ACC Basketball: We’re down to one team left heading into second round

A season that started with a beatdown in the ACC/SEC Challenge is now at the stage of the ACC having just one team left heading into the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Clemson and Louisville, both 18-2 in conference play in the regular season, were knocked out on Thursday, and North Carolina, which had to play its way into the first round from the First Four, fell behind by 22 to Ole Miss, rallied to get within two with 1:09 to go, before losing, 71-64.

Leaving the ACC with just Duke (32-3), a 93-49 winner over Mount St. Mary’s in a 1-16 game on Friday.

Clemson (27-7) finished its season with back-to-back losses, to Louisville in the ACC Tournament semifinals last weekend, then as a five seed in the Midwest to 12 seed McNeese State on Thursday.

McNeese State, incidentally, is coached by Will Wade, the coach-in-waiting at NC State, which fired Kevin Keatts earlier this month, less than a year after Keatts had led the Pack on an improbable run to the Final Four.

Louisville (27-8), ranked 10th in the final AP poll, but given just an eight seed in the South by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee, was bounced by ninth-seeded Creighton, from the Big East, 89-75.

The shocker in the Louisville and Clemson losses was how thoroughly dominated both were.

Louisville trailed for more than 37 minutes, set back by a 19-2 Creighton run that sent the Bluejays into the break up 15.

Clemson, in its loss to McNeese State, scored just 13 points in a House of Horrors first half – 5-of-24 shooting, 10 turnovers.

The Tigers made the final score look good by scoring 27 points in the final 4:20, getting a 12-point deficit with a minute to go down to a 69-67 final with four made threes.

North Carolina (23-14) made things interesting a little sooner, cutting the Ole Miss lead to two on an RJ Davis and-one with 1:09 left, before a three from Sean Pedulla, the Virginia Tech transfer, got the margin back out to five, and the Rebels closed things out from there.

Duke, our last team left, plays Baylor, the nine seed in the East Region, on Sunday.