NC State does its part to secure an old-school ACC eight at tournament in Greensboro
We know this won’t be the final ACC tournament in Greensboro. At least two more are coming in the next decade, one of the very few strings attached to the $15 million bag of loot the state gave the ACC to keep its headquarters within these borders.
But this is still the end of something, the last tournament played here before the conference office leaves for Charlotte. There are all kinds of implications to that, from the burghers of Greensboro no longer being willing to subsidize the ACC women’s tournament — and it’s going to be really interesting to see where that lands — to potential home priority status for Charlotte in the long term, beyond what the ACC has promised the state.
So this wasn’t sending Greensboro out in style, but there was certainly some symmetry to it: Not since 2006 had the Big Four made the final eight of the ACC tournament, but with N.C. State’s 97-77 win over Virginia Tech late Wednesday night, not only is the Wolfpack still alive, so are Duke and North Carolina and Wake Forest. In fact, the way the bracket breaks down, those four could be the last teams standing Friday night.
Wake Forest helped usher Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim into retirement with a last-second shot by Daivien Williamson, North Carolina rolled past Boston College and Duke was going to be here anyway, but there was a lot riding on N.C. State in the late game to put the last piece in the puzzle. The Wolfpack wasted no time.
Looking rejuvenated after a week off, N.C. State built a double-digit lead in less than seven minutes with Terquavion Smith firing at will and his teammates engaged on defense. The Hokies were barely keeping up with Smith, let alone the rest of the Wolfpack, getting doubled up at the half.
The partisan crowd, needless to say, approved. And was it ever partisan, with most of the UNC fans off to the bars to celebrate.
Regardless of whatever faults Greensboro has as a host — and there are certainly a few compared to more urban environments like Charlotte and New York and Washington — there’s never been any doubt that inside the building, within the walls, the atmosphere is better here. The games are often better here. The basketball itself — not everything around it, whether that’s shmoozing sponsors or entertaining university mucky-mucks or finding something to do Friday and Saturday afternoon — is better here.
And that’s no matter who’s playing. Miami, Virginia, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech won the last four titles here — all but the last against a team from North Carolina, and that 2021 tournament, under pandemic conditions, was weird anyway — and the ambiance was terrific.
But the barometer quivers when you get two of the Big Four playing each other, even in Brooklyn, emphatically in Charlotte, but especially in Greensboro. Virginia’s right in that conversation, too, and Clemson’s not far behind. In fact, six of the seven living members of the post-South Carolina ACC will be represented Thursday. Just as it did 12 times in two decades in the ‘70s and ‘80s, the building’s going to vibrate with the ACC’s biggest traveling basketball fan bases in the seats.
But Friday could be something else entirely, 20 years after the last time the four NC teams were all that was left standing, when they made up almost half the conference, not a quarter of it. Even that only happened four times in The Old Days.
That was the 50th tournament, an occasion properly marked by the whims of the basketball gods. Greensboro’s last as the ACC’s headquarters could be another. But even if it isn’t, Thursday will do.
Throw in Boeheim playing his final game here, in the city he once mocked, and everything’s coming up Greensboro.
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This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 11:31 PM with the headline "NC State does its part to secure an old-school ACC eight at tournament in Greensboro."
