Duke vs. NC State in Elite Eight means an ACC staff will make Remaining 4 in a terrific NCAA Event for league

DALLAS — One of the best basketball convention in the course of the 2023-24 faculty basketball common season was objectively not the Atlantic Coast Convention. However the most effective displaying by any convention in the course of the 2023-24 NCAA Event, by nearly any measure, belongs to the ACC.

The beleaguered league — which had 4 groups with under .500 data within the common season and 7 groups that completed outdoors the top-80 of the NET, most amongst all main conferences — has three of the ultimate eight groups remaining on this 12 months’s March Insanity main into Saturday night time’s motion. It’s assured at the least one of many spots within the Remaining 4 with NC State and Duke dealing with one another Sunday within the South Regional remaining. And it might punch a ticket as early as Saturday night time as No. 6 seed Clemson appears to be like to make its first Remaining 4 when it faces No. 4 seed Alabama. 

Regardless of getting simply 5 bids to the NCAA Event, which was fifth-most amongst main conferences regardless of having essentially the most groups amongst main conferences, the ACC to this point has gone a mixed 11-2 general. Each ACC staff gained its first-round sport. Each ACC staff gained its second-round sport. And are available Monday, we very nicely may need a Remaining 4 comprising two ACC groups.

“I believe the ACC prepares you with the quantity of various opponents you see,” mentioned Duke coach Jon Scheyer on Friday, earlier than the Blue Devils upset No. 1 seed Houston in Dallas to earn an Elite Eight berth. “Like, that is a giant factor.”

NC State, the one double-digit seed nonetheless standing on this 12 months’s match which received into the sector as a No. 11 seed solely by advantage of successful the ACC Event, is the most effective instance of the league’s underrated depth and firepower that is made March mad this 12 months. No, the league didn’t price nicely in comparison with the likes of the Large 12, Large East and SEC. No query. And NC State was by no stretch worthy of an at-large. However the Wolfpack, who completed September 11 in ACC common season play, at the moment are 40 minutes away from the Remaining 4. Any argument that the league was prime heavy — whether or not honest or not — is invalidated by what two middle-of-the-pack groups (Clemson and NC State, which completed six and eight video games out of first place within the league, respectively) have made from themselves this March.

“I believe that the ACC is likely one of the finest conferences, if not the most effective convention,” mentioned NC State’s D.J. Burns Jr., who has been one of many breakout stars of the match. “I really feel like we’re not the one staff that took it with a degree of disrespect, and that is why we’re all preventing now.”

“I agree,” mentioned NC State’s Casey Morsell. “It 100% ready you, even from a physicality standpoint. We have been ready simply for lots of various issues that groups throw at us, whether or not it’s tremendous quick, tremendous gradual. That is sort of what has been a serious key for us to adapt with various things that the sport presents.”

2024 NCAA Event data by convention

By way of the Candy 16

So what offers? The league is top-heavy? That does not fairly maintain water with UNC getting bounced and two underdogs — NC State and Clemson — making the Elite Eight. However respectable bracketologists do not feel the league was slighted greater than every other league, both. Possibly you can make a case Pitt ought to have been included within the 68-team area, however no different staff was floating near the bubble by Choice Sunday. So was it top-heavy? Deep? Each? Neither? 

How did we misinterpret the ACC? Or did we in any respect?

Theories are wide-ranging however could come all the way down to scheduling and metrics that in the end damage the league’s standing within the broader ecosystem of the game. Scheyer summed it up properly Saturday by hitting on the apparent notes effervescent beneath the floor about how every staff is about up for fulfillment earlier than ACC play.

“I do not suppose as a league proper now we have discovered the best way to do our nonconference schedule,” Scheyer mentioned. “In case you have a look at a pair completely different leagues, they have been higher with that. And in the end you’ll be able to say it isn’t honest or no matter. However you must do what will qualify you for the match. That is one thing we have to get organized with and on the identical web page with: the place we put ourselves in as soon as we begin taking part in one another.”

There could also be one thing to that. TeamRankings.com has Duke, North Carolina and Clemson inside the highest 15 of its nonconference schedule rankings, which seemingly helped anchor the highest half of the league and may need contributed to the league’s notion of being prime heavy. As a result of the remainder? It is not too fairly, notably on the backside. Florida State rated 104th. Georgia Tech rated 128th. Notre Dame rated 205th. Louisville rated 218th. 

RPI rankings present the ACC was the No. 4 convention behind the Large 12, SEC and Large Ten.

There may be nuance required to elucidate the layers of why the ACC was not seen extremely amongst these with analytical views and there are circumstances for and towards why it’s overrated and why it’s underrated. Everybody has an opinion, and nobody is essentially improper. It is difficult. What’s not difficult is that the league for a second time in three years has three groups within the Elite Eight and is positioned to assert its sixteenth NCAA championship as a league — which might be essentially the most amongst all conferences. It did not have a terrific common season, however it’s performing proper now as the most effective within the postseason with three three groups nonetheless within the hunt to hold a banner.