ACC pointing towards another strong season

The Atlantic Coast Conference landed three teams in the Final Four last season. The 15-team league is hoping to gain 10 bids to the NCAA tournament next March.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> The Atlantic Coast Conference has shaken off a four-year Final Four drought with strong back-to-back postseason runs that have included winning one national title, playing for another and putting three teams in the national semifinals.

The trick now is to keep that momentum going for the league that considers itself college basketball’s best. The ACC also wants to increase its number of NCAA Tournament bids toward a still-unreached target of 10 invitations.

“I think with our 15 programs and as good as those programs generally are, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to point to that,” Commissioner John Swofford said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I also don’t think, if you’ve got seven, eight, nine and everybody talked about 10, that’s not failure — especially when they’re winning in the tournament.”

The ACC’s series of expansions over the past decade were supposed to push the league to juggernaut status by adding programs like Louisville, Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh to a lineup that featured tradition-rich charter members Duke and North Carolina.

It’s taken some time — maybe a little longer than expected, the way North Carolina State coach Mark Gottfried sees it — but the league is starting to earn that status.