ACC Tournament 2013: Miami tops UNC to win conference title

So where do the Hurricanes go from here? They certainly have the resume to merit a No. 1 seed, sporting a No. 4 RPI and a 9-2 record against Top 50 teams, including signature wins over Duke and Michigan State. On the other hand, this is one of the more crowded fields in recent memory. Louisville, Indiana, Gonzaga, Kansas and Duke all have worthy claims to one of those four spots.

In the end, the decision may come down to tournament winners. It is extremely rare for a team with Miami’s track record to win both the regular season and conference tournament and not get a No. 1 seed. By that criteria, Duke and Indiana could be on the outside looking in, although the Hoosiers’ resume is too good for the committee to ignore despite not being able to beat Wisconsin. The Zags may get dinged for coming from a weak conference, but their numbers on paper are otherwise impeccable. Louisville and Kansas should be considered locks for dominating their respective tournaments.

It’s not quite as good as the David Robinson videobomb, but still good nonetheless. Jim Larranaga was just trying to do a postgame interview. But no ... nope. Julian Gamble had other ideas.

“Hello”

The game started off as a madcap barrage of three-pointers. Miami and North combined for 15 shots from beyond the arc in the first half alone. It was a thrilling back-and-forth battle with 14 lead changes. The Hurricanes went into halftime up 44-41.

The second half was more of the same -- plenty of points on both sides and neither team managing to pull away. North Carolina held its biggest lead of the day, 63-58, with 10:53 left in the game, but Miami rattled off a 14-6 run to take the lead for good. A series of free throws at the end of the game inflated the final score.

Fact: Hands are an important part of playing basketball. That’s only partially true for UNC sophomore P.J. Hairston, who leads the Tar Heels with 22 points against Miami in the ACC championship game. More impressive is that he is 6-for-9 in three-point attempts so far, with this thing on his hand.

Miami is currently shooting 54.5 percent from the field, and North Carolina has made 43.8 percent of its field goals. The refs have been letting the players play for the most part, as only 10 personal fouls have been called and seven free throws attempted.

The Hurricanes are playing the kind of fast-tempo offense they thrive in, and if they keep it up, may be able to wear down the Heels in the second half.

Follow along as Miami and UNC battle it out for the ACC Championship.

Miami swept North Carolina in the regular season, and in their last matchup, the Hurricanes made 15 three-pointers and destroyed the Heels 87-61. UNC has been playing much better since then and will have a home-court advantage in Greensboro. This rematch isn’t expected to be quite as one-sided.

Time and TV listings: 1 PM ET, ESPN/ACC Network

The seeding belies the relative importance of Sunday’s ACC Championship game to the two fanbases involved.

For North Carolina, there’s an element of ho-hum here. After losing Tyler Zeller, Harrison Barnes, and Cody Marshall, anything this year was gravy, and the Tar Heels had a decent season - 12-6, third-place finish - and with Maryland knocking off Duke in the quarterfinals, there was no epic match-up with their bitter rivals in the conference tourney. With wins over Florida State and Maryland, they’re now in their 32nd conference championship game. They’re in the NCAA Tournament with a middle-tier seed no matter what happens Sunday.

No context needed.

Wells finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for Maryland.

• Your Bracketology update

Maryland looks for its second-straight victory over a higher seed against North Carolina. On Friday, the Terrapins knocked off No. 2 Duke, 83-74. If it can get past the Tar Heels and take on Miami in the championship game, Maryland will have faced the top three seeds in the ACC.

Here is the updated schedule for Saturday:

Miami picked up 13 offense rebounds that led to a host of second chance points for the Hurricanes, and their clean and deliberate game didn’t give N.C. State much of a chance. The Wolfpack committed 14 turnovers and went just 14-of-25 from the free throw line.

• Your Bracketology update

We’re back for another day of ACC Tournament live-blogging. Ben Swain, our humble live-blogger, is caffeinated, alive and well, returning live from the semifinal round of the ACC Tournament.

On tap today, Miami and North Carolina State battle in the first semifinal. Miami comes into the game as the No. 1 seed and took down Boston College on Friday to make it to the Final Four. North Carolina State took out Virginia Tech on Thursday, then beat Virginia on Friday to earn a semifinal bid.

SB Nation bracketologist Chris Dobbertean described Maryland’s situation as such:

The Tar Heels won both meetings between the two this season. The first was a 62-52 win at North Carolina on Jan. 19, then North Carolina went on the road to beat the Terrapins, 79-68, on March 6.

