Kenny Brooks and the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team are celebrating one of their best seasons yet and will prepare for the ACC tournament as the number-five seed.
Regular-season champion Louisville is the No.-1 seed as the Greensboro Coliseum plays host to the 43rd annual Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament this today (March 4) through Sunday (March 8).
The tournament will feature all 15 ACC teams and 14 games, beginning with three first-round matchups today. Four second-round games are scheduled for Thursday, followed by the quarterfinals on Friday, the semifinals on Saturday and the championship game on Sunday at noon.
The Virginia Tech women’s team will enter the tournament as the five seed, their highest placing since joining the conference in 2004. The seeding caps a historic regular season for the Hokies. The squad amassed the most league wins (11), won three consecutive road league contests and had a four-game winning streak, all program records.
Individuals have earned their places in history as well with the likes of freshman center Elizabeth Kitley earning three ACC Freshman of the Week awards, point guard Taja Cole leading the ACC in assists and junior Aisha Sheppard reaching 1,000 points for her career.
Tech enjoyed success at home in Cassell Coliseum, registering the best winning percentage at home since the 2002-03 season.
As a team, Tech hit 18 3-pointers against Wichita State at the Coqui Classic, setting a program record. Sheppard (219) has climbed into second all-time at Virginia Tech in that category, and sophomore Dara Mabrey (151) is seventh. Sheppard had a school record 35-game streak with at least one 3-point field goal snapped Sunday at Louisville.
Tech will match up with the winner of Wednesday’s North Carolina/Wake Forest contest at 11 a.m. on Thursday in a game televised by Regional Sports Networks. The Hokies swept North Carolina during the regular season and went to Winston-Salem on February 16 and picked up a 73-62 victory over the Demon Deacons.
The Louisville Cardinals claimed their first outright ACC regular-season title after sharing the regular-season title in each of the past two seasons. Louisville is the No. 1 seed for the second time since joining the conference.
Along with the top-seeded Cards (27-3, 16-2), second seed NC State (25-4, 14-4), third seed Duke (18-11, 12-6), and fourth seed Florida State (22-7, 11-7) will receive double byes into Friday’s quarterfinal round.
Tournament play begins at 1 p.m. today, March 4, with No. 12 seed North Carolina (16-13, 7-11) facing No. 13 Wake Forest (14-15, 7-11). The second game will feature No. 10 Notre Dame (13-17, 8-10) against No. 15 Pitt (4-25, 1-17) at 3:30 p.m. First-round action concludes at 6:30 pm., with No. 11 Miami (15-14, 7-11) versus No. 14 Clemson (7-22, 3-15).
The second round opens Thursday at 11 a.m., when Virginia Tech (21-8, 11-7) faces the winner of Wednesday’s first game. No. 8 Syracuse (15-14, 9-9) will face No. 9 Virginia (13-16, 8-10) at 2 p.m. The third game of Thursday’s session has No. 7 Georgia Tech (19-10, 10-8) taking on the winner of Wednesday’s second game at 6 p.m. The second round concludes Thursday at 8 p.m., as No. 6 Boston College (18-11, 11-7) meets the winner of Wednesday evening’s final contest.
No. 4 Florida State begins action on Friday at 11 a.m., when the Seminoles face the winner of Thursday’s first game. No. 1 Louisville opens tournament play at 2 p.m. against Thursday’s second-game winner. The evening session begins at 6 p.m., with No. 2 NC State taking on the winner of Thursday’s third game. No. 3 Duke closes out Friday’s quarterfinal session, facing the winner of the Thursday session’s finale.
The winner of Friday’s first two games will meet in Saturday’s noon semifinal game, while the winners of the Friday evening session will meet Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The championship game will be played Sunday at noon.
All 14 games of this year’s tournament will be televised.
The first, second and quarterfinal rounds will be carried by the ACC’s Regional Sports Network (RSN). The league’s regional sports networks for this year are Fox Sports South, Fox Sports Florida, Fox Sports Sun, Fox Sports Midwest and Fox Sports Indiana. The games will also be available on the Fox Sports GO App but are subject to blackout.
Both Saturday semifinal games will be carried nationally by ESPNU while a national audience will also watch Sunday’s championship game via ESPN2. In addition, all games will be available on the ESPN and FOX Sports apps.
The Greensboro Coliseum will play host to the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament for the 20th time in the last 21 years. This year’s tournament features three teams ranked among the nation’s top 25 in the latest Associated Press poll: including No. 5 Louisville, No. 8 NC State and No. 19 Florida State. Duke also received votes.
The complete 2020 ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament pairings are listed below. For more information on ACC Women’s Basketball, please visit theACC.com.
Thursday, March 5
Game No. 4 – No. 5 Virginia Tech vs. Winner of Game No. 1, 11 a.m. (RSN)
Game No. 5 – No. 8 Syracuse vs. No. 9 Virginia, 2 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 6 – No. Georgia Tech vs. Winner of Game No. 2, 6 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 7 – No. 6 Boston College vs. Winner of Game No. 3, 8 p.m. (RSN)
Friday, March 6
Game No. 8 – No. 4 Florida State vs. Winner of Game No. 4, 11 a.m. (RSN)
Game No. 9 – No. 1 Louisville vs. Winner of Game 5, 2 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 10 – No. 2 NC State vs. Winner of Game No. 6, 6 p.m. (RSN)
Game No. 11 – No. 3 Duke vs. Winner of Game No. 7, 8 p.m. (RSN)
Saturday, March 7
Game No. 12 – ACC Semifinal No. 1, Noon (ESPNU)
Game No. 13 – ACC Semifinal No. 2, 2:30 p.m. (ESPNU)
Sunday, March 8
Game No. 14 – Championship Game, Noon (ESPN2)
–VT Athletics
