The Syracuse Orange took down the North Carolina Tar Heels this past weekend in a thrilling overtime game. With the win, Syracuse is guaranteed the first seed in the ACC Tournament. Elsewhere, Virginia fell to Duke on Saturday leaving the Cavaliers with the fifth seed in the conference, once again. With the win, Duke captures the second seed.
Currently North Carolina and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish each sit at 2-1 1-2 in the ACC with the tie-breaking, head-to-head matchup looming this weekend in South Bend, IN. The game will decide the third and fourth seeds in the ACC Tournament.
So, what this means is that on two Fridays from now Syracuse, as the one seed, will play the loser of the Notre Dame-UNC game while Duke, as the two seed, will play the winner. The Saturday following, Virginia will play the Pennsylvania Quakers in a rather meaningless game for both teams.
Personally, I’d rather play North Carolina. Given how poorly the defense played this past week against the Tar Heels, I’d love to see the Orange get another bite at the apple. Either way, it’s going to be a tough matchup.
Syracuse has played Carolina in the ACC Semifinals in each of the last two seasons with Syracuse winning both games. The only time Syracuse and Notre Dame have played in the ACC Tournament was back in SU’s first year, 2014, when the Orange lost to the Irish 15-14 in the ACC Championship.