Spring Break is just around the corner, but for the men's basketball teams in the ACC, the next four days are anything but a vacation.
The 48th annual ACC Tournament kicks off tonight at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, when Florida State and Clemson, the eighth and ninth seeds, respectively, meet in the first round. The tournament, a four-round affair, will continue through Sunday, when the ACC will crown its 2001 tournament champion.
Until then, these next few days will be what this year's regular season has been in a nutshell - grueling and unpredictable.
"There's a lot more parity now in college basketball and in the ACC," North Carolina coach Matt Doherty said. "There have been so many close games this year in the conference. There's less of a gap between teams. Anything can happen in just one single game. It's going to be difficult for anyone to win the tournament."
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Although two-time defending champion Duke (26-4) and 1997 and 1998 champion North Carolina (23-5), who share the 2001 ACC regular season title, are the clear-cut favorites, every team is capable of taking the trophy home.
"There are teams that are in range of [North Carolina and Duke]," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "There are teams that are good enough. [Maryland], Wake Forest, Virginia and Georgia Tech have all played well. This year in particular is a chance for a lot of teams to become competitive for the title."
Williams' third-seeded Terrapins (20-9) are the hottest squad heading into the tourney. After a disastrous mid-season slump when it lost four games in a five-game span, No. 11 Maryland turned things around and is in the midst of a five-game winning streak, the best in the ACC. No. 22 Wake Forest (19-9), the sixth seed, will try to end the Terps' run in the quarterfinals Friday, but it will not be easy. Maryland won both meetings between the two during the regular season by an average of 13 points.
In probably the most anticipated quarterfinal matchup, No. 12 Virginia (20-7), the fourth seed, will take on fifth-seeded Georgia Tech (16-11). Although the Yellow Jackets swept the season series, both games were fiercely contested and went down to the wire. The combined margin of victory for both games was nine points.
The Cavaliers experienced trouble on the road in the reguler season, exemplified by last Saturday's 35-point embarrassment at Maryland on national television. Virginia, which is hoping to cure its road woes in the Georgia Dome, will start over with a clean slate and look for revenge come Friday.
The tournament is "a separate season," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "It's a great sporting event. We're going to try to survive on Friday. Hopefully we'll play better than the last couple of times. Physically, we have to be as tough as we can be. Most importantly, we have to be mentally tougher. We have to keep our poise and stay together."
The remaining quarterfinal matches feature the top-seeded teams. The second-seeded and No. 3 Blue Devils will face seventh-seeded N.C. State (13-15), while the top-seeded and No. 6 Tar Heels will play the winner of tonight's match between Florida State and Clemson.
The ACC Tournament always has been a nationally celebrated event, but this year it is even more heavily anticipated because of the unbelievable strength of the conference. Having a nationally ranked team in Wake Forest at the sixth seed is a testament to the ACC's strength this season compared to other conferences.
Putting all these evenly matched teams in the neutral Georgia Dome will only make things more challenging and exciting.
"The tournaments are great," Gillen said. "It's great to see the schools and their fans sport their colors. Students, fans and alumni are all there supporting their teams and showing their spirit. It's not something run by corporate America. It's college basketball the way it should be."
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