March Madness bracket predictions: Projected No. 1 seeds – Can ACC get 3?

The ACC could get three No. 1 seeds in the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Three of the top seeds in the NCAA Tournament should be secure but there’s a little drama left for the final one ahead of the Selection Show. Four teams have passed the eye test and stockpiled resumes great enough to lay claim to the number one seeds: Duke, Gonzaga, North Carolina and Virginia. They are the teams projected to get top seeds when the Selection Show begins at 6 p.m. on CBS.

Duke

Duke has looked like the best team in the country–when fully healthy. The Blue Devils put college basketball on notice when they ran the Kentucky Wildcats (a team in contention for a number one seed) off the floor in the Champions Classic opener. Powered by four freshmen (Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett, Tre Jones, and Zion Williamson) the Blue Devils amassed a 29-5 record and took home the ACC Tournament title last night over Florida State. Williamson looks like the runaway winner of the Naismith Player of the Year award and three of Duke’s five losses have come with Williamson watching from the sidelines.

North Carolina

For North Carolina, they spent the lead up to this season in the shadow of Duke’s historic recruiting class. However, Tobacco Road still managed to produce two of the top teams in the entire country this year. The Tar Heels enter Selection Sunday with a 28-6 record after narrowly losing to Duke, 74-73, in the ACC Tournament semifinals–they won the season series against Duke 2-1. Roy Williams has a mix of youthful talent and veteran leadership powering this collection of Tar Heels. Seniors Cam Johnson, Kenny Williams, and Luke Maye have been the backbone for this squad all year, but the play of freshman point guard Coby White has made this team look like previous UNC championship-caliber teams (Nasir Little, the more highly touted recruit has been up-and-down, but when he’s on these Tar Heels reach an entirely different level).

Virginia

Finally, there’s Virginia. The Cavaliers finished the regular season as co-ACC champions alongside the Tar Heels. Once again, Tony Bennett’s patented “Packline” defense has led Virginia to an impressive season. The trio of DeAndre Hunter, Kyle Guy, and Ty Jerome have helped the Cavaliers nearly repeat their pre-NCAA Tournament success of a year ago once again (31-2 in 2017-18 and 29-3 in 2018-19). Virginia isn’t going to give you the same type of entertainment and highlight-filled action as the other three teams likely to be named number one seeds, but defensively they make the game hard for any opponent.

Gonzaga

Gonzaga was one of the two teams that beat Duke with Williamson playing–and the only one to beat Duke at full strength. The Bulldogs’ hiccup in the West Coast Conference championship game against St. Mary’s rubbed some of the shine off a stellar season. Led by upperclassmen Brandon Clarke, Josh Perkins, Killian Tillie, and Rui Hachimura, Gonzaga racked up a 30-3 record on the year. The Bulldogs are just two years removed from going toe-to-toe with the Tar Heels in the national championship game. Once a perennial bracket buster, Gonzaga has made the leap to a collegiate powerhouse in recent years.

Still alive: If Tennessee wins the SEC Tournament and Michigan State wins the Big Ten Tournament, one of them could move to the one line with Gonzaga the most vulnerable due to their weaker schedule and not winning their conference tournament. They join Kentucky and Michigan as two others who should be a two seed at minimum.