For all of ACC’s tourney success, a few top seeds still fell flat

Some forms of repetition never grow old, like ACC teams regularly advancing deep into the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. No one likes a braggart, unless they can back it up like Muhammad Ali, but ACC fans can be excused a spot of pride, especially this year with five teams in the Sweet 16.

Just check the numbers, numbers that require no algorithmic analysis or spin.

Since North Carolina’s Dean Smith won his first NCAA championship in 1982, league teams have averaged an appearance in the national championship game every other season. Pause a moment to take that in – 18 trips to the title contest in 37 years. A dozen times they won, about one year in three.

Just this decade, following the historical pattern, Duke and UNC won three of nine titles (2010, 2015, 2017) and reached a fourth championship contest (2016).

The NCAA field expanded in 1975 to allow multiple entrants from the same league – broader inclusion sparked in part because a great Maryland team was excluded the previous season. Over the ensuing 44 years the ACC sent 35 representatives to the Final Four. Not quite an annual presence on the tournament’s showcase weekend, but close.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at the end of it to see more than one team from the ACC in the Final Four,” Leonard Hamilton said after his Florida State team lost to Duke in the 2019 ACC tournament final. “I think we are just that good and that well-coached and loaded with talent.”

ACC pairs actually reached the same Final Four six times (1981, 1990, 1991, 2001, 2004, 2016). None have clashed in the championship game, a good possibility this year for No. 1 seeds Duke and either North Carolina or Virginia.

An ACC advanced to the Final Four on each of the five previous occasions the league had multiple No.1 seeds. Three came away with championships – UNC in 1982 and 2005 and Maryland in 2002.

Ten of 12 ACC national champs were top seeds. The exceptions came as shocks: No. 2 Duke won Mike Kryzewski’s first title in 1991 after besting undefeated UNLV, and Jim Valvano’s sixth-seeded N.C. State squad stunned everyone including top-ranked Houston in 1983.

Not to get lost in the seeds, or weeds, but since the NCAA began handicapping the field in 1979 the ACC has had 40 No. 1s, including this season with Duke, North Carolina and Virginia. Historically that trio earned all but two of the league’s No.1s, the exceptions Wake Forest in 1995 and Maryland’s championship club.

The ACC also produced 31 No. 2 seeds, giving it a shade under 22 percent of the top eight teams over the past 41 NCAA tournaments.

Higher seeds presumably travel advantaged paths, but there’s always room for a stumble. The fates of a few terrific ACC squads come to mind, largely unsung today because, like Virginia last year, they fell painfully short:

No. 1 North Carolina, 1984 East Region, 68-72, second round

The ’84 Tar Heels, led by five eventual first-round NBA draft choices, opened with 21 straight victories and went through the ACC regular season without a defeat.

But they weren’t the same after losing freshman point guard Kenny Smith to a broken wrist on a foul from behind against LSU in late January. Reintegrating Smith late in the season disrupted the team’s impeccable chemistry, and the Heels were stunned by fourth-seeded Indiana in their second NCAA outing.

Dean Smith said he thought he had “the best team in the country”, but hurt the Heels’ chances with a self-imposed rule requiring junior Michael Jordan to ride the bench for eight crucial first-half minutes with two early fouls.

No. 1 Duke, 1986 East Region, 69-72, championship game

Duke collected 37 wins, tying an NCAA record for a season. A squad built around Mike Krzyzewski’s first great recruiting class lost only twice, including the inaugural game at Carolina’s new Smith Center, until the NCAA final.

The veteran Blue Devils, with a mere trio of NBA first-round picks, led Louisville by three points at halftime and with five minutes to go in the championship game. Ultimately they wore down, missing seven of their last eight field goal attempts. Backcourt starters Tommy Amaker and Johnny Dawkins played all but seven minutes in the Final Four; freshman reserve guard Quin Snyder never left the bench.

No. 1 Duke, 1999 East Region, 74-77, championship game

The talent-rich Blue Devils, boasting five first-rounders, swept through a 16-game league slate without a defeat, still the last unbeaten team in ACC regular-season play. Duke ran off 32 consecutive wins overall; it was so dominant a single conference opponent came within eight points at game’s end.

But the Devils fell short against UConn in the NCAA final, a result Krzyzewski partially blames on being distracted by a painful hip he had surgically replaced after the season. “I feel I let that team down,” he said this winter. “I could hardly move. I could not get on the court and give them what they needed.”

No. 1 North Carolina, 2012 Midwest Region, 67-80, regional final

A damaged wrist again sidetracked a UNC squad that finished first during the ACC regular season behind a half-dozen first-rounders. “In 2012 I thought we had the best team in the country,” UNC coach Roy Williams recalled this month, echoing his mentor’s assessment 35 years earlier.

The Tar Heels were hit by injuries to forward John Henson and then playmaker Kendall Marshall, done for the year after fracturing his wrist in the NCAA’s second round. Relying on a wing and a seldom-used walk-on to share Marshall’s duties, Williams’ club couldn’t stay with second-seed Kansas in the regional final.

This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 1:50 PM.