Author: Shelby Mast and Scott Gleeson / Source: USA TODAY
The ACC isn’t having its best college basketball season. The perennial powerhouse league ranks fourth among seven power conferences in the overall NET — the NCAA’s new metric replacing the RPI. The ACC has been a top-two conference during the last half-decade.
At the top, however, the ACC has three of the best teams in the country – Duke, Virginia and North Carolina. The Blue Devils and Cavaliers are No. 1 seeds in USA TODAY Sports’ latest bracket projection, with Duke’s convincing road victory in Charlottesville this past weekend bolstering its résumé, while hardly harming Virginia’s.
The NCAA committee’s early bracket reveal, which unveiled a snapshot of the top 16 seeds Saturday, also showed another team quietly vying for a No. 1 seed — North Carolina (the Tar Heels are the third No. 2 seed on our bracket). UNC hosts Virginia Monday in an ACC matchup that could determine whether the ACC notches three No. 1 seeds. Only once in the tournament’s history have three teams held top seeds — the old Big East in 2009 before it disbanded.
Even if Roy Williams’ team beats Virginia, it’s still an uphill battle considering that two other contending No. 2 seeds, Kentucky and Michigan, are losses on UNC’s profile. But the interesting case for the Tar Heels, who survived a scare in overtime vs. last-place Miami on Saturday, is they have more key opportunities to boost their credentials than the Wildcats or Wolverines. After Virginia,…
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