With the calendar about ready to flip over to April, Syracuse pulled a trick on us all and dumped roughly six inches of snow on the city during a time when most of the country is already wearing shorts. Locals might’ve expected this, but trust an outsider to tell you that we weren’t at all ready. The schedule may be over, but the weather has now made it feel like we’re right back in Syracuse basketball season. SU closed out the year about three weeks ago, and since then we’ve been enjoying a March Madness tourney filled with underestimated success stories like the now-immortal Saint Peter’s. Shaheen Holloway to ‘Cuse rumors, anyone?
Speaking of underestimated, it’s beginning to look like we all did just that when discussing this year’s Atlantic Coast Conference. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact cause, but it appears most pundits and ball-watchers simply got the conference wrong. It’s very possible that ACC entrants Duke and North Carolina Рhalf of this year’s Final Four Рgot hot at the right time, but it’s not like either one of those teams bumbled through an unimpressive regular season.
Looking back, it’s hard to find anyone on the Fizz who bricked their ACC analysis harder than yours truly back in late December, when a conference-wide poor start led plenty of people to hit the panic button. Apart from Duke, no other team brought very convincing early resumés to the table, which helps explain why the following scrutiny now lands with such a smattering thud.
“The conference seem[s] a little bit more like the seasonally-appropriate Land of Misfit Toys than a perennial basketball juggernaut…UNC might be your immediate gut pick [for second best], but…a closer look reveals their most impressive wins are over a disappointing Michigan team and some nearby non-con softballs…Miami’s record [9-3] is fooling no one…It may not be a single-bid year for the ACC in March, but things aren’t far off if current trends continue.” (OrangeFizz, 12/21/21)
For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a strong 0-for-3 performance from the paint. UNC’s season eventually reached a nadir with back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Miami in late January, but Hubert Davis and company have caught fire to go 16-3 since. Forward Armando Bacot has been a machine in the tournament en route to upset wins over defending champion Baylor and UCLA.
Meanwhile, Miami took a 10 seed and promptly shed their paper tiger label for a more fitting “Cardiac ‘Canes” moniker with upsets over USC and Auburn. The pesky Hurricanes went 7-6 this year when trailing at halftime, including 2-0 against SU. Miami ended up being one of five ACC teams to make the tournament, and every single one won at least one game.
So how did this happen? The most likely culprit for the apparent weakness of the ACC was a middling start for some of its teams, high-profile losses against tournament contenders, and in-conference cannibalizing. Take UNC, for example. The Tar Heels got off to an 8-3 start, but the losses were awful blowouts against Purdue, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Losses in-conference to Notre Dame and later Pittsburgh likely took some of the shine off North Carolina. They probably deserved an 8 seed in the tournament just based on resumé, but Davis’ team has outplayed it.
For Syracuse, the newfound strength of the conference is a good thing. It makes the Orange’s 16-17 mark sting just a little bit less knowing that they were blown leads against Miami or an inbound pass away against UNC from finishing on a much higher note Рwith both a winning record and victories over teams that have proven to be far more impressive than they looked. No matter how this year’s NCAA tournament shakes out, an ACC entrant will play in the National Championship. It should only serve as a point of motivation for SU and its gleaming Class of 2022 to come out swinging in the Fall to unseat an Atlantic Coast slate with newfound confidence.
