Throughout the season, many people around the country talked down on the ACC’s level of play.
The conference earned five bids to the NCAA Tournament, with North Carolina making the dance as a 1-seed, Duke as a four, Clemson as a 6, NC State as an 11, and Virginia as a ten seed playing in the First Four.
After Virginia embarrassed the league with a rough loss to Colorado State in the First Four, the rest of the ACC squads in the tournament field all found success early. North Carolina rolled over Wagner in a 16 vs. 1 matchup. NC State beat No. 6 seed Texas Tech by 13 points. Duke took care of Vermont, 64-47. Clemson easily handled No. 11 New Mexico, winning 77-56.
The ACC, the Big East, and the PAC 12 were the three best conferences in round of 64 action, going undefeated. The Big 12 went 5-3, the Big 10 went 4-2, and the SEC went 3-5 in the first round.
One of the league’s that was often mentioned as a better league than the ACC was the Mountain West — whose teams went just 2-3 in the first round.
To look even further into the ACC’s success in March, Learfield’s Tim Leonard broke down the conference-by-conference record breakdowns in all of NCAA Tournament play since 2019.
The ACC led the way with a 64.7% winning percentage, while the Big 12 (63.3%), Big East (60%), and SEC (52.9%) trailed behind. The Mountain West, as noted by Leonard, is just 7-16 in NCAA Tournament play since 2019.
NET EXPOSED AS BS
Total BS!!! Once again the “know it alls” were wrong. Not sure who determines this crap. SEC is doing really well, NOT!!! They really need to look at end of year win/loss more than total record, like they used to.
However, Pitt did it to themselves early in the year – not being focused.
H2P!!!
Think it was more inexperience than lack of focus, but you’re right, with so called poor metrics Pitt’s season was doomed no matter how well they played once the team developed the proper chemistry to win.
Who talked up the Mountain West Conference? The selection committee’s newest member, our very own Scott Barnes, former Pitt AD and now Oregon State AD. Next year OSU of the PAC 2 joins the MWC. Coincidence the MWC got talked up? This is the AD who hired Kevin Stalling without running it through the advisory committee. We all saw how that worked out. We need the word to get back to the selection committee to end his run of favoritism.
You are so right, and so was Capel who kept saying to look at how the MWC and SEC do in the tournament compared to the ACC. If the committee really understood basketball, Pitt would have replaced Virginia to represent the ACC. But, looking at head-to-head (which Pitt won) doesn’t seem to be a consideration. And besides Scott Barnes, the great and powerful Bracketologists kept pushing the same narrative all year. 2024-25 goal needs to be to win the ACC tournament!
Get JMU into the ACC! Excellent university with great athletics right in the conference footprint. Why bring in new members from 3,000 miles away?
Playing devils advocate, minus the final four, maybe up to the elite 8, the W-L record in the earlier rounds by conference isn’t all that indicative of conference power. In a single elimination tournament, there is so much luck involved that better teams lose to worse teams all the time. You’ll never get a, who is the best conference; at best, you get a who is the best in the tournament, which isn’t really what the selection committee is picking, they are picking, relative, best in the regular season.
Valid points for any single year, but when examining the tournament over several seasons, I think that a valid argument for conference strength can be made.
I think that’s an over generalization. I don’t have the data to sway me one way or the other, but there are so many variables. What are the average seeds a conference receives? Who are they matching up against, both considering the seed, then considering the relative strength of season? I’m not sitting here pretending the ACC is outside of the top 3 conferences, but arguing the ACC deserved more teams this year because the Mountain West Lost most of their first round games isn’t all that convincing given the randomness that goes with a single elim. tournament. If you… Read more »
Exactly, then why the extreme bias, if it’s luck?
Basketball, like most other sports, is about momentum. I’m not sure why they don’t look at last 1/4 of the games played with more favoritism.
H2P!!!
Not sure what bias you are referencing, the bias toward B12 or other conferences not the ACC? Basketball is huge on momentum, but that doesn’t always mean much. Look at Auburn this year, won their conference tournament then got upset by a 13 seed, meanwhile NC State won the ACC and then pulled another upset in the R64. I can’t conceive of any metric that would allow us to predict the randomness of that outcome. Both teams with high momentum with 2 drastically different results. And it can work both ways, I’ve seen teams with terrible ends to the regular… Read more »
NC St. was the 10th best team in the ACC. They are in the sweet 16. Pitt should have been in the dance s the ACC 4 seed and wake did too at 5. That is quality league depth ignored. Let’s make sure Mississippi St and Boise St are in though lol. Total joke.
Using NC State as an example isn’t proving much. The likelihood of any team doing what NC State is doing is miniscule. NC State is doing something truly special this season. Before the ACC tourney, they were not playing well and were not a tournament team. They truly used the ACC tournament as the start of a new season and found a rhythm they hadn’t had all year long. The ACC is certainly a great conference, and has great depth. Like I mentioned in a previous post, there were so many teams performing at such a high level, at a… Read more »