2024 ACC Tournament:
While Many Lower Seeds Dream Big,
History Mostly Frowns On Cinderellas

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network

Everyone loves a good Cinderella story, in college basketball or otherwise.

However, the ACC Tournament, much like the NCAA Tournament, rarely requires grabbing the proverbial glass slipper from that dusty old box in the attic.

Top-four seeds captured 62 of the first 69 ACC Tournaments (approximately 90 percent). Similarly, in the 44 years the NCAA Tournament has had a seeded field, 40 national champions were top-four seeds (approximately 91 percent).

The Big Dance’s four exceptions remain famous decades later. Villanova (a #8 seed in 1985) remains the lowest-seeded team ever to win the NCAA title. N.C. State’s “Cardiac Pack” (1983) and Kansas’ “Danny (Manning) and the Miracles” (1988) were #6 seeds. The only relatively recent example is Connecticut, a #7 seed in 2014, although #8 seed North Carolina came oh-so-close in 2022.

Meanwhile, history suggests that the 2024 ACC Tournament champion will be one of the top four seeds: #1 North Carolina, #2 Duke, #3 Virginia or #4 Pittsburgh. In the first 70 years of conference history, there were only seven examples (see below) of lower-seeded teams claiming the league crown.

The lowest-seeded team ever to win the ACC Tournament came from the #7 line, and it happened just two years ago, less than a decade into the league’s existence as a 15-team entity.

Virginia Tech needed a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Darius Maddox in overtime just to survive #10 seed Clemson in the second round, then the Hokies rattled off convincing back-to-back-to-back victories over the top three seeds: Notre Dame (#2), UNC (#3) and Duke (#1).

For the previous 45 years, the correct answer to the question about the lowest-seeded ACC Tournament champion hadn’t changed: a #6 seed. That has been done five times, by five different schools, most recently in 2004.

Here’s the list, including each winning team’s head coach at the time: 1976 Virginia (Terry Holland), 1980 Duke (Bill Foster), 1987 NC State (Jim Valvano), 1993 Georgia Tech (Bobby Cremins) and 2004 Maryland (Gary Williams).

Only three teams, 1976 UVa (4-8), 1987 NCSU (6-8) and 2004 Maryland (7-9), catapulted themselves all the way from a sub-.500 league record during the regular season to cut down the nets at the ACC Tournament.

After Tuesday’s opening-round results in Washington, D.C., three ACC teams with sub-.500 conference records were still standing: NC State (9-11), Boston College (8-12) and Notre Dame (7-13).

LOWEST-SEEDED ACC CHAMPIONS

Seed—Year/Team, Head Coach, Tournament MVP
#7—2022 Virginia Tech, Mike Young, Hunter Cattoor
#6—1976 Virginia, Terry Holland, Wally Walker
#6—1980 Duke, Bill Foster, Albert King (Maryland)
#6—1987 NC State, Jim Valvano, Vinny Del Negro
#6—1993 Georgia Tech, Bobby Cremins, James Forrest
#6—2004 Maryland, Gary Williams, John Gilchrist

ACC CHAMPIONS BY SEED

Seed—Number of ACC Champions
#1—32
(#1 seeds have won 32 of 69, or about 46 PERCENT)
#2—13
(top-2 seeds have won 45 of 69, or about 65 PERCENT)
#3—10
(top-3 seeds have won 55 of 69, or about 80 PERCENT)
#4—7
(top-4 seeds have won 62 of 69, or about 90 PERCENT)
#5—1; 2017 Duke, Mike Krzyzewski
#6—5; 1976 Virginia, Terry Holland; 1980 Duke, Bill Foster; 1987 NC State, Jim Valvano; 1993 Georgia Tech, Bobby Cremins; 2004 Maryland, Gary Williams
#7—1; 2022 Virginia Tech, Mike Young
#8—0
#9—0
#10—0
#11—0
#12—0
#13—0
#14—0
#15—0