Chip Bremer
What a difference a few weeks makes.
After what appeared to be a resurgence of ACC prominence–doubling the conference’s NCAA tournament bids a year ago from four to eight—the ACC took a face plant by only advancing top-seeded Duke beyond the tournament’s first weekend, and then watching the Blue Devils collapse in the regional final after building a 19-point lead.
It was one of the ugliest collective performances in recent memory, and something the conference needs to address as a whole.
Duke’s self-destruction would be considered a massive feat had it not been preceded by a similar implosion the week before, when the sixth-seeded UNC Tar Heels surrendered a 19-point lead to 11-seeded VCU enroute to their second consecutive first-round loss under Hubert Davis—which ultimately led to his removal.
That the tournament’s biggest choke jobs came at the expense of two of the ACC’s top programs could be considered something of a baffling development, but it reveals something about how the conference prepares its teams for the postseason—and it can all be traced back to officiating.
ACC officials are notorious for calling games tighter than officiating teams of other conferences, with the intention of improving overall performance. But this approach is actually having the opposite effect when the postseason gives way to playing styles that emphasize physicality, flow and adaptability. Continued use of hand checks, extra body contact, and other physical measures caused several ACC teams to adjust their playing styles mid-game, and for many, those adjustments came too late—or not at all.
Other ACC tourney entrants like Louisville, Virginia, Miami, Clemson, SMU and NC State did not suffer the same kind of disasters as UNC and Duke. They were just outclassed and overmatched in almost every game they played during that first weekend.
But the level of talent or coaching wasn’t any different than competitors from other conferences. It was the lack of preparedness for the level of physicality and relentless pressure that has become requisite for winning NCAA tournament games. Suddenly, ACC teams are faced with new challenges that didn’t exist during the regular season, and they paid the price this year.
The ACC needs to address this issue from an officiating standpoint and stop trying to pretend the current philosophy reflects the standard by which all conferences operate. Conference games need to allow for more freedom of movement and less stoppages for touch-fouls. This way, teams might be more prepared for the issues they face in the postseason.
Of course, the blame may not fall entirely on ACC officials. Coaches also have a responsibility to prepare their teams for physical play and end-of-game situations—especially in response to full-court pressure—and players have the responsibility to apply what they practice.
Certainly, coaches like Jon Scheyer and Ryan Odom address these issues in game prep, but more focus on these types of situations certainly will become the norm in the future. There’s no telling how UNC’s new coach Michael Malone or NC State’s new coach Justin Gainey will eventually adjust their practices, but it appears both hires were made to raise the playing level to that of the SEC (Gainey) or even the NBA (Malone).
But until the level of play reaches those aspirations or the ACC decides to make the necessary adjustments to its officiating methodology, the conference is doomed to repeat its collective postseason performance as critics chant the “Always Choke Conference.”