ACC Basketball: 2024 conference tournament preview and predictions

Bracketology

We’re not going to give a year-by-year rundown for the ACC though it’s fair to say that this is certainly a down year for the league. As we’ve already mentioned, Duke and North Carolina are not just firmly in the Big Dance but likely will earn really nice seed. North Carolina is definitely a 2-seed and Duke could potentially get there if they win the title.

Outside of that, it’s really rough for the rest of the conference. Clemson is still comfortably in the field even as they finished tied for 5th in the league, dropping some unfortunate games at times in league play. However, they are the only other sure thing in the conference.

As of right now, you can consider Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Wake Forest each as bubble teams that need to make their cases even stronger to the Selection Committee. We can’t say for certain who would be in or out of the field right now, but the Cavaliers likely have the strongest case while the Demon Deacons have hurt their own shot in recent weeks.

Teams like Syracuse and Virginia Tech have looked Tournament quality at times this season but they both need to win the ACC Tournament to earn their ticket. This is clearly the case for everyone else in the conference, especially some of those underachieving teams we mentioned earlier. Seeing someone like Louisville or Notre Dame making a run here would be unexpected.

The ACC remains a power conference and one of the best in the league, but only have three locks to the NCAA Tournament certainly seems concerning. It’s not just because of the bubble, as the conference will probably get between four and six teams in the field. Most of these ACC teams just haven’t been themselves in recent years and only have a select few have a road to the Dance.