It’s been a down year for ACC basketball. There’s no question about that. The conference has produced eight basketball national champions since 2000 with two more teams that appeared in the National Championship Game.
Since 2000, Duke and North Carolina have 3 Titles each. Maryland when they were in the ACC won a title in 2002, and Virginia won the 2019 National Championship. In 2003 Georgia Tech, and UNC in 2016 were runner-ups.
It’s rare the ACC doesn’t have a true National Title Contender, but that seems to be the case in 2021. When you look at the tournament odds at Sports Betting Dime, you find Florida State at +2767 is the only ACC team in the top 10 in terms of odds to win the title out of the top 40 teams listed. Oddly enough a Clemson team with wins over Alabama, Purdue, Maryland, Florida State, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech had the worst odds of any ACC team in the field at +12000.
That said a deep run by an ACC team wouldn’t be an unheard of in this years tournament. Let’s look at best performing teams history, where an ACC team is seeded.
Arizona was a 4 seed in 1997 and won the national title. Virginia and Florida State enter the tournament as 4 seeds. Virginia in Gonzaga’s region and dealing with their COVID issues doesn’t seem likely. Florida State in the same region as a Michigan team dealing with a injury to Isaiah Livers could be ripe for an upset. Now if Florida State can cut down on their turnovers – they have a shot to make some real noise in the tournament.
In 2014 7 seed UCONN made it to the national championship game. If 7 seed Clemson can return to their form that saw them rise to the top 15 earlier this year, who knows?
Three 8 seeds have reached the National Title game. Villanova the most famous 8 seed in history won the championship in 1985 in their legendary win over John Thompson’s and Patrick Ewing’s Georgetown Hoyas. You know who is an 8 seed – North Carolina.
Newly crowned ACC Champion Georgia Tech is a #9 seed. With one of the better backcourts in the tournament, could they match the 2013 Wichita State 9 seed team that got the to Final 4?
The furthest a 10 seed has gone in the tournament? The ACC’s own Syracuse Orange in 2016. That’s where Virginia Tech finds themselves seeded.
Syracuse as 11 seed and their tough to play matchup zone isn’t the longshot you might expect. Four 11 seeds have reached the Final 4 – Loyola-Chicago (2018), VCU (2011), George Mason (2006) and LSU (1986). If Buddy Boeheim shoots as well as he did in the ACC Tournament, the Orange become a very tough out.
The odds are not good for the ACC teams. Let’s be honest about that, but there’s always hope. History proves it.
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