To those who viewed the Atlantic Coast Conference as mediocre this season, the ACC simply says: take a look at the NCAA tournament.
Half of the ACC's eight teams have made it to the final 16. And the ACC is 9-1 overall, easily the best mark by any league.Sweet revenge for a league that believes it was slighted in the rankings during the season and by the NCAA selection committee, which deemed no ACC team worthy of a seed higher than third.
Since 1979, when the NCAA first began seeding teams, the ACC had always had at least one team seeded No. 1 or No. 2 in a region. Until this year.
Three of the four ACC teams play Thursday. No. 17 Clemson (26-8), the ACC regular-season champ, battles third-ranked Connecticut (30-5) and No. 15 Duke (26-8) meets UCLA (22-10) in the East Regional semifinals.
Still, no super team emerged in the ACC in regular season or in the NCAA tournament so far.
Clemson finished on top of the ACC during the regular season for the first time, yet the Tigers were given a No. 5 seed. Georgia Tech won the league tournament - and the ACC's automatic bid to the NCAA. But that wasn't worth more than a No. 4 seed.
Duke, which lost to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament semifinals, earned the league's top seed at No. 3. Virginia, which lost to Syracuse in the second round of the Southeast Regional, was seeded seventh after losing to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament finals.