RALEIGH, N.C. — Atlantic Coast Conference men’s basketball teams aren’t taking anyone lightly in the NCAA Tournament because of their status as power five schools. Maybe that’s why they’re rolling along with a record number of teams in the Sweet 16.
The ACC went 12-1 during the tournament’s opening week and put an NCAA-record six teams in regional semifinal games: No. 1 seeds North Carolina and Virginia, No. 3 seed Miami, No. 4 seed Duke, No. 6 seed Notre Dame and No. 10 seed Syracuse.
The six Sweet 16 teams broke the previous record of five set by the Big East in 2009 and matched by the ACC last year. Tenth-seeded Pitt’s first-round loss to No. 7 Wisconsin was the only ACC loss.
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It comes in a year when the ACC tied its own record with seven NCAA bids on Selection Sunday despite the fact that another likely high seed — Louisville — ended up sitting out due to a self-imposed postseason ban amid an NCAA investigation.
“With the year this year, it’s playing out to be the best league,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said Sunday after his team ousted No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin 76-75 on a tip-in in the last second.
“Remember, I came from that league called the Big East where we were by far the best league and had this kind of depth and number of NCAA Tournament-caliber teams,” Brey said. “It’s unbelievable and further validates how hard our league was and how proud I was that we were 11-7 and the No. 4 seed (in the ACC Tournament). We’ll take that.”
Granted, the ACC hasn’t pulled any major upsets or surprises in any games. None of the 12 wins came against a team seeded better than No. 7 — that was Syracuse’s first-round win against Dayton in the Midwest Regional on Friday — and nine have come against seeds 11 or lower.
Then again, the widespread parity in college basketball has removed “automatic win” from the vocabulary of teams.
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The Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 all matched the ACC’s seven tournament bids. But in an upset-filled opening week, the ACC nearly matched those leagues’ combined total (seven) of Sweet 16 teams.
The Big 12 — pegged by many as the nation’s best conference this year — still has No. 1 seed Kansas, No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 4 seed Iowa State alive but lost No. 3 seed West Virginia in the first round and is 6-4 in NCAA games.
The Pac-12 lost six teams, including No. 3 seed Utah. That leaves only No. 1 seed Oregon and a 3-6 record. And while the Big Ten pushed three midrange seeds into the Sweet 16 and went 8-4, the league took the biggest hit so far with title contender and No. 2 seed Michigan State bowing to No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee to torch brackets everywhere.
Throw in the Southeastern Conference, which managed a meager three bids and one Sweet 16 team, and those four leagues combined for 10 losses to teams with double-digit seeds.
Some of those defeats eased the path for the ACC, with Miami, Duke, Notre Dame and Syracuse all advancing to the Sweet 16 by beating the lower-seeded teams that had upset their power- conference brethren. Meanwhile, preseason No. 1-ranked North Carolina and Virginia pushed past ninth-seeded Big East teams in second-round games Saturday.
