The ACC Tournament is underway this week in Washington, DC. As the regular season champion, the Tar Heels enter the tourney as the top seed and a favorite to win their first conference title since 2016. Perhaps even more importantly, it’s a final chance for Carolina to show off to the NCAA tournament seeding committee, with another possible top seed on the line.
97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck previewed the tournament with longtime sports commentator and ACC expert David Glenn.
Click here to listen to their full conversation. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Aaron Keck: Carolina’s up to no. 4 in the national rankings, so they’re right on that line for a potential 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. They’ve certainly got that to play for – but in general, what, today, is the importance of the tournament for individual teams, for fans, for the conference as a whole? It feels very different now than 25 or 30 years ago.
David Glenn: It is different. Those who are old enough remember Dean Smith winning ACC tournaments in the 1970s and 80s, and then Carolina won several more in the 90s – but UNC has only won a single ACC tournament since 2008. That’s a long, long stretch. Roy Williams occasionally would joke that he saw the ACC tournament more as a cocktail party, and he shared Dean Smith’s view that the regular season title was actually more difficult because it valued your performance over multiple months. So the outlook has changed. I think fans’ attitude has changed. The popularity of the tournament is not quite what it once was. (But) I do remind people that just two years ago, Virginia Tech would not have been in the NCAA tournament unless they won the ACC tournament, which they did. So there’s that small number of schools where it really, really matters a lot.
Keck: Your latest column (discusses) that incredible run of many, many years where every single ACC final either had UNC or Duke in it. (But) as dominant as they’ve been, in the last 20 years they’ve only met once in the finals (in 2011).
Glenn: Yeah. I think it’s the most insane fact: there’s only two teams still standing at the end of this wild bracket, (and) if you watched every one from 1997 through 2019, that’s 23 years in a row, there was a 100 percent chance you would see either Duke or Carolina. That’s just as dominant as it gets, virtually anywhere in all of college sports.
Keck: And they’re certainly going to be odds-on favorites to meet in the finals again this year. But they’ve been odds-on favorites to meet in the finals in years past, and again, they’ve only met once in the finals in the last 20 years. So with that in mind: who else do you think actually has a chance of getting past one or the other and getting to the finals, if not winning it all?
Glenn: I think in part because they’re fighting for their NCAA tournament lives, but also in part because they’re quality basketball teams: Pitt and Wake Forest. (Wake guard) Hunter Sallis was just named first-team All-ACC, (Pitt forward) Blake Hinson was just named first-team All-ACC. But Wake has a heck of a starting lineup: it’s not just Hunter Sallis, it’s Andrew Carr down low, it’s Damari Monsanto off the bench, it’s Efton Reid and it’s Kevin Miller and Cam Hildreth. That’s six guys that can really play. You need depth (and) you need bucket makers to win the ACC tournament. And I think Pitt and Wake have enough of both of those things to at least make a run at – if not an ACC title, at least enough wins to get them into the Big Dance.
Keck: Do you have a pick for who actually does win?
Glenn: You’re not going to like this, but I think there is some truth to the difficulty of beating the same team three times, in case the Heels and the Devils do meet again in that ACC title game. And I (also) think the tar heels have a much harder draw. You’re supposed to be rewarded with an easier draw when you earn the top seed – but Duke’s possible semifinal opponent is Virginia, which is simply not a very good offensive team this year, and Duke’s quarterfinal opponent would be Syracuse or NC State. Much easier than the Heels’ possible semifinal opponent, which would be Pitt or Wake Forest – and even the Heels’ possible quarterfinal opponent, if Virginia Tech beats Florida State, the Hokies to me are the scariest low seed in this field. They have two veteran guards that are really good and the Hokies just haven’t played to their potential. So if you ask me which schedule would I rather play, give me Duke’s schedule over Carolina’s by a thousand miles. That’s why I think Duke is the best bet.
Keck: Everyone loves to remember ACC tournaments past. What’s your favorite ACC tournament memory from years past?
Glenn: Maybe it was because I was such a young guy, but I saw the ACC title game in 1988 between Duke and Carolina. I was a college student and I couldn’t believe – I mean, we’re spoiled around here. I grew up in Philadelphia, where college basketball is not always the biggest thing in the world, and here I am with Coach K at Duke and Dean Smith in Carolina, and all these other amazing coaches. And then I see Duke and Carolina, two of the most famous programs ever, going head to head in the Greensboro Coliseum for the ACC title. And at that time, unlike now, those players didn’t like each other very much. <laugh> Nowadays, they go to the same parties and they go to the same barber and they hug each other after the game. Those guys wanted to kill each other. <laugh> And I’ll never, I’ll never forget that 1988 title game where the Devils did beat the Heels. It was just as intense as anything I’ve seen since then. And maybe that’s why it’s just emblazoned on my brain, as the perfect symbolism for the greatness of the ACC Tournament.
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