Now that the ACC basketball schedule is out, the upcoming season can come into focus
Now that complete ACC men’s basketball schedules have been released, including league games that can’t be avoided or shaped by coaches, an outline of the upcoming season has come into clearer focus.
Keep in mind this will be the final year of an 18-game ACC schedule. Next season the internecine slate grows to a crowded 20. Already this season will commence on Nov. 6, four days earlier than last year. Also, for the first and probably last time since 2000-01, no ACC games are scheduled prior to the first of January.
Meanwhile, continuing a recent trend, despite teams having long breaks deep into the season, only Duke plays outside the league after Jan. 2. The Blue Devils host St. John’s in early February in a long-running series.
Mike Krzyzewski’s club, as is his wont, doesn’t venture to a hostile nonconference court all year. Five outings occur on neutral floors, probably the most hostile at Indianapolis to meet Kentucky. Krzyzewski additionally arranged an early five-game homestand at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the Blue Devils have won an NCAA-best 139 straight against non-league opponents.
The ACC schedule mandates Duke play in the same late-January week at Pitt and Notre Dame. Both are coached by former Krzyzewski assistants, Mike Brey at South Bend and newly arrived Jeff Capel at Pittsburgh, which lowered ticket prices after last season’s 0-19 ACC debacle. Capel is the only ACC coach whose team plays on his birthday, visiting Boston College when he turns 44 on Feb. 12.
Louisville, with new coach Chris Mack, and North Carolina join Duke in facing Kentucky, the Tar Heels at Chicago just before Christmas in the CBS Sports Classic. From coaches to commissioners, college leaders repeatedly speak of starting the basketball season with a slate of marquee games the way football does. The fifth-year CBS event might be a good model, with an annual rotation among UNC, UCLA, Ohio State and UK.
The Wildcats are among nine SEC clubs (of 14 overall) on ACC schedules. South Carolina, an ACC school through 1971, hosts Virginia and Clemson. (Incidentally, for the second year in a row the Tigers avoid Chapel Hill, where they’re 0-58.)
Tennessee, coached by Rick Barnes, once head man at Clemson and Texas, matches Kentucky for most ACC opponents. The Volunteers take on Georgia Tech and Wake Forest at Knoxville and Louisville in Brooklyn’s NIT Season Tip-Off. The Vols tied atop the SEC last year with Auburn, which plays at N.C. State.
That visit by the War Eagles is among 19 Wolfpack home games, one shy of league-leader Florida State. Coach Kevin Keatts orchestrated a cozy 19 contests at PNC Arena last year too, winning 16 en route to an NCAA appearance. No ACC program had more home victories in 2018.
Syracuse, with four every-game starters back, among them Tyus Battle, the league’s top returning scorer (19.2), plays 19 times at the Carrier Dome. That boosts coach Jim Boeheim’s average to a gluttonous 18.7 home outings in six seasons since joining the ACC. And that doesn’t count facing Iowa or Oregon in this year’s 2K Classic at Madison Square Garden, where the in-state crowd will decidedly favor Syracuse.
The Orange also top the league with seven consecutive home contests, all in December, eclipsing last season’s six-game highs at four schools. That streak of Carrier Dome cooking is matched only by Notre Dame, another 19 home-game program. Boeheim’s bunch leaves New York once before January, traveling to Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Irish similarly leave Indiana twice before opening league action at Virginia Tech on New Year’s Day.
A compensatory stroke of fairness has Syracuse attempting three straight ACC road games as the league season reaches its midpoint. Florida State is similarly afflicted, but has made comparable adjustments. Coach Leonard Hamilton’s club, which returns its top two scorers from last year’s Elite Eight group, leaves the Sunshine State only twice before opening its ACC campaign with an early test at Charlottesville on Jan. 5. Like N.C. State, it also balances three consecutive ACC road games with three in a row at home.
At the other end of the spectrum Virginia chronically plays just 16 times at home, this year included. Dominant in 2018, when it was advantaged by its ACC schedule, UVa is forced to make unreciprocated ’19 visits to tough venues Clemson, UNC and Syracuse.
The Cavaliers’ league-low in home outings is oddly equaled by Wake Forest, smarting from an exodus of veterans and a third losing season in four years under Danny Manning. Roy Williams’ Tar Heels likewise enjoy 16 home games, their seasonal average across the decade. Three of those come in an early February burst against ACC opponents, a daunting run they uniquely don’t have to mirror on the road.
North Carolina does match Georgia Tech in optional daring, playing three road games on nonconference opponents’ courts in 2018-19. Those include the Heels’ season-opening contests at Wofford in unfortunately named Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium (he’s an alum who funded the 3,300-seat facility) and at Elon.
The Yellow Jackets, a losing club last year with a modest array of talent, are counterintuitively braver in their journeys than any other league member. Josh Pastner’s team travels to power-conference schools Tennessee, Northwestern and Arkansas.
Making matters tougher for the Jackets, they finish the season with three of four ACC matchups on the road -- as do Miami, Notre Dame and Syracuse. At least Georgia Tech starts league play at Atlanta with Wake, their first ACC home opener since the 2013 season. When you’re struggling, small favors are much appreciated.