%)
SEC: 51-39 (56.7%)
Big East: 35-29 (54.7%)
Big Ten: 32-31 (50.8%)
ACC: 41-40 (50.6%)
Pac-12: 24-39 (38.1%)Again, Big 12 clearly best
(Data in last two tweets thanks to @dadgumboxscores)
— Jim Root (@2ndChancePoints) January 31, 2024
But we’re missing the forest in the trees. The top of the ACC was always good this season.
North Carolina, Duke and Clemson formed as good a Big Three that you’ll find in any league outside of the Big East. That part has been lost in translation. The bottom of the ACC was not good enough, period. First-year coaches at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame, predictably, struggled, but Miami regressed heavily and Louisville made little-to-no progress.
That’s a fact.
The top of the ACC is also as good as the rest of its counterparts.
Both can be (and are) true.
N.C. State is the outlier. This run is legendary and it’s the stuff that makes March simply the best. Wake Forest could make a case it’s more talented than N.C. State. Steve Forbes genuinely believes if Wake Forest had gotten in the field, it could have made a similar type of run toward the second weekend just like Kevin Keatts’ crew. It’s hard to argue. Hunter Sallis, Efton Reid, Cam Hildreth, Boopie Miller and Andrew Carr had flashes where it looked as dangerous as anybody.
But don’t be fooled.
The strength of Clemson, North Carolina and Duke in March wouldn’t have made N.C. State’s resume a tournament team if it had bowed out early in the ACC Tournament. It went 1-3 against the ACC’s best three teams in the regular season and had zero non-conference wins to be proud of. None of that matters anymore because it secured the automatic bid and has uncorked a special, unforgettable run.
Postseason success for a league does not mean said league was deserving of more bids. It’s a case-by-case basis with a moving target and varying at-large bids available.
Florida Gulf Coast’s run to the Sweet 16 in 2013 didn’t mean the Atlantic Sun got shafted on Selection Sunday. Davidson’s run to the Elite Eight in 2008 didn’t mean that the Southern Conference deserved multiple at-large bids. Grand Canyon dominated Saint Mary’s and nearly knocked off Alabama on Sunday to advance to the Sweet 16. Does that mean multiple WAC teams deserved to make the cut? Of course not.
It’s separate conversations.
Clemson, North Carolina and Duke have advanced to the second weekend because they’re talented teams who are playing their best basketball at the best time, not because the ACC is the best basketball conference in the country and was egregiously disrespected.
That same Virginia club who got trounced by Colorado State won 13 games in the ACC, partially due to a scheduling break that allowed Tony Bennett’s squad to avoid playing Duke, Clemson or North Carolina twice. Virginia’s record is different if it has to play the ACC’s Big Three five times like Syracuse
N.C. State is a talented, veteran-laden team that got red-hot at just the right time. Those is ACC country believe Wake Forest could have made a similar run if it didn’t lose to Notre Dame and Georgia Tech down the stretch. It did, and the Demon Deacons got left out of the tournament.
It could have been Pitt if didn’t lose to Missouri at home or go 1-5 against the ACC’s best three teams.
Pitt and Wake Forest were not left out of the NCAA Tournament because of ACC bias. They didn’t take care of business, and bid thieves like Oregon, Duquesne, New Mexico and UAB shrunk an abnormally strong bubble. For all the shrapnel the Mountain West has taken for getting six teams in the NCAA Tournament and only one advancing to the second weekend (San Diego State), it was slated to only have five until New Mexico won the conference tournament and took its fate out of the committee’s hands. N.C. State did the same.
Pitt and Wake Forest did not.
It’s the cost of doing business. Pitt, who beat N.C. State twice, was totally capable of a Wolfpack-like run. Wake Forest, who beat N.C. State once, was totally capable of an Wolfpack-like run. But plenty of deserving teams didn’t make the Dance, just ask the Big East or Indiana State and our goggled king, Robbie Avila.
It’s a part of the Madness.
The ACC is winning in March because the top of the league is filled with really good players on really good teams.
The rest of the league has to catch up to its peers.
That means first-year coaches like Georgia Tech’s Damon Stoudamire, Notre Dame’s Micah Shrewsberry and Syracuse’s Adrian ‘Red’ Autry have to keep progressing. Miami has to bounce back in a hurry after an injury-laden, dreadful season. Florida State has to figure it out after three straight seasons of irrelevance. Albeit on different ends of the spectrum, both Louisville and Virginia have to figure it out.
There’s no conspiracy. There’s no ACC hit job. It’s simple: keep gettin’ better, so you can win in March, too.
