ACC’s shaky nonconference showing creates NCAA bid drama as bulk of league play arrives

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — It’s still early for the Atlantic Coast Conference. No one knows that better than N.C. State coach Kevin Keatts, whose team last year found a never-before-seen form just in time to improbably win the league tournament and reach the Final Four.

That doesn’t change the fact this isn’t the place the ACC wanted to be as teams dive into the meat of the league schedule.

A season that began with the publicly stated goal of earning more NCAA Tournament bids — backed by the league continuing to outperform its peers in March Madness — instead had a jarring nonconference showing. That has brought the league into 2025 with just one AP Top 25 team, while others face the question of how much they can improve their standing in a league offering a limited universe of chances for high-end wins.

“At this point, you have to control what you can control,” Keatts said Friday, a day before his team faces rival North Carolina in a rematch of last year’s ACC final. “Most of the talking heads are going to have us with four (bids), maybe an outside chance for five. I just don’t think you can worry about it. I just think you’ve got to lock into your team and figure out how to win games.”

Indeed, though that’s how the trouble began.

Tough start

The ACC is 16-52 against the Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences as of Friday, a win rate of 23.5%, according to Sportradar. That’s by far the worst of those top leagues, led by the SEC (59-19, .756), then followed by the Big Ten (31-23, .574), Big East (18-23, .439) and Big 12 (21-28, .429).

The low point was the SEC’s 14-2 romp against the ACC in that annual interleague contest. The ACC’s wins were No. 4 Duke handing No. 2 Auburn its only loss in a March-worthy throwdown featuring preseason AP All-Americans Cooper Flagg (Duke) and Johni Broome (Auburn), and Clemson beating No. 6 Kentucky.

Multiple coaches on Monday’s league teleconference had no answer for why the league-wide results had been so shaky.

“I don’t…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/accs-shaky-nonconference-showing-creates-211243243.html

Author : Associated Press

Publish date : 2025-01-10 21:12:00

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