Smattering of fans at ACC tournament the latest wrinkle in a season full of them

The ACC spent months planning for a tournament without fans, before the particulars of the season were even finalized. There was an existing proposal for a fan-free Greensboro in-season bubble that was easily repurposed into a tournament plan, once the conference decided in November to move the men’s tournament there from Washington.

Last week, the ACC announced that only families and team guests would be allowed to attend the men’s and women’s tournaments, about 100 or so people per team, per game. Six days later, on Wednesday, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper lifted the cap on arena attendance to 15%, which at the Greensboro Coliseum is about 3,000 fans.

Suddenly, the ACC started scrambling to ask whether it was even possible to alter its carefully designed fan-ban plans. A previously scheduled pre-tournament teleconference Friday now has a new and pressing agenda item as the ACC said Thursday it would sell “a limited number of tickets” to the public, but not how many or how they’ll be distributed.

In many ways, the new uncertainty is a fitting end to an ACC season that has been about adapting on the fly from start to finish, figuring out how to play as many games as possible, making some of it up as it goes along. Most of the time, it was COVID throwing wrenches in the works. This time, with potential fan attendance, it’s the loosening of COVID restrictions.

It’s possible the ACC could put 3,000 fans per session in the upper deck of the Greensboro Coliseum, for example, without compromising its safety standards, but it’s not something that had been seriously considered during months of planning. The ACC will have to think and act quickly to decide how many more people it wants in the building and the best way to get them in if it does.

Which has been the story of the season. In a constantly changing environment, the ACC has made it work, with 36 games postponed — one twice — and nine of those rescheduled. If the ACC can complete its remaining 22 games, it will have played 82% of the schedule. Paul Brazeau, the ACC’s associate commissioner for basketball, said this week he would have taken that in October.

“I had no idea,” Brazeau said. “There was no road map. You had no idea how many games might be lost. You just hoped for really good things. I’ve been tremendously sad for the players and the people who have put so much effort into trying to play and staying safe and all the protocols and testing, everything they have to do, but the virus doesn’t care how much you’ve planned and tested and sacrificed. It doesn’t care. It’ll still get you.”

While some of the flash points — like Miami refusing to play after North Carolina players attended a party celebrating the Duke win, or North Carolina scheduling a pair of nonconference games when the ACC couldn’t fill holes on its schedule — got most of the attention, there was plenty of cooperation behind the scenes. When Pittsburgh filled Louisville’s spot at Virginia on Feb. 6 on short notice, Louisville helped Pitt take over its hotel rooms in Charlottesville, Brazeau said.

Like the attendance decision the ACC now faces, there are still wrinkles ahead. The ACC tournament will be seeded by winning percentage, which in this extremely unbalanced schedule, even by ACC standards, will inevitably penalize some teams and reward others. Some teams may end up playing 19 ACC games (Miami) and others as few as 13 (Boston College).

So even though Georgia Tech, at 8-6, has played the toughest conference schedule in the ACC by Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings and Duke, at 9-6, has played the easiest, the Yellow Jackets would be seeded behind the Blue Devils if the tournament started today.

“Unless you play a true round robin and everybody plays everybody twice, it’s never equitable,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell, whose Tigers have played the second-toughest schedule and are a game ahead of Duke at the moment.

These conversations about matters related to the tournament underline that the finish line is in sight. Getting there, however, remains anything but certain.

“It’s getting close to crunch time,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “You don’t want a shutdown or a pause now. … With the ACC and NCAA tournaments coming up, you’re just hopeful nothing’s going to come down that would be tough to absorb at this stage.”

As for what happens if there is a positive test at the tournament, Brazeau said the ACC “will let the medical guidelines be our guide.” It wouldn’t be the first time this season the ACC had to adapt quickly. A week ago, there was no chance any fans would be able to see the tournament. Now, there might even be fans in the upper deck on a Tuesday. Anything’s possible.