The ACC Has A Pair Of Teams In The Final Four (Again)

If you’re an ACC fan, the best part of awaiting Sunday’s NCAA regional finals was knowing that, regardless of who won, a pair of conference teams would advance to the Final Four.

As it was, 10th-seed Syracuse rallied from a 16-point deficit in the second half to upset top-seed Virginia, after which No.1 UNC pulled away to subdue Notre Dame. They meet Saturday to determine who advances to the title contest.

This is the sixth time the ACC has a pair of teams in the same Final Four, and the 25th duo from any conference. That’s only been possible since 1975, when the NCAA began allowing multiple entrants from the same league.

We might quibble with whether Syracuse feels like an ACC team, or whether it deserved an NCAA bid, or whether coach Jim Boeheim is a coaching master or a serial cheater, or both. But in advancing, the Orange assured the third Final Four meeting between ACC contestants, the first between the members of any league since Duke and Maryland clashed in the 2001 national semifinals.

That game, supporters of the Blue Devils and Terrapins surely recall, ended with a Duke victory after trailing by 22 points in the first half. The Devils went on to drop Arizona to win the NCAA title. (The Terps won the championship the following season.)

The other Final Four meeting between ACC squads came in 1981, when North Carolina with James Worthy and Sam Perkins beat Ralph Sampson-led Virginia.

In all, there have been 10 Final Four matches of teams from the same league, about one every four years. Three came in the championship game: the Big 10’s Indiana beat Michigan en route to an undefeated season in 1976; Villanova shocked Georgetown in 1985, the year the Big East had three members in the Final Four; and Kansas, led by Danny Manning and coach Larry Brown, topped Oklahoma in a Big 12 final in 1988.