The 2016 NCAA Tournament has been dominated by the ACC to date. A record six ACC teams made the Sweet Sixteen, including No. 1 seeds Virginia and North Carolina, and the conference's teams have been among the nation's most impressive squads.
March Madness 2016 times and TV schedule: 4 ACC teams in NCAA Tournament action
Virginia and North Carolina look to continue the ACC’s dominance.
Four of those six ACC teams will play in separate Sweet Sixteen games on Friday, and three are favored to advance. That should be no surprise for No. 1 Virginia and No. 1 North Carolina, who will see No. 4 Iowa State and No. 5 Indiana, respectively. If the Cavaliers can survive the Cyclones’ speedy pace and the Tar Heels can hold the hot-shooting Hoosiers in check, the ACC should see both its No. 1 seeds make the Elite Eight.
It's likely to be a little harder for No. 6 Notre Dame against No. 7 Wisconsin and No. 10 Syracuse against No. 11 Gonzaga. While the Irish and Orange will wear white as the higher seeds in those games, Notre Dame is facing a Wisconsin team that just knocked off No. 2 Xavier, and also beat a No. 10 Pittsburgh team that defeated the Irish earlier this year, and Syracuse is seeing Domantas Sabonis, Kyle Wiltjer, and a bunch of Zags that appear to be peaking at the right time.
Notre Dame is a very slight favorite over the Badgers, but Syracuse is an underdog to Gonzaga.
No conference has ever had four teams make the Final Four in a single season, with 1985’s threesome of Big East schools still standing as the high-water mark in that respect. And the ACC won’t challenge for that distinction in 2016, now that No. 3 Miami and No. 4 Duke have exited the tournament.
But given that all three Big East Final Four teams in 1985 won Elite Eight games over ACC teams to get there, it seems like this NCAA Tournament may be a very cold dish of revenge.
Here’s Friday’s NCAA Tournament TV schedule.
Friday, March 25 (all times Eastern)
No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 4 Iowa State, 7:10 p.m., CBS
No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 7 Wisconsin, 7:27 p.m., TBS
No. 10 Syracuse vs. No. 11 Gonzaga, 9:40 p.m., CBS
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 5 Indiana, 9:57 p.m., TBS
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