The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is back, or at least it has North Carolina, Duke, and Virginia in the national focus again. After the 2019 season where these three teams were all one seeds in the NCAA tournament and Virginia won the event, they all took a step back. North Carolina had Roy Williams from 2003 until he retired in 2021 after a loss to Wisconsin in the first round of the tournament with a final record of 18-11. Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) retired in 2022 after 42 years at Duke with five national titles. Finally, Virginia’s Tony Bennett retired before the start of last season after getting the Cavaliers a national title in 2019 with one of the most impressive runs in recent history. With these coaching giants leaving the conference alongside legends like Jim Boeheim at Syracuse, another member of the ACC, and Jay Wright at Villanova, college basketball has lost a lot of its coaching personalities. It does now, however, seem like the North Carolina Tar Heels, Duke Blue Devils, and Virginia Cavaliers have found the coaches they need for the future. There was some question over if the Tar Heels coach of the future should be Hubert Davis after a first round exit last year.
16th in the Associated Press (AP) poll, North Carolina has shown some areas of concern this season and has had two rough patches in their schedule so far. The Tar Heels lost at Southern Methodist University, Stanford, and the University of California Berkeley in early January. Then over the last week North Carolina lost to Miami, beat Pittsburgh 79-66, and lost to North Carolina State this past Tuesday 82-58. The Tar Heels now have a record of 20-6 and they are tied for sixth in the ACC with a record of 8-5. The Tar Heels still have some quality wins over the Kansas Jayhawks, a road win at Virginia, and a win against their most hated rival Duke. So things are not as bad as they could be for the Heels, but concern could be growing for them if they fail to win a game they have no business losing.
As for North Carolina’s biggest rival, third-ranked in AP poll, the Duke Blue Devils have been the best overall team in the ACC. With their record being 24-2, they have dominated the competition and led the ACC standings all season. With Cameron Boozer leading the team in points, assists, and rebounds, Duke has not lost the stars they would get with Coach K. Jon Scheyer has come to Durham and brought the Blue Devils back into the spotlight. After his first two seasons with nine losses each, last season he took Duke to the Final Four. This team has high expectations for the rest of this season. The Blue Devils have two high profile home games approaching, 14th-ranked Virginia on February 28, and 16th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, March 7.
As for Virginia, they have a 22-3 record, 10-2 in the ACC in Ryan Odom’s first year as coach. Odom came from VCU and was the coach who led the UMBC Retrievers to the first 16 seed win over a one seed against the Cavaliers in 2018. He was a solid choice from the state to follow Tony Bennett and so far he has delivered what the Cavaliers have been wanting. With three losses this season, Virginia is currently second in the ACC and has an ACC title in their minds. The Cavaliers’ conference losses came from an away loss to the Virginia Tech Hokies in Blacksburg on New Year’s Eve and a home loss to North Carolina on January 24. They will have a chance at redemption on March 7, when they face the Hokies in Charlottesville.
While Virginia, Duke, and North Carolina have some of the best programs in the conference, Clemson, Miami, and Louisville have all had solid seasons. These teams are going to be competing for an ACC tournament title and will certainly be tough outs. In Joe Lunardi’s Bracketology on ESPN’s website, he has 8 ACC teams in the 68 team NCAA tournament field. SMU and North Carolina State have both had hit or miss success throughout the season but do appear alongside the best teams in the conference. With about three weeks left in the regular season, the tournament field will start to become clearer, but that does not guarantee anything. With conference tournaments starting in the last week of February, every team in the lower half of the projected bracket should be worried about the bid thieves that are common in March. From Boston to San Francisco, South Bend, Indiana to Miami, all 18 teams will be looking towards Charlotte for the ACC tournament. Whoever wins the ACC this year will likely get good positioning in the NCAA tournament this March, which could make a difference for a conference who is still recovering from the bad press it has received over the past five seasons. When the ACC has their best programs good, the conference is its most entertaining, and an entertaining ACC is great for college basketball.
