Field is top-heavy for ACC tourney
Duke hoping freshman star Williamson will return from knee injury
RALEIGH, N.C.— This week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament is all about the league’s heavyweights.
Second-ranked Virginia and third-ranked North Carolina arrive after sharing the regularseason championship and in pursuit of possible No. 1 seeds for the NCAA Tournament. And then there’s fifth-ranked Duke, hoping to get freshman star Zion Williamson — voted ACC player and rookie of the year on Monday — back from a knee injury and prove the Blue Devils are again the team that spent a national-best seven weeks atop the AP Top 25 this season.
The five-day tournament begins Tuesday in Charlotte, marking its return to the state of North Carolina after a threeyear absence — the longest stretch in the event’s 65-year history.
The Virginia Cavaliers (28-2, 16-2) are the reigning champion, continuing a sustained run near the top that started in their breakout year under Tony Bennett in 2014. They earned the No. 1 seed by beating the North Carolina Tar Heels in their only matchup.
Virginia swept the regularseason and tournament titles for the second time under Bennett last season, and suffered its only two losses to the Blue Devils.
“We knew it was going to be a new team,” Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome said after Saturday’s home win against Louisville. “We knew we were going to have to find different ways to be good, but we probably had even higher expectations and are definitely nowhere near our big goals yet.”
The Tar Heels (26-5, 16-2) have been rolling since midJanuary, when they suffered their worst home loss under Roy Williams against Louisville. The 69-61 loss to the Cavaliers on Feb. 11 stands as their only stumble since.
“The one game we lost was to one of the best teams in the country,” UNC senior Luke Maye said. “I think that shows a lot of how we fight and how we play and how we know how to win games. I think that’s shown a lot of growth for our team and I think we’re only going to get better.”
As for the Blue Devils (26-5, 14-4), they’ve played nearly six full games without Williamson since he went down early in the first of two losses to UNC. Coach Mike Krzyzewski said Williamson got in good workouts without contact last week and said that he expected the six-foot-seven, 285-pound national player of the year candidate to start contact work this week.
“They’ve shown that when they’re together, they’re very good,” Krzyzewski said after Saturday’s loss to the Tar Heels. “And we’ve been good, not real good, without Zion. The kids have fought, but it’s inconsistent. It’s not at the level that’s needed to win a championship.
“If Zion is healthy and whatever, we’ll have a chance.”
Williamson’s teammate, R.J. Barrett of Mississauga, also made the all-ACC first team announced Monday. The tournament has long made North Carolina its home, though that has changed as the league expanded its footprint up the eastern seaboard and grew to 15 teams. The ACC has held 51of 65 tournaments in the state where it was founded, the last in 2015 in Greensboro, the league’s headquarters.