Single-elimination basketball is always a fun time, but there’s not much at stake in the ACC tourney.  There’s some NCAA seed jockeying possible, but at this point in the season, only so much movement is possible. If N.C. State loses to Pitt in the quarterfinals, the Wolfpack will have some anxious moments on Selection Sunday, but the consensus indicates they’re pretty safe.

So I’d like to stroll down memory lane for a minute. From 1998 to 2000 the ACC employed one of the most bizarre tournament formats ever dreamed up. It was a nine-team league back then and in any sensible bracket the play-in game would pit the eight and nine seeds. But in this creation, the one and nine seeds played in the opening game – which was effectively a quarterfinal game because the winner advanced to the semifinals. So the nine-seed only had to win three games while the seven- and eight-seeds had to participate in the play-in game and win four for a title.

I don’t think the explanation for this ever made sense. It had something to do with N.C. State repeatedly playing in the 8/9 game, although in 1997, eighth-seeded N.C. State beat top-seeded Duke en route to a championship game appearance. Whatever the reason, the logic was shaky. Why a 7/8 play-in would have less of a stigma than an 8/9 game is impossible to justify. But presumably the conference got its members’ approval for the change to take effect.

The lesson here is don’t be afraid to share your crazy ideas. Most of the time they will get rejected and you will get mocked. But once in a while, the time will be right, and people will inexplicably agree with you. To my knowledge, no other tournament has adopted such a silly format.

I’ve given the North Carolina teams semi-home status in the numbers below. I think Virginia Tech will end up being the biggest longshot of any conference tournament participant. They have a 1-in-99,894 chance of a title using this method.

Atlantic Coast Conference
All-kenpom.com: Jahlil Okafor, Duke (kPOY); Anthony Gill, VIrginia; Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia, Jerian Grant, Notre Dame, Terry Rozier, Louisville.

March 10-14 at Greensboro, N.C.

                  Rd1  Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 1 Virginia       100   100  92.8  66.7  42.0
 2 Duke           100   100  80.6  61.3  33.0
 5 N. Carolina    100  87.0  54.0  19.9   9.3
 3 Notre Dame     100   100  74.5  25.3   8.2
 4 Louisville     100   100  43.4  11.8   4.2
 7 N.C. State     100  72.8  16.7   8.3   2.2
 6 Miami FL       100  68.0  19.8   3.7   0.6
 8 Clemson        100  55.0   4.3   0.8   0.1
10 Pitt           100  27.2   2.7   0.8   0.1
11 Wake Forest   72.7  27.0   5.3   0.6   0.07
 9 Florida St.    100  45.0   2.9   0.5   0.06
13 Georgia Tech  55.2   7.7   1.6   0.2   0.02
12 Boston Coll.  44.8   5.2   0.9   0.08  0.01
14 Virginia Tech 27.3   5.0   0.4   0.02  0.001