Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, parents, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The ACC Tournament is taking place this week in Washington, DC, and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD will be covering all the angles so you can look forward to an abundance of articles in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage with a recap of the ACC semifinal doubleheader on Friday.
I am running out of new food stands to try so I am reduced to getting different items at places I have already eaten at: mini chicken corndogs and cheese curds.
GAME #1: Pitt-North Carolina
UNC star Armando Bacot did his usual damage inside during the 1st half with a series of layups/dunks but did not get much help from his supporting cast. In contrast, while Pitt G Jaland Lowe was able to make a few shots at the rim, his 7’ teammate Guillermo Diaz Graham knocked down back-to-back threes, and FR Carlton Carrington scored from everywhere (finishing with 16 PTS in the 1st 20 minutes). Pitt headed to halftime with a 35-33 and visions of the NCAA tourney dancing in their head. Carrington cooled off in the 2nd half but Lowe was soaring high with a 3 from the top of the key, and several tough shots in the lane. Pitt hung around for the 1st 30 minutes and then the 2 Tar Heel studs took over. Bacot kept making a bunch of shots inside, highlighted by a gorgeous spin out of a double team that led to a reverse layup. ACC POY RJ Davis had a quiet 1st half but went off in the 2nd half with a trio of trifectas and an old-fashioned and-1, as UNC won it 72-65 and booked a spot in the ACC title game for the 1st time since 2018.
The winning team is often-but-not-always the 1st to appear at the postgame press conference, but tonight Pitt had the honor. As you may be aware, I try to summarize both my question and the person’s answer, but since Pitt coach Jeff Capel decided to take my question and run with it for a few minutes I will present the Q&A in their entirety from the transcript:
Q. If you do not hear your name called on Sunday, do you think it will be due to your non-conference strength of schedule, and if so, will you change your scheduling approach next year?
A: Interesting question. If you look at a lot of the Big 12 teams, they have a lot worse schedules than us. If you look at some of the Big 10 teams that they have projected, their strength of schedule is where ours is or less. Again, coming into this game, us and North Carolina were 12-3 over the last 15 games since January 20th, so I think that shows that we were the 2 best teams in this league over that stretch when we figured things out. Before tonight we had won our last 4 or 5 by an average of 15 points. I don’t look at them (the metrics), but people tell me our metrics are better than they were last year. Our NET, the KenPom stuff, whatever that stuff means, it is better than it was last year. I think our league is better than it was last year. Last year the thing that we heard was that North Carolina and Duke weren’t “North Carolina” and “Duke”. Well, you are talking about a team today in North Carolina that probably is going to be a 1-seed, and Duke will be a 2 or 3-seed. Those teams were top-10 for most of the season, so I do not understand all of it. I do not think it will be because of that, but I do not know. I am not a bracketologist, I am not an expert: I am a basketball coach. I try to worry about my team and I know we have gotten better. I know if you look over the past — since January 20th, I think we have played as well as anyone in college basketball. Last year I remember hearing, well, the early stuff does not count because we had an unbelievable win last year against Northwestern at Northwestern. We beat them by 28 points on the road: they ended up 2nd in the Big 10, so that is a Quad 1 win. We heard, well, that was November or December so it does not matter. Now all I am hearing is our Missouri loss: that was early December. Again, we thought we had a good schedule. We did not know West Virginia would turn out like they did: they were picked high in the Big 12. We did not know that Missouri would not win a game. When we played them, they were pretty good. We did not know they would not win a game in the SEC. We will schedule the way we feel will put us in the best position to win and to get to the NCAA Tournament just like we did this year.
GAME #2: Virginia-NC State
I am sure that it was a great game but I had to finish a few interviews so that is a wrap for tonight, check back tomorrow for the title game as UNC tries to clinch a #1 seed on Selection Sunday.