No. 14 Miami carries top seed into wide-open ACC tourney

Miami coach Jim Larrañaga congratulated his 14th-rankedHurricanes for battling through a “marathon” and claiming a shareof the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season title. TheHurricanes face a different challenge now as the top seed for thisweek’s ACC Tournament.

“He told us what we have next is just a bunch of sprints,” wingJordan Miller said after the team beat Pittsburgh on Saturday toclinch that No. 1 seed.

The Hurricanes, No. 13 Virginia and No. 21 Duke are theheadliners for the five-day event in Greensboro, North Carolina.Yet there’s been plenty of parity in the ACC this season, with noclearly dominant team. That seemingly has the makings for anunpredictable tournament, and it’s not clear how many teams can usethe event to solidify their NCAA Tournament chances.

Miami (24-6, 15-5) claimed the top seed for the first time since2013, when the Hurricanes won three games in the same venue toclaim their lone title. The Hurricanes finished tied atop theleague standings with the Cavaliers (23-6, 15-5), who hold the No.2 seed.

Virginia, which fell on the wrong side of the NCAA bubble lastyear, closed its schedule with wins against Clemson and Louisvilleafter looking wobbly in consecutive losses to Boston College andNorth Carolina.

“I think the last two games were a step in the right direction,”Virginia coach Tony Bennett said after the Louisville win.

DUKE’S SURGE

The fourth-seeded Blue Devils (23-8, 14-6) are the the league’shottest team with six straight wins. Freshman big man KyleFilipowski has been terrific all year (team highs of 15.0 pointsand 9.2 rebounds), but the Blue Devils have taken off with thegrowth and development of freshman point guard Tyrese Proctor andshot-altering big man Dereck Lively II.

Both of them have been key for a team that has forged adefense-and-rebounding identity under first-year coach JonScheyer.

“We’ve won games from loose balls and rebounds,” Scheyer said.“It’s just incredible will, and it’s really effort.”

BREY’S FAREWELL

This is the last time Mike Brey will lead Notre Dame into theACC Tournament, with the school announcing in January he’d stepdown after his 23rd season.

Brey took over in 2000, leading the Fighting Irish as they movedfrom the Big East to the ACC and reaching 13 NCAA Tournaments —including regional finals in 2015 and 2016. One of his biggestmoments came in Greensboro, leading his 2015 team to the ACCTournament title by beating North Carolina.

THE LAST SHOT

Does North Carolina have one last bit of March magic left?

The Tar Heels pulled off an improbable late-season run to reachlast year’s NCAA title game, including a win over Duke in the FinalFour during an epic first-ever NCAA Tournament meeting between therivals. But they’ll arrive in Greensboro as the seventh seed andflirting with becoming the first No. 1-ranked team in TheAssociated Press preseason poll to miss the NCAAs since thetournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

As of Monday, ESPN and BracketMatrix.com — which charted anaverage of 70 mock brackets — had the Tar Heels (19-12, 19-11) wellshort of an NCAA bid.

NCAA BIDS?

The tournament could change the number of NCAA bids for ACCteams.

Miami, Virginia and Duke are set. It also looks likely forfifth-seeded Pittsburgh, a 10-seed in ESPN’s Bracketologyprojections. That’s also where Pitt showed up in 61 ofBracketmatrix.com’s 70 mock brackets on Monday. And sixth-seededNorth Carolina State looks positioned for its first bid since 2018,appearing as a 10-seed on ESPN and in 67 of BracketMatrix’s mockbrackets.

That leaves third-seeded Clemson (22-9, 14-6) alongside UNC onthe cut line, with the Tigers among ESPN’s projected first fourteams out.

“At the end of the day you can’t really worry about all thatbecause then your mind is elsewhere,” Tigers guard Hunter Tysonsaid.

THE SCHEDULE

The ACC Tournament begins with 12th-seeded Florida State and13th-seeded Georgia Tech meeting in Tuesday’s first of threefirst-round games. Winners advance to Thursday’s second roundheadlined by Pitt and N.C. State.

The top four seeds have byes into Thursday’s quarterfinals. Thechampionship game is Saturday night, a little less than 24 hoursbefore the NCAA field is announced.

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AP Sports Writer Hank Kurz in Charlottesville, Virginia,contributed to this report.