The Tournament: A History of ACC Men's Basketball

When an Indiana native named Everett Case arrives in Raleigh in the mid-1940s to become the basketball coach at North Carolina State, his vision spearheads not just the rise of the sport at his school and in the region, but the start of an athletic conference that will change college basketball forever.

While Everett Case is the ACC's original driving force, he's not the only icon on Tobacco Road to establish a legacy in the conference's early years. From North Carolina's Frank McGuire to Wake Forest's Bones McKinney and Vic Bubas at Duke, new coaches emerge to challenge the early success of Case. It all precedes a final poignant moment of triumph for him in 1965 at the only home the tournament ever knew up to then.

After a rough start, North Carolina's Dean Smith comes to be known for both dominance and dignity, playing a central role in desegregating the ACC with the recruitment of Charlie Scott. Scott is UNC's first African-American scholarship player and the star on some of Smith's greatest teams in the late 1960s.

While the conference tournament is captivating many by the early 1970s, it can be just as frustrating and even heartbreaking for great teams that don't win it, and thus miss out on a chance to play in the NCAA tournament. An intense and high-impact rivalry develops between Maryland and North Carolina State, capped by the finale of the 1974 ACC tournament in arguably the greatest college basketball game ever -- and a battle that helps shape the future of the sport.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, the ACC continues to be the greatest showcase of talent and drama in all of college basketball. Dean Smith's North Carolina teams may be the class of the conference, but rivals also flourish, including a Virginia team in 1976 led by Wally Walker, and a Duke program that re-emerges with a championship run in 1978 followed by a controversial title two years later.

As the ACC thrives thanks to its groundbreaking tournament and the power of television, 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson enters the conference as one of the most heralded recruits in college basketball history. The Virginia center earns national player of the year honors three times, but never wins the ACC tournament. Meanwhile, Dean Smith earns two more conference titles, and a national championship in 1982 with freshman guard Michael Jordan. The next year, a colorful, charismatic coach named Jim Valvano rides the momentum of an unlikely ACC title to one of the most memorable NCAA runs ever.