Best Advances by ACC Teams in NCAA Competition

Five current ACC programs have won NCAA titles, three while in the league. A sixth, Maryland, won in 2002, before it decided to leave for the Big Ten.

Of the 10 present-day conference members without a national championship, six have reached a Final Four at one time or another. That leaves Boston College, Clemson, Miami and Virginia Tech as ACC programs that haven’t gotten as far as the national semifinals.

And, of that group, only Miami is in the NCAA field this season.

The Hurricanes were the first ACC team to secure a spot in the 2016 Sweet Sixteen with their win on Saturday over Wichita State. Remarkably, a 2-1 record in NCAA competition is the best ever achieved by Miami, first in 2000 under Leonard Hamilton and then in 2013 after sweeping the ACC regular-season and tournament titles guided by Jim Larranaga.

Should the Canes win again this coming weekend, it would be their deepest penetration yet.

Meanwhile Pitt, which didn’t deserve a bid, was the only ACC team eliminated after a single game. The Panthers haven’t reached a Final Four since 1941. Over the intervening years they’ve gone 3-1 just once in the NCAAs, in 2009 under Jamie Dixon.

Clemson, with a better ACC record than Pitt and better success against top-50 opponents, wasn’t even invited to the NCAA tournament.

Four coaches currently directing ACC programs have yet to take a team to the NCAAs, and are noted below with "None" for best NCAA advance.