The 2020-2019 New York Life ACC Tournament will begin today at 3:30 featuring Wake Forest and Pitt in the first game. This year’s field is 14 teams and looks to be an entertaining tournament once again. The tournament will be held in Greensboro, North Carolina. In this preview, we will talk about bubble teams, predictions, and intriguing matchups.
Bubble Teams
This year the ACC has one primary bubble team. The main bubble team is NC State which has a good chance to get into the tournament with two wins. The only problem is the second win is gonna have to be against Duke. ESPN has NC State as the last team in the field of 68, which is a tough spot to be in with a very competitive bubble. CBS has the Wolfpack in the last four out which doesn’t help NC State’s slim chances. Their main problem is their high NET and RPI which are both in the fifties. Pair that with only 4 Quad 2 wins leads to more problems. With one win in the tournament, the Wolfpack will be holding their breath heading into Selection Sunday. The only other team I would really give a slim, chance to is the Syracuse Orange. In order to even have a chance at the tourney, the Orange would have to get all the way to the championship. The chances of that are close to zero as the ACC has many dominant teams in the field this year.
Intriguing Matchups
The most interesting matchup of the tournament is the potential Duke vs NC State game. Duke is fighting to get a top 3 seed while NC State is fighting for their tournament dreams. Both these teams split the season series with neither game being very close. We will have to see which teams brings their offense as the winning team in the regular season matchup scored 80+. Another matchup I would like to see is Duke vs Virginia in the championship. The regular-season matchup was one of the best games of the year that Virginia was able to pull out. Tre Jones and Jay Huff were the stars of the game as both players came up big throughout the game. This game would be another nail bitter and it would be interesting to see how well Virginia plays without their home crowd.
Predictions
I think this tournament should run pretty smoothly with the top four teams ending up in the semi-finals of this tournament. Although I think NC will win a few games before falling to Louisville in the quarters. I also believe that NC State will fall to Duke late in that quarterfinal matchup. I think from semis Duke and Virginia pull out wins. Virginia with their defense and Duke with their offense. In the championship, I expect a close game with Duke pulling out a win with another stellar offensive performance.
Top Picture by ACC from acc.com