Tag: Greensboro Coliseum

A UNC-NC State ACC Championship would clean up in North Carolina

Greensboro, NC is known as Tournament Town. A UNC-NC State ACC Championship would clean up at the Greensboro Coliseum.

While I personally think the ACC Tournament should stay in Greensboro, NC, I understand the conference’s decision to play it at rotating venues.

Playing in Greensboro would give UNC, NC State, Duke and Wake Forest home-court advantages, as no other ACC team resides in North Carolina.  The ACC Tournament has traveled to Atlanta, Ga., New York City and Washington, DC in recent years.

You could make the case for Atlanta and DC creating home-court advantage for Georgia Tech and UVA, respectively, but the college basketball following is nowhere near as large compared to North Carolina.

If sports are truly all about making money, it makes sense to keep the ACC Tournament in Greensboro. Think about tonight’s UNC-NC State ACC Championship game alone. Both schools are within a 75-minute drive and have extremely passionate fanbases. Greensboro would essentially shut down for the day and local business would be boomin’.

But the game is being played in the nation’s capital. Given the ACC Title game is on a Saturday, I’m sure there’ll be plenty fans who make the trip up. I also bet there will be more Carolina blue lining the stands at Capital One Arena, but a strong sea of red, too.

If tonight’s game isn’t packed to the brim, I think the ACC will take a long, hard look at making Greensboro the permanent, future host of its conference basketball tournament.

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2020 ACC Tournament Continuation: Notre Dame upsets Virginia at buzzer

The Irish take down the defending national champs in epic fashion!

Notre Dame might have gotten the 2020 ACC Tournament victory it needed to earn an at-large spot in March Madness, and in an epic way. Facing an uphill battle in the quarterfinals against No. 2 seed and defending national champion Virginia, the Irish needed everything they had to pull off the upset. It was enough to celebrate an 80-79 win in overtime.

Notre Dame set the tone for this game early, beginning it on a 12-2 run. Virginia rallied to tie the game at 17, but the Irish caught fire again, going on a 21-4 run to take a 17-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes left in the first half. That paved the way for a 10-point advantage. However, that was only the beginning.

The Irish continue to hold the lead during the second half, answering every Cavaliers run. They were up, 68-62, with 22 seconds left in regulation, but John Mooney missed the front end of a one-and-one, allowing Casey Morsell to cut it to 68-65 on a 3 with six seconds left. Dane Goodwin was fouled with three seconds remaining, but he also missed the first shot of a one-and-one. That allowed Mamadi Diakite to grab the rebound and launch a prayer from three-quarter court at the buzzer — and hit it, tying the score to force overtime and send the Greensboro Coliseum into a frenzy.

The teams traded leads in overtime and even were deadlocked a few times before Braxton Key made a 3 to give the Cavaliers a 79-76 lead with 39 seconds left. Mooney cut the deficit to 79-78 with a free-throw line jumper, then rebounded a missed one-and-one before clanking the go-ahead jumper and being forced to foul Kihei Clark with 10 seconds to go. Clark also missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Juwan Durham got the rebound. Durham had just enough time to go the length of the court, put up a finger roll and watch the ball go through the hoop as time expired, making his teammates and the Irish contingent of fans in attendance go absolutely bonkers.

Mooney was the big player for the Irish, leading them with 28 points, 14 rebounds and three steals. Prentiss Hubb scored 15 points, including three 3-pointers, and dished out seven assists. Durham flirted with a double-double with a line of 10 points and eight rebounds. Rex Pflueger established his own presence with 10 boards.

Diakite achieved a double-double of 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Cavaliers before fouling out in overtime. Jay Huff nearly joined the double-double club with 16 points and nine rebounds. Clark did the same in finishing with 11 points and a game-high nine assists, as did Key with nine points and 11 boards. Tomas Woldetensae scored 12 points, all of which came on 3-pointers.

Notre Dame Plays on ACC Tournament’s Last Normal Night

Notre Dame began its ACC tournament run against Boston College on Wednesday with fans in attendance at Greensboro Coliseum.

Notre Dame began its ACC tournament run against Boston College on Wednesday with fans in attendance at Greensboro Coliseum. The crowd was sparse, which is expected during the early rounds of these conference tourneys, especially when marquee programs aren’t involved. That’s not a knock on the Irish, but let’s just say the basketball program has a long way to go to catch up with the football program in prestige.

At the same time, it’s fair to say the coronavirus pandemic might also have affected the crowd size. And it’s that very pandemic that likely will prevent any fans from attending the rest of the tournament. As of this writing, no official word had come down yet, but speculation on Twitter suggests the ACC will follow the Big Ten, Big 12 and others in banning fans from the rest of their tournament games.

Coupled with no fans being allowed at the NCAA tournament at all, this surely was the last night of normal college basketball of the season at the Division I level. Even if the Irish receive an NIT invite and a home game, the prospect of fans inside Purcell Pavilion for it is looking less likely. They should be likely they had the opportunity to play Wednesday’s game in front of anyone from the general public.

We’re undoubtedly living in the most uncertain time to be a sports fan in our lifetimes. Thursday and beyond will confirm that. It’s unfortunate it had to happen during the time of year everyone is focused on college basketball. Alas, as the song goes, que sera sera.