The ACC Tournament belongs in Greensboro
Mar. 6—GREENSBORO
After a one-year hiatus, the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament will return to Greensboro on Tuesday, where the league's 15 teams will take the court in the Greensboro Coliseum.
What was once seemingly an annual tradition in the college basketball world is now potentially on its last leg, as the ACC headquarters migrates from the Triad to the Queen City later this year.
In 2024, the ACC Tournament will take place in Washington, D.C. at Capital One Arena, with no future plans to return to Greensboro following two required trips through 2032, despite a 70-year history with the city.
The conference was founded within the city's walls at Sedgefield Country Club in 1953 and has hosted the ACC Basketball tournament on 28 separate occasions. Reynolds Coliseum — on the campus of North Carolina State University — is the only other venue to host the event a double digit number of times, but has not done so since 1966.
Now, as the conference aims to abandon its history and move the headquarters — which was within 80 miles of the Big Four — it also is neglecting its infrastructure and the city that built it.
And despite Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim's sentiment that the tournament has no value being in Greensboro, it is synonymous with the ACC.
Growing up in Gastonia — the home of James Worthy and Leonard Hamilton — the ACC Tournament was a staple in the school system I grew up in.
In a tradition like no other, televisions were rolled into classrooms and students would don their school's favorite colors, ranging from Carolina blue to the red of the N.C. State Wolfpack.
And if teachers could ever convince their students to pay attention to their curriculum as well as they did the noon game on Wednesday afternoon, it would be a miracle.
In March 2011, I sat in the back of my social studies class at Holbrook Middle School, angled towards the television in the corner to watch North Carolina take on the Miami Hurricanes. With just under 10 minutes to go, the Tar Heels trailed by 19 in front of an unofficial home crowd in Greensboro.
What transpired next would captivate a then-13 year old, as North Carolina stormed back, using a Tyler Zeller buzzer-beater to cap off a 27-6 run and steal the 61-59 victory.
A sea of blue erupted in the stands and a classroom in Lowell, North Carolina was filled with cheers, boos, and one teacher reprimanding a 13-year-old in Carolina blue.
Whether it be the Raycom Sports ticker at the bottom or the logo of the Greensboro Coliseum, a memory over a decade ago remains etched in my brain. I wasn't watching an ACC Tournament being played over 200 miles away from the nearest member institution, but one that was in the heart of North Carolina and in the heart of ACC country.
While cities such as Brooklyn and Washington D.C. have grown a larger presence in the footprint of the ACC, no city represents its schools — particularly four of the seven founders within the state's walls — better than Greensboro.
The future of ACC basketball is uncertain with the site of the conference's tournament in limbo and Greensboro may find itself on the outside looking in.
A trip down I-85 awaits for Commissioner Jim Phillips when the conference's headquarters transition to Charlotte, as the future of the league looks to ignore its past.
Greensboro may not have the glitz and glamor of Brooklyn or the population of Washington D.C., but the Gate City does have one thing no other place can offer: the heartbeat of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
