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How good is 2021 ACC basketball? We don’t know the precise answer, but we do know that Duke and North Carolina aren’t carrying the freight for the conference. Typically, when ACC basketball is at its best (or close to it), the Blue Devils and Tar Heels have teams which will be top-two seeds on Selection Sunday, with a third team (Virginia has been that team in recent years) joining the fray as a legitimate Final Four contender.
The fact that North Carolina and Duke are scrambling right now — with no assurance of being in the Big Dance (and Duke being unlikely to make the field at this point) — could lead many observers to say that the ACC is a bad league this season. That might be true… but let’s not let the label on the soup can hold too much influence over this discussion.
Yes, the ACC doesn’t look overwhelmingly great right now, but we have a month and a half in which the conference can reshape perceptions.
So what if North Carolina or Duke might have to play in an 8-versus-9 ACC Tournament game? So what if the blue-blood teams in the conference aren’t thriving? We saw Florida State win the ACC last year. The Seminoles had a great chance to make the Final Four and represent the ACC.
So what if a non-blue-blood program is in the Final Four? That doesn’t count less than a Duke, UNC, or Virginia appearance.
Similarly, what difference does it make if Pittsburgh or Georgia Tech get the NCAA Tournament bids Syracuse and Notre Dame would have gained in previous years? It’s a weird ACC leaderboard right now — no one disputes that — but that fact, in itself, doesn’t make this a down year for the conference.
What matters — and what will determine how this season’s ACC crop is judged — is whether the four to five teams below Virginia and Florida State are able to round into form as consistent, dependable teams.
Saturday was not a good day for that group. Virginia Tech got whacked. Pittsburgh stumbled at Wake Forest. Georgia Tech played well for 35 minutes but not all 40 against Virginia, and failed to close the sale on what would have been a monster win.
Are things trending in the right direction for ACC basketball in 2021? No… unless you live in Charlottesville or especially Tallahassee. We’re not going to pretend everything is fine and that you should just move along, with nothing to see here.
Yet, let’s not overreact to what’s happening. Less traditional basketball schools are in the top tier of the standings, below Virginia and Florida State. How the third through sixth-place teams in the ACC develop over the next several weeks will tell the story of how good the conference is. If those four teams do genuinely well, the ACC will be stronger, even if the names of those four teams aren’t Duke or Carolina.
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