ACC WBB Bracket Winners and Losers -- ACC Pick Em -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

The ACC Women’s Basketball bracket is set. Paulie broke down much of the schedule so far, but who are the winners and the losers with the bracket? Today, we'll take a look at who those might be.

The Losers

The three teams who did not make the tournament. For the first time in decades, the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament will not take every team in the conference. Due to the expansion from 15 to 18 teams, the bottom three schools are left out looking in. Miami (4-14 ACC), SMU (2-16), and Wake Forest (2-16) will not make the conference tournament and therefore are also not eligible to make the NCAA Tournament after finishing below .500 in the regular season.

Notre Dame looked to be nearly unbeatable all season. Then, they lost two out of their final three games to NC State and Florida State. The Wolfpack got the head-to-head tiebreaker for the top overall seed. The ACC tiebreaker rules are still better than the SEC, who had to resort to a coin flip.

Louisville had a rocky season as the veteran players didn’t provide as much consistency as hoped for and the plethora of freshmen had growing pains. The Cards won at Florida State and choked away a lead against North Carolina down the stretch. They also got stuck playing Notre Dame twice. In a three-way tie with Florida State and North Carolina, Louisville drew the short straw with the lowest seed.

The Winners

NC State won their final four games of the season to propel themselves to an ACC regular season title and the 1-seed in the tournament. Playing two of the bottom teams in that stretch helped but they did take down Notre Dame too.

Florida State earned the 4-seed and a double in the ACC Tournament. The Seminoles lost at home to Louisville by 14 but went on the road to beat North Carolina by two. A win against Notre Dame down the stretch played a big factor in maintaining pace for a top four seed. The three-way tie between UofL, UNC, and FSU went to the Noles.

ACC Pick Em

We are just one day away from the start of the tournament with three games being played Wednesday beginning at 1:00pm. 12-seed Boston College and 13-seed Syracuse will kick the tournament off. The championship game will be on Sunday at 1:00pm on ESPN. Louisville’s first game will be on Thursday at 7:30pm. They will play the winner of 11-seed Stanford and 14-seed Clemson, both of whom the Cards beat in the regular season.

Big shout out and thanks to Case for being willing to take over the  bracket czar duties this year. We currently have multiple positions vacant in my department at work and another person out with the flu so overtime will be plentiful and my schedule will be a bit demanding. Thankfully, I should still be able to follow parts of the tournament each day.

Make sure and play the Cardinal Couple ACC WBB Tournament Pick Em !! 14 games to pick...pick the most correctly and win. Paulie has either a $25 Gift Card to Cracker Barrel or Wagner's Restaurant for the winner...your choice. Make sure you enter your total score also with you entry. Make sure and enter your picks in the comments section either today or tomorrow by noon. Here's an example, this one from regular reader Nick O. 

Round 1:  Boston College, Virginia, Clemson

Round 2:  North Carolina, Georgia Tech, California, Louisville

Round 3:  Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Louisville 

Semis:     Florida State, Notre Dame

Champ     Notre Dame

Total Points in Final Game:  141  

A Few Late Softball Photos

Over the last week, Louisville softball played five games at home, going 4-1. We had a couple days of beautiful weather and a couple days of less-than-ideal weather. Here's just a few shots from those games.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared