ACC In NCAA Tournament/Sweet 16:
League Champion NC State, As #11 NCAA Seed,
Joins Top Cinderella Stories Of March Madness
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
Bill Guthridge, Jim Boeheim and Hubert Davis. That’s the list.
They are the only head coaches, at least for now, who have taken an ACC team seeded #8 or lower all the way to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
NC State coach Kevin Keatts, of course, has led his 2024 ACC champion Wolfpack to the Sweet 16 of this year’s Big Dance. With that accomplishment, the Pack — a #11 seed — became just the 14th ACC squad ever to reach the regional semifinals as a #8 seed or lower.
Here’s the full list, with their seeds and head coaches: 1990 North Carolina (#8, Dean Smith), 1994 Maryland (#10, Gary Williams), 2000 UNC (#8, Guthridge), 2005 NC State (#10, Herb Sendek), 2011 Florida State (#10, Leonard Hamilton), 2012 NC State (#11, Mark Gottfried), 2015 NC State (#8, Gottfried), 2016 Syracuse (#10, Jim Boeheim), 2018 Florida State (#9, Hamilton), 2018 Syracuse (#11, Boeheim), 2021 Syracuse (#11, Boeheim), 2022 UNC (#8, Davis), 2022 Miami (#10, Jim Larranaga) and now 2024 NC State (#11, Keatts).
Only three of those previous 13 teams went on to reach the Final Four.
ACC’s “Cinderella” Final Four Teams
(#8 Seed Or Lower Only; With Coach/Top Players)
2000 UNC (#8 seed) — Bill Guthridge; Ed Cota*, Joseph Forte*, Brendan Haywood*, Jason Capel, Kris Lang
2016 Syracuse (#10 seed) — Jim Boeheim; Michael Gbinije*, Trevor Cooney, Tyler Lydon, Malachi Richardson, Tyler Roberson
2022 UNC (#8 seed) — Hubert Davis; Armando Bacot*, RJ Davis, Brady Manek, Leaky Black, Caleb Love
* — All-ACC selection that season
Guthridge took #8 seed UNC to the national semifinals in 2000. The Tar Heels, who entered the NCAA Tournament with an 18-13 record, knocked off three nationally ranked opponents, including #1 seed Stanford in the second round, before falling to Florida at the Final Four.
Boeheim took #10 seed Syracuse to the national semifinals in 2016. The Orange, who entered the NCAA Tournament with a 19-13 record after a ninth-place tie in the ACC standings, upset #1 seed Virginia in the Elite Eight, then lost to UNC at the Final Four.
Davis took #8 seed UNC to the national semifinals in 2022. The Tar Heels, who entered the NCAA Tournament with a 24-9 record, upset three nationally ranked opponents — #1 seed Baylor (ranked #4 nationally) in the second round, #4 seed UCLA (ranked #11 nationally) in the Sweet 16, and #2 seed Duke (ranked #9 nationally) in the Final Four — before falling to #1 seed Kansas (ranked #3 nationally) in the national championship game.
If this year’s NC State team can beat #2 seed Marquette on Friday, then either #1 seed Houston or #4 seed Duke on Sunday, Keatts would add his name to this prestigious list of coaches who led Cinderella-like ACC teams all the way to the Final Four.
