WALDRON GRAIN & FUEL

03/09 13:42 CDT The ACC Tournament arrives with the league poised to claim a hefty haul of March Madness bids again The ACC Tournament arrives with the league poised to claim a hefty haul of March Madness bids again By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer The Atlantic Coast Conference entered the season hoping to create a jolt for men's basketball, a flagship sport facing a dwindling count of March Madness bids in recent years. "We just weren't performing at the level that anybody was satisfied with," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips told The Associated Press. It looks like those efforts worked entering this week's ACC Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina. Duke arrives as the No. 1-ranked team in the AP Top 25 after a second straight one-loss run through the league. But the ACC overall has positioned itself to reclaim bids that had gone missing in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. "There's no question the league is elevated," Duke coach Jon Scheyer said after Saturday's win against rival North Carolina in the regular-season finale. "The metrics would tell you that, the number of teams we're going to get in the (NCAAs) would tell you that. And I think we've really been tested in different ways." The ACC had a league-record nine NCAA bids in 2017 and 2018, but slid to five from 2022-24, then four as an 18-team league last year --- the fewest since getting four in 2013 with just 12 schools. That coincided with a multi-year sideline overhaul headlined by retirements of Hall of Famers like UNC's Roy Williams (2021), Duke's Mike Krzyzewski (2022) and Syracuse's Jim Boeheim (2023). The league is projected to have eight bids according to Monday's latest projections from ESPN, BracketMatrix.com --- which averaged 79 mock brackets ---and Bart Torvik's analytics site. It comes after multiple moves such as cutting a 20-game league slate to 18 this year so teams had more flexibility to schedule quality nonconference matchups. Phillips has pointed to multiple steps emerging from a multi-year evaluation on how to stop the slide, such as elevated financial investments by schools and the league consulting with tournament-projection analysts like Jerry Palm and Joe Lunardi. "We had done everything we possibly could to prepare for the year," Phillips said. "What you don't know is what does personnel look like, how good teams are going to be or how well they come together." The metrics painted a picture of gains: --- The ACC has had four or five teams ranked in the AP Top 25 in 15 of 18 polls this year after failing to have more than three all last year; --- The league closed the regular season with eight teams in the top 40 of the NET, double this time last year; --- And the ACC went from having just 29 Quadrant 1 wins that top a postseason rsum at this time last year to 74 as of Sunday's games. That includes eight teams managing at least five each compared to only Duke reaching that marker last year. "In the end, I think we were all really cautiously optimistic about how the year was going to be," Phillips said. "We still have work to do, but this has been a major re-correction for the ACC to get back to where they've been in the past."

Duke's health The Blue Devils (29-2, 17-1) suddenly have health worries. Starting big man Patrick Ngongba II sat out Saturday with right-foot soreness. Then starting point guard Caleb Foster was hobbled late in the first half when he stumbled backwards and planted his right foot awkwardly, then immediately turned to the bench. The junior checked out and was wearing a boot on the bench in the second half. "Health going into the NCAA Tournament is the priority, it just is," Scheyer said. "The ACC Tournament, we want to be ready to go. I can tell you this: I'll be shocked if both of them are playing next week."

Fast starts No. 10 Virginia and Miami had strong debuts under first-year coaches. The Cavaliers (27-4, 15-3) are the No. 2 seed under Ryan Odom. His team was among the NCAA selection committee's top 16 seeds in its preliminary rankings last month. "We did talk about NCAA Tournament seeding, just painted a picture for them that we are playing for something right now," Odom said after Saturday's win against rival Virginia Tech. The Hurricanes (24-7, 13-5) are the 3-seed under Jai Lucas, the 37-year-old who had worked the previous three seasons under Scheyer at Duke.

Wilson-less Tar Heels

No. 19 North Carolina went from being on the verge of getting star freshman Caleb Wilson back from a left-hand injury to losing him for the season to a broken right thumb. The fourth-seeded Tar Heels (24-7, 12-6) are 5-2 without Wilson this year, but the injury is a massive blow to their chances of making a deep March push. "I love these kids, I love the fight, the resiliency, the perseverance of this group," coach Hubert Davis said after Saturday's loss at Duke. "And I'll roll with this team and this group every day."

Bubble watch Monday's projected tournament teams included fifth-seeded Clemson, sixth-seeded Louisville --- which re-entered Monday's AP Top 25 at No. 24 --- seventh-seeded N.C. State and 11th-seeded SMU. Torvik's T-Ranketology and ESPN both had 10th-seeded Stanford and 12th-seeded Virginia Tech among the first teams outside the field of 68, while ninth-seeded California is also hovering with a chance to help its bid hopes.

The schedule This marks the second year of a 15-team bracket for the 18-team league. Notre Dame, Boston College and Georgia Tech failed to qualify. Play opens Tuesday with three first-round games. The top four seeds have double-round byes into Thursday's quarterfinals. The semifinals are Friday night, followed by Saturday's championship. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball