The Queen City Is Fit For ACC’s Kings

By Vinnie Iyer
How long has it been since the ACC tournament was held in Charlotte prior to Thursday’s first-round action? Well, it was only six years ago, in 2002, but consider that this year’s venue, Bobcats Arena, didn’t even exist back then.
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You might recall, like North Carolina and Duke were the heavyweights of this past ACC season as the respective No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the conference tourney and fellow national championship contenders, that it was Maryland and Duke in the same powerful positions in ‘02.
The Blue Devils simply did what they did in the two previous Charlotte tourneys in ‘99 and ‘00 -- steamrolled the field of their tough conference opponents to add to their ACC championship hardware.
The Terrapins, meanwhile, stumbled in a surprising loss to NC State in the ACC semis. Carlos Boozer and Duke went on to clobber its intrastate rivals in the finals, but in the “real” finals, of the NCAA Tournament, just three weeks later, it was Juan Dixon and Maryland over Indiana.
Just with the number of ACC teams that can bite in any given game, there’s a pretty good chance that there’s not an expected Duke-North Carolina three-match and rubber game in what’s become one of their more intense season series. But then again, as shooting tragedies have brought the two rival campuses together, there could be a little destiny taking over there.
So if going through Charlotte bodes well for the ACC’s best teams, they might want to schedule it more often here. This arena is great even when the off-the-map Bobcats play here, and there’s certainly a more special energy for the buzz of college hoops -- something that should be trumped come the NCAA’s East regional finals. Alas, the ACC tournament venues have been released through 2015, and the Queen City is shutout through then. On second thought, the QC will take that Blue Devils-Tar Heels matchup while we can get it.↵