– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — For one of the few times in its illustrious history, the Atlantic Coast Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament is taking its show away from Tobacco Road. But given the dominant seasons from North Carolina and Duke, the next dew days in our nation’s capital may sure have a Carolina feel to it.
The beginning of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday starts to answer the question as to whether the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will have a trilogy in the championship game, that after North Carolina swept the season season series and defeated Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium to clinch the ACC regular-season championship outright. Hubert Davis’ Heels are in contention for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and a tournament victory to go along with that regular season crown would put it in a prime position to get a No. 1 — and further put away their disastrous 2023 season where it missed the Big Dance altogether after reaching the national championship game in 2022.
For as much as the Tar Heels and Blue Devils are in the spotlight when approaching conference tournament time, the squads have only met twice in the conference tournament championship game this century, in 2001 and 2011. And if the ACC wants to send five or more teams into this year’s NCAA Tournament, it would behoove a couple of their teams to making big runs,
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday’s event, with all photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Yusuf Abdullah. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 26 pictures in total.
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