The ACC Tournament

The ACC Tournament begins tomorrow from Greensboro, much to the delight of Jim Boeheim. The ACC is the 7th best conference this year behind the Mountain West. According to KenPom, the league is closer to the WCC than the Mountain West. The league has seen better times.

In Brian’s latest bracket, he has 5 ACC teams in the bracket. Virginia, Duke and Miami are locks. Pitt and NC State appear pretty safe as well. Not in, are Clemson, UNC & Syracuse. Neither is Louisville who is 284th in KenPom. I’ll assume that’s the worse any of the blue bloods have ever been in KenPom.

Clemson earned the 3-seed and of the aforementioned bubble teams, has a window that seems feasible. They should get NC State. A win would propel them into a possible matchup with Virginia or UNC. Get to the final and see what happens. Or they could lose right away and hope the NIT has slots.

The scenario that should have non-ACC bubble Teams worried is, chaos on Tobacco Road. It’s entirely possible. Miami is the 1-seed and doesn’t play defense. Virginia is the 2-seed but isn’t a vintage Tony Bennett team. Only 36th in KenPom, they can be had by anyone.

Is Duke the best team? Maybe. They’ve dealt with injuries but are finally healthy. They’ve won 6 straight. Kyle Filipowski is the best player in the league. Still, they turn it over way too much. It’ll get them in the big dance and may get them this week.

I’m picking chaos and taking Clemson because the rules of these things say you have to pick someone but won’t be surprised if it’s someone winning 4 in 4 days.