SpicyTricks

Written by Jared Riley and Spencer Husen

The 2012-2013 Atlantic Coast Conference regular season was filled with surprises. There were many upsets and failures, but the majority of the country would agree that the biggest surprise was that a team outside of the triangle area of North Carolina finished first. That team was the Miami Hurricanes. The Hurricanes entered ACC play having already lost to two unknown teams and weren't expected to compete, but that's exactly what they did. ‘The U’ caught fire and won 13 straight conference games, including beating the perennial powerhouses University of North Carolina and Duke both by at least 25 points. The Hurricanes were led by sophomore Shane Larkin who is regarded as one top three players in consideration for the ACC Player of the Year award. Miami didn't finish as strong, losing 3 of their last 5, but still managed to finish with the number one seed in the ACC Tournament.

The second and third seeds in the tournament are those powerhouses we mentioned earlier, UNC and Duke. The Duke Blue Devils have been led by their star seniors Mason Plumlee, Seth Curry, and Ryan Kelly. The Devils were undefeated until Kelly broke his foot in January which led to four losses before his return against Miami. The Devils avenged their terrible loss to the Hurricanes by winning 79-76. Many believe that the Blue Devils are one of the favorites to win the National Championship, and, despite being the number 2 seed behind Miami, the Devils are the favorite to win the ACC Tournament according to the general public. The Blue Devils will play the winner of the Maryland/Wake Forest game on Friday.

The 3 seed as mentioned earlier are the Tar Heels. The Heels have had an up and down season where they began awfully by losing their first two ACC games, but finished strong only losing to ranked teams for the rest of the season and finishing with a 12-6 conference record and a 22-9 record overall. UNC is led by their main scorers, sophomores P.J. Hairston and James Michael McAdoo and junior Reggie Bullock. UNC is 9-3 in their last 12 games, with the 3 losses coming to Duke twice and Miami once. The Tar Heels will play the winner of the Florida State/Clemson game on Friday.

The 4th seed in the tournament is Virginia, but the team that people think have the best chance to win other than the top 3 is 5th seeded North Carolina State. The Wolf Pack were the majority pick to win the conference at the start of the season, but failed to play up to their potential after a strong start to ACC play when they upset the then number 1 ranked Duke. NC State finished the rest of the season with inconsistent play and finished with a 11-7 conference record, and were 22-9 overall. The players to look for on the Wolf Pack are inside presence of junior C.J. Leslie and three point phenom Scott Wood. The Pack will play the Virginia Tech Hokies in the opening round on Thursday.

Other than the top five seeds, you shouldn’t expect to see any of the other teams make it to the semi-finals on Saturday, where there could be a potential 3rd meeting between the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils. As for the finals, you should expect to see a veteran Duke team take down top-seeded Miami to win their 25th ACC Tournament Championship.