After what some people have called the ACC basketball season a ‘down year’, the regular season has ended and is now time for the conference tournament in Brooklyn. The defending champion, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, come into this year’s tournament as the #14 seed and will play Louisville on Tuesday night. As of this Monday, the only ranked teams in the conference are Duke and North Carolina. It is very surprising because the ACC is usually one of more dominant conferences in college basketball, but there have been some teams that have struggled in previous years and are playing better basketball.
One of the teams that has surprised everyone in the ACC this year is Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are the #5 seed this week in Brooklyn and are having a phenomenal year under first year head coach Steve Forbes. Alondes Williams is one of the top guards for the Demon Deacons, being named ACC Player of the Year on Monday right before the start of the tournament. Forbes has done a fantastic job this season as Wake Forest is looking to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. The Demon Deacons have knocked off North Carolina this season and almost beat Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Another team that has surprised people this season is Miami. The Hurricanes will be the #4 seed for the tournament this year, and if the chalk holds up, they will face Wake Forest in the quarterfinals on Thursday afternoon. Led by Isaiah Wong and Charlie Moore, the ‘Canes have knocked off Duke and North Carolina this season and are in position to get a high seed in the NCAA Tournament next week.
A surging team in the conference is North Carolina. The Tar Heels picked up a valuable win on Saturday night against Duke in Coach K’s final home game. Armando Bacot and Brady Manek are playing at a very high level, and I think they will be key pieces if Carolina is able to advance far into the NCAA Tournament. Coach Hubert Davis, in his first year, has exceeded expectations and now the Tar Heels are in a great position to make some noise in March.
Studying the bracket, I think several teams can make big runs, like Wake Forest, Miami and UNC, but the team I think that will cut the nets down in Brooklyn is Duke. After the tough loss last Saturday, Duke will be hungry to get several victories in the ACC Tournament and lock up a #2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. The key for Duke is to get A.J. Griffin the ball more and to play better defense, particularly on the perimeter. Duke’s defense gave up a way to make points in the second half on Saturday night (55), and they let Manek and R.J. Davis basically take over during the final ten minutes of the game. If Duke is going to win this year’s ACC Tournament, they need to take care of the basketball, play pick-and-rolls a lot better, and also get Griffin and Mark Williams the basketball on the block and even on the elbow to have chances to score. The ACC Tournament is one of my favorite sporting events and I can’t wait to follow all of the action this week.
My pick to win the ACC Tournament: Duke