The ACC tourney starts Thursday here in Charlotte. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that as strong as UNC and Duke are, the ACC is probably looking at getting four teams into the NCAA tournament.
UNC, Duke, Clemson are all going to the NCAA tourney. Period.
Miami with, as of right now, the 28th highest RPI would also be in the Big Dance if the bids were being handed out right now. They aren’t though and Miami can still play themselves out of that NCAA at-large bid. There’s nothing like a loss to the bottom seed in your conference tourney to do that, especially the way some of the other conference tournaments have been breaking. And as the 5th seed, Miami does play bottom (12th) seeded N.C. State on Thursday. Does N.C. State have some ACC tourney mojo for the second year in a row? And will Sydney Lowe be wearing his red blazer on Thursday? Stay tuned…
Virginia Tech, Florida State, and Maryland all have a lot of work to do to get in the NCAAs – we’re talking beating a team or two and then UNC or Duke and making the finals. And even that might not be enough given teams that have done more so far like South Alabama, VCU, and both Gonzaga and St.Mary’s being dumped into the at-large pool in the past two days.
As for the rest, it’s win four games in Charlotte or watch the NCAAs on TV.
Bonus observation: For sheer insanity, does any conference top the Atlantic 10? They could get three or four teams in the NCAAs, they could just get one with that one being Xavier.
