After an uneventful regular season, the ACC has a chance to accomplish a basketball rarity by winning the NCAA and NIT championships in the same season.
North Carolina faces Dayton today at New York's Madison Square Garden for the NIT crown and Duke begins NCAA Final Four play on Saturday against West Virginia at Indianapolis' Lucas Oil Stadium.
The ACC has pulled off the postseason double once before - in 1992 when Duke won the NCAA by defeating Michigan and Virginia took the NIT with a win over Notre Dame, but it doesn't occur often nationally.
Most recently, the Southeastern Conference did it when Florida (NCAA) and South Carolina (NIT) prevailed in 2006. The Big East had both winners with Syracuse (NCAA) and St. John's (NIT) in 2003. The Big Ten had an exacta with Michigan State (NCAA) and Indiana (NIT) in 1979.
At best, the NIT part of the equation is a hollow consolation, but that doesn't change the fact that once any tournament starts, it means something to get the title.
When Carolina won the 1971 NIT by routing Georgia Tech, which was not an ACC member at the time, the New York performance gave Dean Smith a recruiting boost that eventually played a role in the signing of Phil Ford, Mitch Kupchak, Walter Davis and Mike O'Koren, four of the program's top performers of the mid and late '70s.
A win over Dayton about 40 years later probably wouldn't be of any significant immediate recruiting impact, but finishing the season on a five-game winning streak against legitimate competition should show future prospects that Roy Williams is capable of pulling a wayward team back into shape.
More importantly, an NIT title should provide a morale lift to several young players who were unable to gain confidence and momentum once the ACC regular-season games started.
Tyler Zeller and John Henson improved during the NIT experience, and Larry Drew II has displayed flashes of promise as a playmaker.
Everyone on the roster has learned what it feels like to win close games, two of which were on the road and another on a neutral court. If nothing else, that's a lot of progress for a team that didn't really know how to compete a month or so ago.
But as much as anyone, a NIT win would serve as timely mental medicine for Williams.
By the first week of February, the Carolina coach obviously was questioning himself more than at any time in his career. He spent the rest of the schedule residing at his own wits end, laboring for solutions and doubting his ability to motivate.
Ultra successful coaches normally don't cope well with unexpected failure. You should have seen the helpless look on John Wooden's face after his string of seven straight national championships ended in 1974 against N.C. State in Greensboro. He coached one more season, won a 10th title and then retired at age 64 in perfect health.
A win over Dayton tonight doesn't mean Carolina will be at the 2011 Final Four in Houston. Williams still has a lot of fixing to do with this group, but an NIT title would provide the coach and his players a positive foundation for the work ahead.