No. 1 seed Miami tips off against No. 5 seed N.C. State at 1 p.m. ET Saturday in Greensboro, N.C. The Hurricanes are ranked ninth nationally, and while both of these teams will make the NCAA Tournament, Miami has never played in an ACC Championship game. The Wolfpack were last there in 2007.

Miami has cooled off a bit from an impressive start to the season and needed a huge second half effort to knock off No. 8 seed Boston College, 69-58, Friday in the quarterfinals.

With a little more than 13 minutes remaining, Duke’s Mason Plumlee stepped to the free throw line and calmly hit the pair. The Blue Devils were on a bit of a run -- Plumlee’s free throws had come after five straight points by Ryan Kelly -- and the score was now 47-46, Maryland. It would never get any closer than that, as Mike Krzyzewski’s team would only score six points over the next seven minutes, missing eight jump shots as the Terrapins pulled ahead by 13.

While it would be wrong to call the Duke loss to Maryland shocking, whenever a likely No. 1 seed loses on a neutral court to a bubble team, the result should be considered a surprise. So how did it happen? Whenever a surprising outcome occurs in a basketball game, three point shooting is the first place to look for answers.

The 2013 ACC tournament semifinal starts on Saturday. Only four teams remain in the quest for the automatic NCAA bid, and there’s at least one bubble team still looking to impress the Selection Committee.

The biggest surprise of the quarterfinal round was Maryland. Lingering on the edge of the bubble, the Terrapins pulled off a huge upset over Duke. Win or lose Saturday, they have forced themselves into the conversation on Selection Sunday. Meanwhile, N.C. State ended Virginia’s tourney hopes with a thorough drubbing, and are just looking to boost their seeding now.

The top eight seeds in the ACC tournament were in action on Friday, and two of the higher-seeded teams fell in the quarterfinals.

Miami faces N.C. State on Saturday in their semi-final matchup, and North Carolina faces Maryland. Click here to view the full tournament bracket.

Florida State struggled to take care of the ball against North Carolina, as the Seminoles turned the ball over 17 times. The Tar Heels also had more success from distance, as they sank 10 three-point shots compared with only three for the Seminoles.

Click here to view the full ACC tournament bracket.

Florida St.‘s 9-9 record in the AAC might not be all that fearsome, but its tomahawk chop is. Here’s a picture of it in action, via Bomani Jones.

This gesture, fondly known as the ‘Nole chop, can make any Seminole fan look fearsome. Hopefully for the fans, the team resembles the chop as they play North Carolina in the ACC tournament quarterfinals Friday night.

The Terrapins started the game with a 12-2 run and did not trail once. The Blue Devils cut the lead to two multiple times, but Maryland answered every Duke run with a run of its own.

Maryland had a strong shooting performance, sinking 50 percent of their shots from the field while making 23 of their 25 free throw attempts.

(h/t to the Internet’s @xmasape)

The second half was more of the same, as N.C. State started things off with a 14-4 run to put the Cavaliers. Virginia never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

This is a major blow to Virginia’s tourney hopes. One of the major bubble teams, it needed a win here, or at least a competitive game. Instead, the Cavaliers got blown out of the arena and finish the season on a sour note, losing three out of their last four games. They may find themselves disappointed on Selection Sunday.

Miami received a scare from Boston College as the game was tight until the last two minutes, when the Hurricanes pulled away to win, 69-58. Next up for Miami is either four-seed Virginia or five-seed N.C. State, who meet in a game that has plenty of NCAA Tournament implications. The Hurricanes will need to play better than they did on Friday if they hope to advance past either of those teams and into the championship.

The winner of that game will take on the winner of three-seed North Carolina and six-seed Florida State. Florida State defeated Clemson on Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals, but lost both meetings with the Tarheels in the regular season.

Top-seeded Miami survived a scare from eighth-seeded Boston College in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals on Friday. The Hurricanes won, 69-58, but the Eagles gave them everything they could handle with Miami only pulling away in the last two minutes of the game.

The Hurricanes started the game just like they ended it, on a big run. Miami jumped out to a 15-4 lead early that they stretched to 23-11, but just like they did on Thursday, Boston College made a big comeback, going on a 12-0 run to tie the game at 23 before taking the lead at half, 27-25.