2020 ACC men's basketball tournament explained

Year:2020
Conference:ACC
Gender:Men's
Teams:14
Arena:Greensboro Coliseum
City:Greensboro, North Carolina
Champions:Tournament canceled
Television:ESPN, ESPN2, ACCN

The 2020 ACC men's basketball tournament presented by New York Life was the postseason men's basketball tournament for the Atlantic Coast Conference and was held at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, from March 10 to 11, 2020.[1] It was the 67th annual edition of the tournament.

This was the first edition of the tournament to not be available free-to-air at all, as the syndicated ACC package was shut down in favor of the launch of the cable-only ACCN, which exclusively carried the first round of the tournament, with the ESPN networks carrying the remainder of the tournament.

Due to ongoing concerns with the COVID-19 pandemic, officials announced that, initially, the tournament would only be played in front of essential tournament personnel, limited school administrators and student-athlete guests, broadcast television, and credentialed media members present, starting with the quarterfinals; however, shortly before the tipoff of the quarterfinal matchup between Florida State and Clemson, the ACC announced the tournament was canceled and Florida State, the regular season champions, would receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, though that decision became moot with the NCAA Tournament's cancellation later the same day.[2] [3] Florida State was awarded the conference championship along with the trophy for the 2020 tournament.

Seeds

Fourteen of the 15 ACC teams would have participated in the tournament; the other team, Georgia Tech, was banned from postseason play, including the conference tournament, due to NCAA rules violations.[4] Teams were seeded by record within the conference, with a tiebreaker system to seed teams with identical conference records.[5] The top four seeds received double byes, while seeds 5 through 10 received single byes.[6] Ultimately, the tournament being canceled shortly before the quarterfinal games were to have begun resulted in the top four seeds not playing at all.

SeedSchoolConference
Record
Tiebreaker 1Tiebreaker 2Tiebreaker 3Tiebreaker 4
1Florida State16–4
2Virginia15–52–1 vs Duke/Louisville1–1 vs Louisville1–1 vs Florida State
3Louisville15–52–1 vs Duke/Virginia1–1 vs Virginia0–2 vs Florida State
4Duke15–50–2 vs Louisville/Virginia
5NC State10–102–0 vs Notre Dame/Syracuse
6Syracuse10–101–2 vs NC State/Notre Dame1–1 vs Notre Dame0–1 vs Florida State1–3 vs Virginia/Louisville/Duke
7Notre Dame10–101–2 vs NC State/Syracuse1–1 vs Syracuse0–2 vs Florida State0–3 vs Virginia/Louisville/Duke
8Clemson9–11
9Miami7–133–0 vs Boston College/Virginia Tech
10Boston College7–132–1 vs Miami/Virginia Tech
11Virginia Tech7–130–4 vs Miami/Boston College
12Wake Forest6–142–1 vs North Carolina/Pittsburgh1–0 vs Pittsburgh
13Pittsburgh6–142–1 vs North Carolina/Wake Forest0–1 vs Wake Forest
14North Carolina6–141–3 vs Pittsburgh/Wake Forest

Schedule

SessionGameTimeMatchupScoreTelevisionAttendance
First round – Tuesday, March 10
Opening
day
14:30 pmNo. 12 Wake Forest vs No. 13 Pittsburgh72–81ACCN13,310
27:00 pmNo. 11 Virginia Tech vs No. 14 North Carolina56–78
Second round – Wednesday, March 11
1312:00 pmNo. 8 Clemson vs No. 9 Miami69–64ESPNn/a
42:00 pm*No. 5 NC State vs No. 13 Pittsburgh73–58
257:00 pmNo. 7 Notre Dame vs No. 10 Boston College80–58ESPN220,809
69:00 pm*No. 6 Syracuse vs No. 14 North Carolina81–53
Quarterfinals – Thursday, March 12
3712:30 pmNo. 1 Florida State vs No. 8 ClemsoncanceledESPN
82:30 pm*No. 4 Duke vs No. 5 NC State
497:00 pmNo. 2 Virginia vs No. 7 Notre Dame
109:00 pm*No. 3 Louisville vs No. 6 Syracuse
Semifinals – Friday, March 13
5117:00 pmFlorida State/Clemson vs Duke/NC StatecanceledESPN
129:00 pm*Virginia/Notre Dame vs Louisville/Syracuse
Championship – Saturday, March 14
6138:30 pmWinner of game 11 vs Winner of game 12canceledESPN
  • Denotes approximate time. Game times in EDT. Rankings denote tournament seed.

Game summaries

Final

Awards and honors

Tournament MVP: not awarded

All-Tournament Teams: not awarded

First Team

Second Team

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2019–20 ACC Championship Dates and Sites Announced. May 30, 2019. Atlantic Coast Conference. December 19, 2019.
  2. Web site: ACC tournament will keep fans out of its remaining games amid coronavirus outbreak. Carter. Andrew. March 12, 2020. The News & Observer. The McClatchy Company. March 12, 2020.
  3. Web site: Statement from ACC on Men's Basketball Tournament . theacc.com . March 12, 2020 . Atlantic Coast Conference . 12 March 2020.
  4. Web site: Georgia Tech Basketball Banned from 2020 Postseason by NCAA. accsports.com. Brian. Geisinger. September 26, 2019. February 5, 2020.
  5. Web site: New York Life ACC Tournament Tiebreaker and Seedings Procedure . TheACC.com . March 7, 2020 . mdy-all .
  6. News: Georgia Tech postseason ban forces change to ACC tourney format. North State Journal. Raleigh, NC. Brett. Friedlander. September 26, 2019. February 5, 2020.