ACC Tournament 2024: Men's Bracket, TV Schedule, Dates and Predictions
The North Carolina Tar Heels will make a last-ditch run at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament at the 2024 ACC tournament.
The Tar Heels clinched the top seed in Washington, D.C. with their second regular-season win over the Duke Blue Devils, the No. 2 seed, on Saturday night.
A lot of the talk surrounding the ACC tournament will be about a potential third UNC-Duke meeting, which is possible given how weak the conference has been this season.
The Virginia Cavaliers and Wake Forest Demon Deacons hope they can disrupt the potential title-game runs of UNC and Duke to get into the field of 68.
Virginia was the second-to-last team in and Wake Forest resided on the "Next Four Out" line in the Saturday night bracket update from ESPN's Joe Lunardi.
Tuesday, March 12
No. 12 Notre Dame vs. No. 13 Georgia Tech (2 p.m. ET, ACC Network)
No. 10 NC State vs. No. 15 Louisville (4:30 p.m. ET, ACC Network)
No. 11 Boston College vs. No. 14 Miami (7 p.m. ET, ACC Network)
Wednesday, March 13
No. 8 Virginia Tech vs. No. 9 Florida State (Noon ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
No. 5 Wake Forest vs. No. 12/13 winner (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
No. 7 Syracuse vs. No. 10/15 winner (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2)
No. 6 Clemson vs. No. 11/14 winner (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Thursday, March 14
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 8/9 winner (Noon ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
No. 4 Pittsburgh vs. No. 5 vs. 12/13 winner (2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
No. 2 Duke vs. No. 7 vs. 10/15 winner (7 p.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
No. 3 Virginia vs. No. 6 vs. 11/14 winner (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
Friday, March 15
Semifinal No. 1 (7 p.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
Semifinal No. 2 (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN or ESPN2)
Saturday, March 16
Championship Game (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
North Carolina is in search of its first ACC tournament title since 2016 as well as a regular-season and tournament double and potentially a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Tar Heels need the Tennessee Volunteers and Arizona Wildcats to slip up earlier in their respective conference tournaments to make their best case to the selection committee.
Reaching the championship game is the minimum expectation for Hubert Davis' team since it suffered just three losses in ACC play.
North Carolina last lost on February 13 and it is not expected to face any of the programs that beat it unless the Clemson Tigers or Syracuse Orange make a surprise run to the final.
Duke carries the same expectations as North Carolina. The Blue Devils are the reigning ACC tournament champion and have won three of the last six ACC tournaments.
Like UNC, Duke would not face a team that beat it in conference play until the championship. It beat all of its potential opponents in the bottom half of the bracket by double digits with the exception of Clemson.
Clemson is the only other ACC team locked into the field of 68 going into Washington, D.C. The Tigers have never won the ACC tournament.
Virginia likely needs to beat Clemson in the quarterfinals and potentially defeat Duke in the semifinals to clinch a spot in the field of 68. The Cavaliers went 3-4 in their final seven regular-season games, including losses to Duke and UNC in which they failed to hit the 50-point mark.
Wake Forest experienced similar struggles down the stretch. It went 3-5 in its final eight games and wasted a home win over Duke with a three-game losing streak.
The inconsistencies of Virginia and Wake Forest speak to why many experts will pick a UNC-Duke final.
However, the ACC tournament has been a bit chaotic in recent years. The Virginia Tech Hokies won as a No. 7 seed in 2022 and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets won as a No. 4 seed in 2021.
The depth throughout the conference is not there as it was in previous years, and that should allow chalk to hold in the bracket until the final, where UNC could beat Duke for a third time if Cormac Ryan, Armando Bacot and Co. turn in phenomenal performances again.
Prediction: North Carolina over Duke
