The ACC women’s tournament starts this week. What to know before the teams tip off

Virginia Tech and N.C. State earned the ACC Tournament’s top two seeds and possess four of the most recent tournament titles, but March is when anything can happen.

Multiple coaches talked about the ACC’s talent parity, with teams at the bottom of the league hanging with ones at the top.

“Our league is so balanced,” Wolfpack coach Wes Moore said during a conference call on Monday. “There are so many great teams this year that I think it’s wide open. It’ll be interesting to see who can get hot.”

The tournament begins at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Greensboro Coliseum, with Boston College facing Clemson. It continues through the championship game at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Here are storylines to watch throughout the tournament.

N.C. State looks to win fourth title in five years

The Wolfpack won three consecutive ACC championships from 2020 through 2022, with Virginia Tech earning the title last year. N.C. State (25-5) has an opportunity to regain its crown this week and remain an NCAA Tournament host.

The team won’t play until Friday, clinching the double-bye last week and earning the No. 2 seed on Sunday.

Moore said starting the tournament in the quarterfinals is a “double-edged sword.” No teams in the current format have won without the two-day break and teams want it, but opposing teams often have an advantage in the first half.

“The other team’s already played the game. They’ve gotten their jitters out of the way and they’re comfortable in the venue,” Moore said. “Now, here you are having to knock the rust off and get used to where you’re playing.”

N.C. State, however, has the experience to adapt quickly and achieve its goals. Aziaha James and Madison Hayes were on the 2022 championship team. In that same season, Saniya Rivers won the national championship with South Carolina and Mimi Collins went to the Sweet Sixteen with Maryland. Several freshmen played high-level tournaments before arriving in Raleigh.

Plus, the Pack won the Paradise Jam in November after defeating Kentucky, Cincinnati and Colorado.

“It’s a lot of new people, a lot of new pieces,” Moore said, “but at least we know the formula and know how we want to approach it and can go over there with some confidence.”

North Carolina’s limited bench

The Tar Heels (19-11) earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament and will start their postseason Thursday. They’re set to play No. 9 Miami, in what’s expected to be another intense matchup.

UNC enters the tournament with five guards out of the rotation. Kayla McPherson, Ciera Toomey and Laila Hall have missed most, if not all, of the season already. Paulina Paris and Reniya Kelly have been unavailable with lower body injuries since Jan. 14 and Feb. 11, respectively.

Head coach Courtney Banghart said there’s a smaller margin of error, because fewer players are available and fatigue could play a factor.

Carolina earned the first-round bye, but no team outside of the top three has won the title since 1999. Banghart said the team doesn’t view the challenge as a daunting task and is excited to play at least one more day.

“We don’t really look at four games in four days,” Banghart said. “We look at [it as] we have to win Thursday. We have to beat Miami. If we beat Miami, we have an opportunity to play Virginia Tech, which would be the third time for the third straight year. We look at the opportunity to play.”

Can Duke win with youth?

Blue Devils coach Kara Lawson has talked extensively about the relative inexperience of her team, which has a 19-10 record, versus the rest of the ACC.

No. 7 seed Duke’s roster features 11 underclassmen, with four averaging more than 20 minutes per game and sophomore Taina Mair averaging a team-high 31.2 minutes.

“We’ve had to play freshmen more minutes than anybody else in the league this year. To have the year we’ve had is credit to those young players and how they’ve progressed,” Lawson said. “This is an old league. It’s hard to win with youth, and we’ve been able to do that. I think, for us, our players really buy into each other, they buy into the collective success, they buy into winning, I admire them for that.”

Lawson knows how tough the league can be — and like Carolina, it needs to win four games — but her team has shown its ability to defeat more experienced programs.

Kitley’s status remains uncertain for VT

Virginia Tech star center Elizabeth Kitley left the Hokies’ game Sunday with a possible knee injury after drawing a foul. Kitley returned to the bench but did not play. She leads the ACC in rebounds per game (11.4) and ranks No. 2 in the league in scoring (22.8 points), helping the Hokies to a 23-6 record.

Georgia Amoore put up a career-high 39 points in the loss. Head coach Kenny Brooks said Monday that he didn’t know Kitley’s status and could only say it’s a lower extremity injury.

The Hokies — ACC regular-season title and No. 1 seed — have talent in all areas of the floor. Uncertainty around Kitley’s availability, however, could shift the game plan and affect the team’s odds of earning back-to-back tournament titles.

Brooks said everyone needs to be ready, regardless of whether Kitley can play, because they’ll get every other team’s best efforts.

“We’re gonna have to play the game. We’ve got to play it at a very high level, because we’re no longer that team that people don’t respect. They respect you and they want to get a piece of you.”

Other things to watch

Virginia (15-14) could be a dark horse going into the tournament. The Cavaliers took the Hokies down to the wire Sunday, defeating the in-state rival by five points. UVA has wins over seven different league teams, including four on the road. The 11th-seeded Hoos are not the title favorite, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see them make a run.

No. 4 seed Notre Dame (23-6) turned things around quickly after the Wolfpack defense held the Irish under 50 points. It goes into the tournament with a five-game winning streak since that 59-43 loss to N.C. State and plenty of momentum.

Just about every coach in the league this season talked about the growth of women’s basketball, notably in the ACC. UVA and VT recorded the largest women’s basketball crowd in the state on Sunday, with nearly 12,000 fans in attendance. N.C. State home games were sold out all season. With the conference’s parity, it will be interesting to see whether that leads to additional attendance, higher viewership or increased online engagement.