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ACC Sports Weekly Update

Here's a quick look at the ACC winter and spring sports entering the women's basketball tournament, which will be played Feb. 28-March 4, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

ACC Women’s Basketball Notes
  • The ACC is the No. 1 conference in the latest RPI and strength of schedule rankings. Three ACC teams are ranked among the top seven in the RPI, five rank among the top 25, and eight among the top 50. (No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 5 Louisville, No. 7 Florida State, No. 12 Duke, No. 21 NC State, No. 30 Syracuse, No. 34 Virginia, No. 46 Miami)
  • Five conference teams enter the 2018 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament ranked in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Poll. (No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 5 Louisville, No. 11 Florida State, No. 18 Duke, No. 23 NC State)
  • Six ACC teams are ranked in the latest USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll.  (No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 5 Louisville, No. 11 Florida State, No. 15 Duke, No. 22 NC State, No. 23 Syracuse) 
  • This marks the 38th time in the 41-year history of the ACC Women’s Tournament that at least one participating team has been ranked among the nation’s top 10. It’s the 24th tournament that has featured multiple teams ranked among the top 10 nationally.
  • Seven ACC teams have already secured 20-win seasons, the most among all conferences – Louisville (29), Notre Dame (27), Florida State (24), Duke (22), NC State (22), Syracuse (22), Miami (20).
  • ACC teams posted a 152-45 record (.772) against non-conference opposition during the 2017-18 regular season, including 11 wins over Top 25 teams. The 152 non-conference wins are the most of any league.
  • The latest ESPN Bracketology includes eight ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament, the most from any conference.
  • With its inception in 1978, the ACC boasts the oldest NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament in the nation.
  • This year marks the 18th time in the past 19 seasons that the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament has been held at the Greensboro Coliseum. The venue first hosted the tournament in 2000.
  • The inaugural tournament was held in 1978 at Virginia’s University Hall. The trend of campus sites continued with stops at Maryland’s Cole Field House (1980), Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum (1981) and NC State’s Reynolds Coliseum (1982). The tournament remained in the state of North Carolina from 1983 through 1991 at the Cumberland County Memorial Arena in Fayetteville. Winthrop Coliseum in Rock Hill, South Carolina, played host from 1992 through 1996, followed by a three-year run at Charlotte, North Carolina’s Independence Arena. The Greensboro Coliseum hosted for 17 consecutive years from 2000 through 2016, and the HTC Center in Conway, South Carolina, welcomed the event in 2017.
  • Louisville enters the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the first time since joining the conference prior to the 2014-15 season. The top-seeded team has won the ACC Tournament 22 of 40 times (55 percent), including 15 of the last 17 tournaments.
  • Notre Dame enters the 2018 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament as the four-time defending champion. Notre Dame and Duke (2001-04) are the only programs in league history to claim four straight outright ACC regular-season titles and the ACC Tournament championship in the same season. Notre Dame seeks to match Duke (2000-04) as the only program to win five straight ACC Tournament titles.
  • Notre Dame has won 12-straight ACC Tournament games. Duke won an ACC-record 17-straight tournament games from 2000-05.
  • Six current ACC members have won the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament in its 40-year history. North Carolina owns nine Tournament titles – the most of any current ACC school.
  • The lowest seed to win any of the previous 40 tournaments was No. 5  North Carolina in 1984 and No. 5 Maryland in 1986.
  • There have been 17 overtime games in the history of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, most recently Pitt’s 82-72 win over North Carolina in the 2016 opening round. Two championship games have gone into overtime. The first of those came in 1993, when Virginia outlasted Maryland in a triple-overtime thriller, 106-103. The 2009 tournament saw Maryland edge Duke in OT, 92-89. 
  • North Carolina leads all schools with 65 student-athletes voted to the All-Tournament team. Duke follows with 58. 

ACC Winter Sports Notes

Men’s Basketball
  • Five ACC teams are among this week’s Associated Press Top 25: No. 1 Virginia, No. 5 Duke, No. 9 North Carolina, and No. 18 Clemson.
  • Four ACC teams are ranked in the top 10 of the RPI, twice as many as any other conference: No. 1 Virginia, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 5 Duke, and No. 10 Clemson.
  • The latest ESPN Bracketology includes nine ACC teams in the NCAA Tournament – the most of any conference – and two more that are on the bubble.
  • In Ken Pomeroy’s rankings, the ACC leads all conferences with three teams in the top 10, nine in the top 40, 10 in the top 50, and 11 in the top 60.
Swimming & Diving
  • Seven ACC men’s squads are ranked in the final CSCAA poll, led by No. 5 NC State. Six women’s teams are in the final poll, led by No. 7 Virginia.

Indoor Track & Field
  • Florida State swept the ACC Men’s and Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championships, held this past week in Clemson, South Carolina. 

Wrestling
  • Three of the six ACC teams are ranked this week in the NWCA Poll: No. 6 NC State, No. 10 Virginia Tech, and No. 24 North Carolina.
  • The ACC Wrestling Championship will be held Saturday, March 3, at Carmichael Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Fencing
  • Two of the four ACC women’s fencing teams are ranked in the top 10 of the latest CollegeFencing360.com Women’s Coaches Poll – No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 10 Duke. The Irish are No. 2 in the CollegeFencing360.com Men’s Coaches Poll followed by No. 9 Duke. 

ACC Spring Sports Notes

Baseball
  • Eight of the 14 ACC teams are ranked this week, including four that hold spots in the top 10. 

Softball
  • The ACC won the Big Ten/ACC Softball Challenge for the second-straight year, defeating the Big Ten 26-14.

Men’s Lacrosse
  • All five ACC teams are ranked in the Maverik Media Poll – No. 3 Duke, No. 4 Virginia, No. 8 Notre Dame, No. 10 North Carolina and No. 12 Syracuse.

Women’s Lacrosse
  • Seven ACC teams are ranked in the Cascade Media Poll – No. 2 Boston College, No. 3 North Carolina, No. 7 Syracuse, No. 11 Virginia, No. 14 Duke, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 18 Notre Dame. 

Golf
  • Led by No. 10 Georgia Tech, four ACC men’s teams are ranked in the latest Golfstat rankings. No. 5 Duke leads three ACC women’s teams in the rankings.

Tennis
  • ACC teams won both the men’s (Wake Forest) and women’s (North Carolina) 2018 ITA Indoor National Championships.  The Demon Deacons and Tar Heels are ranked No. 1 in the latest ITA Polls.