ACC Roundup – On To Charlotte!

Mar 7, 2026; Coral Gables, Florida, USA; Miami Hurricanes head coach Jai Lucas reacts in a game against the Louisville Cardinals during the second half at Watsco Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Romance-Imagn Images | Jeff Romance-Imagn Images Saturday was the last day of regular season ACC Action, an

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What is the story about?

Saturday was the last day of regular season ACC Action, and here’s how that went:

Virginia survived Virginia Tech, 76-72, Louisville surprised Miami, 92-89, BC got by Notre Dame, 77-69, Clemson outlasted Georgia Tech, 79-76, Florida State smoked SMU, 91-78, Stanford held off NC State, 85-84, Wake Forest surprised Cal, 80-73, and Pitt took down Syracuse in overtime, 71-69.

The Hokies were down 17 and came back to tie the game, but couldn’t finish the job.

After Virginia Tech tied the score at 51-51,

the Cavaliers ripped off 8 unanswered points as part of a 12-3 run. Still, the Hokies fought back and cut the lead to 75-72 with mere seconds to go, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Virginia Tech, 19-12, has already made it clear that Coach Mike Young will be back next year.

Check this out: it wasn’t until March 8th, the final day of the regular season, that Louisville got its first Quad 1A victory. And surprisingly, they did it without Mikel Brown.

Ryan Conwell had 24 to make up the difference.

Louisville led most of the way before Miami crawled back into it, tying the game at 77-77.

It’s a big deal for this team that has seemed on the verge of something better all season.

BC took care of Notre Dame and held Cole Certa, who has been hot lately, to just 10 points. Jalen Haralson managed 21.

Fred Payne got 24 last season and if Earl Grant gets canned, he might be a prime portal target for someone.

Clemson held on to beat Georgia Tech, as well as to end their season on a 12-game losing streak.

Jaeden Mustaf had 28 to lead the Yellow Jackets, but Baye Ndongo continued his late-season fade to irrelevancy and had just 5 points in 31 minutes. He did have 10 rebounds, however. Nick Davidson and Butta Johnson had 15 for the Tigers.

It wasn’t an easy win, but it was huge for Clemson: over the last 6 games, the Tigers were 1-5. Losing this one would have been disastrous.

Chauncey Wiggins lit it up for 31, hitting 10-14/6-8, while Robert McCray added 17 to help Florida State past SMU in a game that SMU could ill afford to lose.

In the words of Larry Bird: too late!

Boopie Miller actually outscored Wiggins, getting 32 for the ponies (quick, what do you call a Clydesdale? A Texas pony. Badabing!)

Samet Yigitoglu, SMU’s ponderous center, pointed out the great flaw for the ‘Noles as he scored 15 on 6-8 shooting: it’s a smallish team.

Even so, Florida State is going to be a lot happier about this season than SMU will be.

If you don’t know by now that you have to control Ebuka Okorie to beat Stanford, then see ya…wouldn’t want to be ya.

Seriously: how did State let him go off for 33? Okorie hit more than a third of Stanford’s buckets and barely got to the line, all of which suggest that State’s slack defense came back again.

The Pack now has one-possession losses to Miami, Notre Dame and Stanford. It’s just not good. The Wuffies probably lost this game from the line though, leaving 9 points there.

State has now lost 6 of the last 7 games, including the aforementioned one-possession losses, but also two huge blowouts at the hands of Virginia and Duke. Joe Lunardi still has them as a 10 seed, but they’re close to pushing their luck.

Wake and Cal had a guard duel between Juke Harris and Dai Dai Ames, as both scored 31, but Wake Forest won the game. It’s a very damaging loss for the Bears, who may have to go on a run in Charlotte to get a bid.

Finally, Jeff Capel got a nice stay of execution with Pitt knocking off Syracuse in overtime. With the win, and Notre Dame’s loss, the Panthers get to play in Charlotte.

