Lowest seed to ever win the ACC Tournament

The ACC Tournament is down to just four teams. A quick perusal of the bracket shows a couple of traditional powers on a collision course for the finals, as North Carolina and Virginia took care of business in their respective quarterfinal games. The Tar Heels destroyed Florida State on Thursday afternoon, and will now need to beat Pitt in the semifinals to earn a chance at their 19th ACC Tournament title.

The Cavaliers had their hands full in escaping a game Boston College squad, but instead of facing 2-seed Duke in the semifinals, Tony Bennett's crew will instead go against Kevin Keatts and N.C. State, the 10-seed in the tournament. The Wolfpack led the entire second half to hold off the Blue Devils, and are now just two games away from earning a shocking NCAA Tournament berth.

Though North Carolina and Duke have dominated the ACC Tournament for decades (the two blue bloods have combined for 41 tournament titles), the occasional Cinderella does sneak through. A 6-seed has cut down the nets five times, and a 1-seed hasn't held serve since Virginia won it in 2018.

What is the lowest seed to win the ACC Tournament?

It was only two years ago that Virginia Tech shocked the world by winning the ACC Tournament as a 7-seed. The Hokies cruised into the Barclays Center and went on a stunning run of four wins in four days that included victories over the top three seeds in the conference, in the process, they became the lowest-seeded team to win the tournament.

Amazingly, the Hokies had an easier time as the tournament went along. First, they edged out 10-seed Clemson by one in overtime. Then they handled 2-seed Notre Dame 87-80 in the quarterfinals. The Tar Heels, who would famously make a run to the national championship game three weeks later, were waiting in the semifinals, but Darius Maddox and Keve Aluma combined for 38 points en route to a 72-59 win.

That left only top-seeded Duke in the finals, but in what turned out to be a commonplace occurrence in Mike Krzyzewski's final year, the legendary coach had his big moment spoiled. Hunter Cattoor exploded for 31 points on his way to earning ACC Tournament MVP honors, and the Hokies sent Paolo Banchero and company home empty-handed, 82-67.

Can N.C. State become the first double-digit seed to cut down the nets? The Wolfpack split the season series with semifinal opponent Virginia, but were a combined 0-4 against the Tar Heels and Panthers. As we've seen before, though, anything can happen in the ACC Tournament, and with DJ Horne playing his best basketball of the year, State has a real chance to become the first team to ever win five games in five days to cut down the nets.