ACC

The **Atlantic Coast Conference**, more commonly known simply as the ACC,is a conference participating in the NCBCA with teams all across the Atlantic Coast hence its name. Members of the conference are Boston College, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Villanova, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Louisville, Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), North Carolina, Wake Forest, and North Carolina State. The current ACC champion is the Duke Blue Devils.

In the most recent season, the ACC is generally regarded as one of the weaker conferences due to its low representation in the National Tournament and under-performing teams.

## History

### 2016

2016 is undoubtedly the ACC's most successful season to date. Eight teams finished the regular season with a winning record all of which qualified for the National Tournament. The ACC also had a strong showing at the NT with only two of the eight teams losing in the first round. In the first round 6th seed Virginia took down a hot 26—4 3rd seed Wichita State squad in a nail-biter 72-67 win. They then went on to take 2nd seed Arizona down to the wire in a 59-54 loss. Villanova similarly nearly took down a giant in the second round in a 73-69 loss to 1st seed Louisville. Likewise, North Carolina State also lost to a fellow ACC program in a blowout 76-47 loss to Duke. In the elite 8 Louisville and Duke faced off with Louisville coming out on top in a 80-51 win. However, Louisville would go on to lose to 2nd seed Indiana who would ultimately win the championship in a 70-57 win over North Carolina. In the final power rankings seven ACC teams managed to make the top 25, three of which in the top 5; the highest being 3rd ranked North Carolina. North Carolina defeated Villanova 78-53 in the ACC Conference Tournament Championship to earn an automatic bid to the National Tournament.

### 2018

In 2018, the ACC pulled off arguably the worst performance by a conference in NCBCA history. Only six teams managed to achieve winning records, out of which only four teams managed to qualify for the big dance. To date, this is the least amount of teams from a conference to qualify for the national tournament. To top it all off, only one of the four teams managed to win their first round match and advance to the sweet 16. Duke ultimately managed to make the final four where they lost to the eventual champion Indiana in an 86-66 blowout loss. To the surprise of many, both 2nd seed North Carolina and 3rd seed Virginia were both upset in their first round matches. 7th seeded Louisville lost their first round match to 2nd seed Purdue in a 77-59 loss. Notably the defending national champions, Villanova who finished the regular season 20-10 did not make the national tournament and instead accepted a bid to participate in the National Meme Tournament (now known as the National Merit Tournament) where they ultimately lost to Ole Miss in the second round. Other ACC teams in the NMT included; Florida State, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. Other notable ACC performances included Syracuse. After losing talented sophomore Snider to the NBL draft, Syracuse went from an impressive 20—10 2017 campaign to a disappointing 4—26 season. Likewise, North Carolina State after coming off a combined 43—17 record over its first two seasons only managed to win 6 games. In the final power rankings, four ACC teams were ranked in the top 25 with Virginia being the highest at #10. Duke managed to win the ACC conference tournament after defeating Clemson, Georgia Tech, and North Carolina in their championship run. In the championship match, Duke barely managed to fend off Virginia in a tight 65-64 final to earn an automatic bid to the National Tournament.