March 10, 2010
by Barry Jacobs, TarHeelBlue.com
Frank McGuire was a vocal critic. Dean Smith, his former assistant, wasn't much of a fan, either, even after the event was moved from N.C. State's Reynolds Coliseum in 1967.
Not until 1975, when the NCAA allowed multiple entrants from the same league to compete in its postseason tournament, did Smith began to accept, if not appreciate, the ACC Tournament.
"In a way, the ACC Tournament makes sense now. In the old days it really didn't," Smith said in 1988, by which time he'd won 9 of his 13 league tournament titles. "To me, there was no way you could say that the best team was the one that won a three-day tournament instead of proving itself over an extended regular season."
This view was understandable coming from a coach whose program defined consistent excellence, finishing with a piece of first- or second-place in the ACC 22 times in 23 seasons from 1967 through 1989. The fairness of regular-season superiority also was more persuasive in an era when the league embraced a round-robin schedule, meaning each ACC member played everyone else home and away over the course of the year.
These days the 12-member ACC has abandoned the level playing field created by the round robin. UNC, for instance, played Miami only once, and that was on March 2.
This was only the second season in the past six the Tar Heels played ancient rival Wake Forest home and away. Given a second chance, the Heels seized a win at Winston-Salem to avenge an earlier loss at Chapel Hill.
The post-expansion ACC Tournament has therefore become the sole means by which every school is given a relatively equal chance to win a title. Relative, because for eight of the 12 teams to emerge with a championship they will have to achieve the nearly impossible task of winning four games in four days.
"It's a great cocktail party and a big party for all the fans," Roy Williams said in 2008. "Growing up here in North Carolina, the ACC Tournament is the granddaddy of all the tournaments. It means a great deal, and at the same time we can't put all our loaves in this basket."
Yet that's exactly where all the loaves now reside for the 2010 Tar Heels, limping toward the conclusion of one of the most painfully disappointing seasons in the program's illustrious history.
At this point, with a 16-15 record, UNC must run the table in Greensboro this coming weekend if it's to earn the automatic NCAA bid that goes with winning the ACC's official championship. "It gives us a chance to still play for the big, big prize," Williams said on Monday. "That's the way we're looking at it."
Welcome to how the other half lives.
North Carolina won the ACC title as recently as 2007 and 2008. The Heels advanced at least to the semifinals in each of the past five years and 77 percent of the time since 1954.
Over the past 13 seasons, either Duke (8) or UNC (4) won all but one championship -- Maryland topped the Blue Devils in overtime in 2004.
Most league teams come to the ACC Tournament without a realistic expectation of winning a title. Instead they seek credibility and sometimes a last chance for salvation, hoping to grab a victory or two that will catch the attention of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
Just last year, a beleaguered Maryland squad came to Atlanta's Georgia Dome and won twice as the No. 7 seed, defeating N.C. State and upsetting second seed Wake Forest before being ousted by Duke. That effort, pushing the Terrapins' record to 9-10 against conference opponents and to 20 wins overall, helped secure an NCAA berth.
This year the squad most in need of bolstering its NCAA resume is probably talent-laden Georgia Tech. The 19-11 Yellow Jackets, losers of three of their last four, come in seeded seventh. They've already twice defeated their opening-round opponent: North Carolina.
To capture the ACC Tournament championship, each of the eight teams playing on Thursday, including UNC and Georgia Tech, must put together a record-setting run. Two teams previously came close -- Herb Sendek's first N.C. State team in 1997 and Sidney Lowe's first N.C. State team in 2007. Each managed to win three and reach the finals, only to succumb to a higher seeded Tar Heel squad.
"So what if it hasn't been done before?" demanded Williams, whose team has not won more than two in a row during the 2010 calendar year. "That doesn't mean it can't be done."
Just the other day, the ACC women saw another N.C. State club reach the finals after playing and winning three games in three days. Predictably, coach Kellie Harper's inaugural Wolfpack squad (is there some tournament magic for first-year N.C. State coaches?) ran out of gas in the second half of the finals, falling to Duke.
"Fourth day of the tournament, you're going to be tired both mentally and physically," Harper said. "I thought the mental part got us."
Displaying the sort of mental toughness required to overcome such a hurdle is, shall we say, not the most prominent trait of the '10 Tar Heels. But then, as long as there are games left to be played, there's always a chance at redemption.
Which is what the modern ACC Tournament is all about for all but the league's most dominant squads.
