Holding Court: A Stunning Streak

Miami Extends Stunning ACC-NCAA Streak; 12 of Sweet 16 Seeking Initial National Title

By David Glenn

 

The starting point for the sterling, long-term reputation of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball is simple: national championships, meaning lots of ‘em.

While it’s true that two of the last three ACC seasons (2020-21 and 2022-23) have been disappointing overall, it’s also true that the league’s current members recently have been winning the national championship almost half the time. That’s a stunning accomplishment.

There are 32 conferences in Division I men’s basketball, yet over the last 13 NCAA Tournaments, for example, the count reads: Current ACC Members-6, The Other 31 Leagues Combined-7. This counts Louisville’s title in 2013, one year before the Cardinals’ ACC entry.

Thanks to Duke (2010, 2015), Louisville (2013), North Carolina (2009, 2017) and Virginia (2019), “current ACC members” have won two of the last five NCAA championships, three of the last seven, four of the last nine, and six of the last 13. Again, that’s almost half the time.

“I’m disappointed that the ACC is not given the respect I think it’s due. I think we’ve got a great league,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said last week, before his Hurricanes became the league’s only Sweet 16 entry in this year’s NCAA Tournament. “We had the preseason #1 team in the country in North Carolina; they did not have the year that people expected them to have, but they’re still pretty darn good. So is Duke. So is Virginia. We’ve got a lot of good teams.”

Even when you stretch the timetable on this topic, the numbers remain amazing. Going all the way back to 1980, for example, current ACC members have won 16 of 42 NCAA titles; that’s more than 38%, from a single league’s current membership, over more than four decades. As legendary broadcaster Dick Vitale might say, that’s awesome, baby, with a capital “A.”

The backdrop to the ACC’s cut-down-the-nets success includes consistency and variety leading up to the Final Four. (Please click here for the ACC’s amazing, modern-day Sweet 16 representation chart.) Fourteen of the 15 current ACC members (all but Pittsburgh), for example, have represented the league in the Sweet 16, even though six of those schools were added only within the last two decades.

The ACC’s unprecedented postseason consistency is reflected in the chart, too.

Consider this hard-to-believe symbol of true excellence: Since the elimination of the NCAA Tournament’s bids-per-conference restrictions in the 1970s, there has NEVER been a Sweet 16 held without at least one ACC member as a part of it, and most have included several.

Much was made of Miami’s 85-69 win over Indiana on Sunday, and deservedly so, in large part because the ACC’s other four NCAA Tournament entries already had been eliminated in the first (NC State, Virginia) or second (Duke, Pittsburgh) round of this year’s event.

The Hurricanes’ resulting berth in the Midwest regional semifinals kept alive the ACC’s stunning Sweet 16 streak, extending it to 44 years and 43 consecutive tournaments. Reminder: Because of COVID-19, there was no NCAA Tournament in 2020.

One aspect of Miami’s Sweet 16 bid that received less attention is that the ACC’s ongoing streak is so much longer than those of the other top conferences. Indeed, it is more than twice as long as the longest such streaks in the history of the Big East (20), Big Ten (20) and SEC (19).

Longest Sweet 16 Streaks In History

(By Conference)

ACC — 43 (1980-present)

Big 12 — 24 (1999-present)

Big East — 20 (1994-2013)

Big Ten — 20 (1975-94)

SEC — 19 (1990-2008)

Meanwhile, although most college basketball fans probably would guess correctly that Duke and North Carolina lead the ACC in terms of both all-time and recent Sweet 16 trips, how many would have known that Miami and Syracuse are next-best on that latter (recent) list?

Kudos to Larranaga, 73, who also famously led George Mason (a #11 seed!) to the Final Four in 2006, for taking Miami to the Sweet 16 in four of the last 10 NCAA Tournaments. Similarly, 78-year-old Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim took the Orange to four of the last 10 Sweet 16s, although he missed the Big Dance entirely in the final two seasons before his recent retirement.

Georgia Tech (since 2004), Wake Forest (2004), Boston College (2006) and Pittsburgh (2009) are the ACC members with the longest active Sweet 16 droughts.

Sweet 16s/Last 10 Tournaments

(Current ACC Members; 2013-23)

Duke — 6 (2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2022)

UNC — 5 (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022)

Miami — 4 (2013, 2016, 2022, 2023)

Syracuse — 4 (2013, 2016, 2018, 2021)

Florida State — 3 (2018, 2019, 2021)

Louisville — 3 (2013, 2014, 2015)

Virginia — 3 (2014, 2016, 2019)

Notre Dame — 2 (2015, 2016)

Clemson — 1 (2018)

NC State — 1 (2015)

Virginia Tech — 1 (2019)

Boston College — 0

Georgia Tech — 0

Pittsburgh — 0

Wake Forest — 0

Sweet 16 Includes 12 Seeking First Title

Last year’s Final Four in New Orleans consisted entirely of blue-blood programs that already had captured multiple NCAA titles: UNC (six), Duke (five), Kansas (three) and Villanova (three). The Jayhawks, of course, now have four championships, after cutting down the nets last April.

This year’s Final Four in Houston already is guaranteed to include at least two programs that have never won an NCAA title (look at the eight teams left in the Midwest and South regions), and it’s possible that all four finalists will be seeking their initial national championship.

Upon the creation of the NCAA Tournament, of course, almost every champion was a first-time winner, simply because it was a brand-new event. Indeed, from 1939-48, nine of those 10 victors were making such history for the first time. That sort of trend just doesn’t happen anymore.

Over time, naturally, there are fewer candidates for that sort of maiden voyage, especially when you consider that the last 31 national champions have come from the same six conferences: the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12. That means the other 26 leagues combined, whose current memberships add up to 285 schools, haven’t won any NCAA titles since UNLV (then in the Big West, now in the Mountain West) cut down the nets in 1990.

While even today only 15 of the 363 Division I programs (including the Triangle trio of UNC-six, Duke-five and NC State-two) can claim multiple NCAA titles, the total number of schools with at least one national championship has grown to 38. That’s exactly half the number of teams (76) that currently comprise the “Big Six” of the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12.

Here are the 2023 Sweet 16 participants, by region, with each program’s number of NCAA titles.

2023 Sweet 16 (With All-Time NCAA Titles)

East — Tennessee-0/Florida Atlantic-0 and Kansas State-0/Michigan State-2

Midwest — Houston-0/Miami-0 and Texas-0/Xavier-0

South — Alabama-0/San Diego State-0 and Creighton-0/Princeton-0

West — Connecticut-4/Arkansas-1 and UCLA-11/Gonzaga-0

This means the Midwest and South regions definitely will be represented by a potential first-time champion, and the East probably will be represented by a potential first-time champion. (Kansas State and Tennessee are both higher seeds than Michigan State.) If the Spartans fall short and somehow Gonzaga survives in the West, the Final Four would consist entirely of new-blood programs for the first time since 1990.

At the 1990 Final Four, Arkansas, Duke, Georgia Tech and UNLV all were seeking their first NCAA title. The Runnin’ Rebels captured the crown that year, and two others from that quartet weren’t far behind. The Blue Devils claimed their first national championship the very next year, in 1991, then repeated in 1992. The Razorbacks won their first (and still only) title in 1994. The Yellow Jackets are still seeking their first crown, 33 years after that Final Four trip.

The NCAA Tournament recently went 12 straight years (2007-2018) without a first-time winner, but two of the last three national champs fit the description: Virginia in 2019 and Baylor in 2021.

(featured image: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File)

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