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LOS ANGELES — Armando Bacot and his North Carolina teammates heard the bashing about the ACC’s quality this season and they’ve added it as a chip on their broad shoulders.

Ever since Zion Williamson left Duke for the NBA in 2019 after one season, “I feel like the respect for the ACC just in general kind of went down,” Bacot said.

Yet, the league is having the last laugh in the NCAA Tournament so far.

Besides the top-seeded Tar Heels and sixth-seeded Clemson in the West Regional, No. 4 seed Duke and No. 11 seed North Carolina State remain in the South bracket. It’s the 13th time the league has had at least four teams in the Sweet 16.

“Most ACC programs are playing a high-level non-conference schedule, too, so I think that really plays a factor,” Bacot said. “I feel like other conferences might not be as strong or they’re kind of manipulating it in a way. Hopefully everyone sees after this year how competitive ACC basketball is and how good the teams are.”

The Tar Heels (29-7), who missed the tournament last year, will try to prove it against fourth-seeded Alabama (23-11) on Thursday in the Sweet 16.

ACC teams went 8-1 during the first week of the NCAA Tournament, the most of any league, with the victories coming by an average of 18.4 points per game. The league received five bids, with only Virginia losing in the First Four to Colorado State.

Coach Hubert Davis is taking a page from his predecessors Dean Smith and Roy Williams in breaking the NCAA Tournament into mini-tourneys. The Tar Heels won two games in the Charlotte tourney to advance to what Davis calls the “Los Angeles Invitational.”

“They’re always ready for the moment. At Carolina, there’s very few programs that are at our level, and the spotlight is bright playing at North Carolina,” said Davis, who has spent 12 years coaching at the school where he starred from 1988-92. “This is something that our guys not only are used to or accustomed to, but it’s a position that they want to be in.”

The ACC has continued to outperform other leagues in recent NCAA Tournaments. Miami reached the Final Four last year, Duke and North Carolina were there in 2022, Virginia won the title in 2019 and the Tar Heels were champions in 2017.

“I just think that there’s great parity in our league,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “I think because we have a lot of different styles of play in our league that, when we get to the NCAA Tournament, we’ve kind of seen everything. Our teams adjust and we seem to play very well this time of year.”

Thursday’s first game pits second-seeded Arizona (27-8) against No. 6 seed Clemson (23-11) at Crypto.com Arena.

Clemson played Sunday night in Memphis, Tennessee, and got back to campus at 3:30 a.m. Monday before starting its journey to the West Coast about 12 hours later.

“Yesterday was a little challenging. We practiced, but it wasn’t easy,” Brownell said. “Just trying to get our legs back, just get used to the time change and all of that. It’s been a quick turnaround, that’s for sure.”

The Wildcats played their first two games in Salt Lake City and then made the short trip from Tucson to Los Angeles, where they are 6-3 all-time in tournament games. They could be playing on the same Thursday-Saturday schedule they’re used to during Pac-12 play.

“But just because you had an extra day or a few extra hours doesn’t mean you have a significant advantage this time of year because the other team’s really good,” Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd said. “They’re playing for something as well.”

Keshad Johnson and Caleb Love are looking to take the Wildcats to where each of them has been before. Johnson played for San Diego State in last year’s championship game loss to UConn. In 2022, Love led North Carolina to the title game. Both players used their fifth year of eligibility to transfer.

“What I learned the most is just do whatever it takes. Make your sacrifice. Try to make the game easier on your teammates,” Johnson said. “Don’t really worry about the number of stats. That’s me problems. It’s bigger than me when it comes to March.”

Clemson guard Joseph Girard III is another fifth-year senior who left Syracuse to spend his final season with the Tigers.

“I had one shot at it, to get back to a moment like this, to get back to a Sweet 16 like I did my sophomore year,” he said. “I felt these guys gave me the best chance.”

EAST REGION

BOSTON — Connecticut coach Dan Hurley won’t shy away from the notion that his team has consistently been the best in college basketball this season.

The Huskies’ 33-3 record and the dominant manner in which they’ve won along the way have proven that.

He also knows that means next to nothing as they return to the Sweet 16 still four victories away from becoming the first team since Florida in 2007 to repeat as NCAA Tournament champions.

“We’re not going to be able to trade that in for anything tomorrow night versus the team we faced last year in the finals,” Hurley said Wednesday as his team prepares for its East Regional semifinal matchup against a fifth-seeded San Diego State team it beat in the NCAA title game last April. “But we bring the confidence. We believe. We think we’re supposed to win these games.”

The Huskies have reason to feel that way, having won each of their first two tournament games by an average of 28 points.

For San Diego State coach Brian Dutcher it will be a chance to get past a UConn program that beat the Aztecs (26-10) and Kawhi Leonard in the 2011 Sweet 16 when the Huskies were led by Kemba Walker. In last year’s championship game, UConn jumped out to a 16-point lead and never let San Diego State get within fewer than five points in the second half.

This time UConn will also be playing at the Boston Celtics’ TD Garden, just 85 miles from their campus.

“It’s like a repeat. I mean, we’ve got to do what they did to us,” Dutcher said. “We’re in their backyard now, and hopefully we’ll have an opportunity to beat them close to their home.”

Aztecs senior Lamont Butler is embracing getting another shot at the Huskies.

“They took us down last year, so we definitely want some revenge back a little bit,” he said.

The other half of the bracket features a matchup between second-seeded Iowa State (29-7), which has the best defensive rating of remaining teams, against No. 3 seed Illinois (28-8), which boasts the top offensive rating, according to Ken Pomeroy’s efficiency ratings.

Both are also among six remaining Sweet 16 teams with Final Four appearances, but no titles.

Iowa State’s only Final Four berth was 80 years ago.

Coach T.J. Otzelberger said the Cyclones’ old school, 57-53 victory in January over Houston was emblematic of the type of defense-first mentality that has served them best this season.

“You feel so great in the locker room after all those sacrifices, all that hard work, all that unity, all that time you beat the No. 2 ranked team in the country,” Otzelberger said. “I truly believe that gave our guys a greater sense of purpose and confidence.”

Illinois hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2005 and has been relying on its unorthodox “booty ball” offensive actions, aimed at getting different post-ups and matchups.

It also revolves around the comradery of a group that wasn’t above embracing luck as it entered a venue adorned with shamrocks.

When senior forward Coleman Hawkins walked into the news conference along with teammates Marcus Domask and Quincy Guerrier, he noticed their name placards were in an order different than where they’d sat in their previous media sessions. He quickly changed them.

“Superstitious?” the moderator asked.

“Little bit,” Hawkins replied.

But perhaps the biggest reason for the Illini’s success on offense has been senior guard Terrence Shannon Jr., who is averaging a team-high 23.3 points per game and scored 56 points in the Illini’s first two NCAA Tournament wins over Morehead State and Duquesne.

He’s done it playing most of the season under a cloud after being charged with rape in September.

Shannon played in Illinois’ first 11 games before the university suspended him from team activities when the criminal charge was filed against him. He returned after six games when a federal judge intervened, ruling that his civil rights were violated by a lack of due process.

He hasn’t spoken to the media since then and was again unavailable for interviews on Wednesday.

Coach Brad Underwood said his team has done its best to adjust.

“I’ve said all along I was going to coach the guys I had in the locker room,” Underwood said. “I was going to be the best supporter of those guys that I coach every day. We had to find a way to flourish through those tough times. Then when he came back and joined us, he was a part of our team again. He has always been a great teammate. We got him back, and here we sit today.”