Virginia’s path to an ACC Tournament title

After winning the ACC regular season title, Virginia will look to repeat the feat with a tournament championship.  The Hoos will carry the number one seed into Greensboro, having edged out Florida State on Saturday.  

The ACC Tournament starts Tuesday afternoon at 2, but Virginia will not take the court until Thursday at noon.  Let’s take a look at Virginia’s path to a second tournament title in three tries.

Quarterfinals: Thursday, 12:00 PM EST, ESPN/ESPN2

Virginia will open the ACC Tournament by facing the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between eighth-seeded Syracuse and ninth-seeded NC State.  The Hoos have played both teams this season, burying Syracuse under a barrage of threes for an 81-58 win and splitting meetings with NC State.

The two challengers will meet Wednesday at noon, the game set to air on ACC Network.  The Wolfpack may be the lower-seeded party, but it’s Jim Boeheim’s team that Wahoo fans should lend their support to.  As evidenced by the beatdown Virginia laid on Syracuse, the Hoos match up well against the Orange.

This year’s version of the packline defense has struggled when tasked with defending strong big men.  NC State’s duo of Jericole Hellems and DJ Funderburk are exactly that, whereas there is a hole in Syracuse’s rotation where a strong forward might fit.

Syracuse won both of their matchups with NC State this season, but as the old college basketball adage goes, it’s hard to beat anybody three times in the same season.  Whoever wins will have to face Virginia less than 24 hours after finishing their second round game.  

The Hoos will come into the quarterfinals as favorites to advance, and after a strong showing at Louisville seem poised to do so.

Semifinals: Friday, 6:30 PM EST, ESPN/ESPN2

Despite the odds pointing to a UVA win, it’s no guarantee that Virginia makes it out of the quarterfinals.  But for the sake of this article, we’ll assume that they emerge victorious.

There are many scenarios for the potential semifinal, as there are four teams in Georgia Tech’s quarter of the bracket vying for the opportunity to make the ACC’s final four.  Pittsburgh and Miami, the 12 and 13 seeds, respectively, will meet in the first round, the winner advancing to take on fifth-seeded Clemson.

Those teams will then battle it out for the chance to play Georgia Tech, the four seed, in the quarterfinals.  Georgia Tech and Clemson are both very dangerous teams at present, and facing either is not a desirable situation.  But unless Pitt or Miami pulls something out of a hat, one of those two will be waiting for the Hoos in the semifinals.

And that’s a scary prospect to consider.  Georgia Tech has rattled off six wins in a row and is one of the hottest teams in the nation.  Virginia sent the Yellow Jackets packing twice this season, but again, beating any conference opponent three times in a season is difficult.  

Meanwhile, Clemson has shaken off the demons of a 3-4 January record to go 6-1 over their last seven.  The Tigers were sidelined by COVID-19 for a period in January, but outside of that month are an impressive 13-2 on the season.  

If Virginia is to make the ACC title game, they will have to survive a hard semifinal against a hot team.

Championship: Saturday, 8:30 PM EST, ESPN

With a semifinal victory, Virginia will progress to the championship game, where they could face anybody.  Truly, that side of the bracket is wide open.  Florida State will no doubt be the favorite to emerge, but they’ve dropped two out of three games.  Virginia Tech hasn’t played in a week and a half, hit by COVID yet again.  And then there’s North Carolina, Louisville, and even Duke to think about.

It’s not worth speculating about which team Virginia would face if (and that’s a big if) they make it to the title.  But they’re surfing a wave of momentum after the Louisville win, and they’ll try to ride it all the way to an ACC Tournament title.

Image – Twitter @accmbb