ACC flexes muscle in NCAA tournament

Well after midnight, North Carolina's band had stopped playing. Walking in a hallway inside the Wells Fargo Center, a couple of horn players still euphoric from the Tar Heels' throttling of Indiana picked up on a bigger theme: the Friday night dominance of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

"It's basically the ACC tournament again," one said of the road just ahead, after four ACC teams in two regions advanced to the Elite Eight.

"Which stinks, because I don't want to play Virginia again," said the Tar Heel band man next to him.

From the mouths of trombone players comes truth: The good news for ACC teams is that an entire half of the 2016 NCAA tournament has nothing but ACC teams.

The bad news is that the ACC now has no choice but to face the ACC.

You can understand why that's a problem for North Carolina. The Tar Heels already finished first in the ACC regular season and won the ACC tournament. What will that mean now if UNC - about as dominating as it could be late Friday against Indiana - can't get past Notre Dame on Sunday night in Philadelphia or the Virginia-Syracuse survivor next week in Houston?

It's wrong to go too far in viewing March Madness through the prism of leagues. Did Notre Dame's need for a miracle finish to get past Stephen F. Austin say anything about the relative merits of the ACC vs. the Southland? (Did you know Stephen F. Austin was in the Southland?)

Asked Saturday about evaluating leagues based on NCAA performance, North Carolina coach Roy Williams said, "Depends on which side of the fence I'm on - I agree right now."

Williams did say that in his mind March has confirmed the other months.

"I do believe it was the best league in basketball this year," Williams said. "I do think it will stand the test of time."

Friday's events have significance. You can hate conference realignment all you want, but this was its intent. The rich were going to get richer. ACC blue bloods such as UNC and Virginia placed a bet that there would be room for a Syracuse and a Notre Dame and still room for themselves on Selection Sunday. The league now starts the tournament with more money on the table.

"Certainly when you play Duke and North Carolina regularly - you've got to play them first to have a chance to beat them," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said of how the ACC has been good for his team, just as being in a powerhouse Big East was. "You've got to have them on the schedule. Fortunately, we've been pretty good against them lately and it's given us unbelievable credibility not only in the league but nationally, and I think it's given us confidence to do the stuff we've done the last two years.''

This ACC group still alive does not even include defending national champion Duke, and Louisville could have easily made a run if the school itself hadn't declared it wasn't going to play in this year's tournament, trying to stay ahead of the NCAA police.

Going back to realignment, the ACC actually blundered in one decision, when it didn't take Connecticut as it was plundering the Big East. This league could have had the last two national men's champions and about 67 straight women's national championships. If you say it's all about football, we'll direct you to the ACC football standings. Look for Boston College. Keep looking. (And while B.C. didn't want UConn, it did not have the leverage for veto power. The whole league owns keeping UConn out.)

Nobody from the ACC is too worried about that right now after getting seven 2016 bids, and a record six into the Sweet 16.

Anyone paying attention to history can't be completely shocked Syracuse is still alive even after a 9-9 ACC regular season. (Surprised they got in? We'll give you that.) Jim Boeheim's zone defense is built for March.

Starting in the Elite Eight, we have the ACC half and the rest of the world half. There are no weaklings left in the rest of the world, so this guarantees nothing for the ACC except two teams in the Final Four and one in the final. Not quite the same as when the Big East - only 60 percent as big as this current ACC - took three schools to the 1985 Final Four and two to the final, Villanova emerging into history. And as recently as 2009 the Big East had four of the last eight.

It is noteworthy the ACC got four to the last eight without two of its top four from the regular season: Miami (tied for second, blasted out by Villanova) and Louisville (fourth). Friday, there was a low-grade chant of "ACC" inside the Wells Fargo Center when it was obvious that North Carolina was going to join Notre Dame in the East final.

By late Sunday night, we'll know another band that gets to keep playing. We already know that all around the ACC they'll recognize the tune.

mjensen@phillynews.com

@jensenoffcampus