Cam Corhen had 21 points but just 1 rebound for Pitt. However, Nojus Indrusaitis was the hero, scoring the winning basket with 4.3 left in OT.

Syracuse finishes the season with Adrian Autry apparently on the way out. Some reports say that Syracuse already has the next coach lined up.

Autry probably didn’t help his case when he said this: “The standard from what I grew up, and what I played with, that’s different now. There’s a lot of things that need to work in unison to get to that standard.”

Obviously, it’s true, but he’s an idiot to say that out loud. Autry would have been better to say, well, we’re struggling but we’re still Syracuse and we know what the standard here is. I’m committed to that and also to improving on it.

Something like that.

Syracuse finishes the season 2-7 in the last nine games. One win, a double overtime win over Cal, was by 7 points and the other, over SMU, was by one.

Since those two wins, Syracuse has lost five straight, giving up 101 points to Duke, 77 to UNC, 88 to Wake Forest, 77 to Louisville and now 71 to an anemic Pitt offense.

Still, both Pitt and Syracuse live to fight another day, and you can’t say that about Georgia Tech, BC or Notre Dame, all of whom saw their seasons come to an end Saturday.

So what are the pairings for the ACC Tournament? Take a look:

First round

Tuesday, March 10

G1: No. 10 Stanford vs. No. 15 Pittsburgh, 2 p.m.
G2: No. 11 SMU vs. No. 14 Syracuse, 4:30 p.m.
G3: No. 12 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Wake Forest, 7 p.m.

Second round

Wednesday, March 11

G4: No. 7 NC State vs. Game 1 winner, noon
G5: No. 6 Louisville vs. Game 2 winner, 2:20 p.m.
G6: No. 8 Florida State vs. No. 9 Cal, 7 p.m.
G7: No. 5 Clemson vs. Game 3 winner, 9:30 p.m.

Quarterfinals

Thursday, March 12

G8: No. 2 Virginia vs. Game 4 winner, noon
G9: No. 3 Miami vs. Game 5 winner, 2:30 p.m.
G10: No. 1 Duke vs. Game 6 winner, 7 p.m.
G11: No. 4 UNC vs. Game 7 winner, 9:30 p.m.

Semifinals

Friday, March 13

G12: Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 7 p.m.
G13: Game 10 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 9:30 p.m.

Final

Saturday, March 14

Championship game, 8:30 p.m.

This is a really interesting tournament, not necessarily because all the teams are highly competitive. Sadly, that’s not the case.

Look at how many have struggled: Pitt, SMU, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Clemson, Louisville, and NC State. You could include Cal and Virginia Tech on sort of a Tier 2 there.

Pitt has heart but struggles. SMU has offense but the defense is baffling. Syracuse guards like France guarded the Maginot Line, only less mobile. NC State, according to Will Wade, is soft and can’t close out games. Louisville has struggled with and without star Mikel Brown. Clemson had a dreadful late-season swoon.

So who do we see doing well?

Whoever advances in the top branch of the bracket will run into Virginia and the Cavaliers are better than any of them. We could imagine SMU getting things together and beating Syracuse (duh) and possibly Louisville. But if Louisville moves on, Miami will be keen for some revenge after Saturday’s loss.

Jon Scheyer should win ACC and National Coach of the Year after his brilliant turn this season, but Luke Loucks will get some votes. He took a program that was dreadful early in the season and now, well, it’s not a team you want to see coming. We’re not sure they can beat Duke, but they’ll give Cal fits.

Finally, in the bottom of the bracket, we kind of like that Wake Forest has come on lately. They haven’t won them all, but they’ve played far better recently. Virginia Tech is dangerous, but they tend to lose close games, and Clemson has struggled mightily. It won’t shock us to see the Deacs advance to play UNC. Will it stop there?

Probably.

It’d still be fun to watch, though.

We’ll have to get the dead wood out first and see who can stay alive.