Starting Wednesday, March 12th, the 15 teams of the Atlantic Coast Conference will battle it out to see who will be crowned champion. There is one factor, however, that may push some teams to play better and more intense than they have all year: winning the tournament gets you an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Although it is highly unlikely any team will win it other than the top five seeds, there is still a fighting chance that teams will take advantage of.
This year’s tournament has an unusually large potential for upsets, resulting in us selecting the underdogs for several key matchups. There are several teams to look out for, particularly NC State, who is led by the leading scorer in the ACC, TJ Warren. Warren has scored an incredible 83 points over his last two games prior to entering the tournament. He is something to watch out for when he takes the court. The Wolfpack almost knocked-off top-ranked Syracuse (at the time) at their own floor, which proves to be a great reminder that they can hang with anyone in the conference, which is considered one of the best in the country.
Despite Virginia being the top seed in the tourney, the matchups are not in their favor, as North Carolina will more than likely face them in the semifinals. This will lead to the third matchup of the Tobacco Road Rivalry this season, a matchup that will be won by the Blue Devils for the second-straight time. Duke will be crowned as the ACC Tournament champions, and will have great momentum going into the big dance.
Click on the bracket to make it bigger.
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Bracket from bustingbrackets.com. Filled out by Co-Sports Editors Jared Riley and Spencer Husen.[/caption]
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