The ACC Tournament Trivia Quiz

Answer: NC State

Led by legendary head coach Everett Case, the Wolfpack of NC State defeated the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest, under head coach Murray Greason, 82-80 in overtime to win the very first ACC Tournament. The tournament was played at Reynolds Coliseum, the home court of the Wolfpack, that year and every year until 1966. The Deacons worked overtime to get to the championship game that season, defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks 58-57 in overtime in the quarterfinals and the Maryland Terrapins 64-56 in the semifinals. Wake Forest's Dickie Hemric won the very first ACC Tournament MVP, despite playing on the losing squad.

The eight charter members were - Clemson, Duke, Maryland, NC State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Wake Forest.

Answer: Virginia

Led by head coach Frank McGuire and tournament MVP Lennie Rosenbluth, North Carolina defeated Clemson and Wake Forest before dispatching South Carolina in the ACC championship game. The 1957 tournament was the first one that NC State did not win. In fact, the Wolfpack lost to Wake Forest in the quarterfinals.

Although the Tar Heels won the 1957 national championship, it wasn't easy. They had to go to triple-overtime to defeat both Michigan State and Kansas to win it all and finish the season 32-0.

Answer: This was the first of three ACC championships South Carolina won

North Carolina and South Carolina were the top two seeds in the 1971 ACC Tournament. The number-one seeded Tar Heels defeated Clemson and Virginia to reach the championship game, while the number-two Gamecocks took care of Maryland and NC State. Center Tom Owens hit a layup in the closing seconds of the title game to secure South Carolina's only ACC Tournament championship.

Playing in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament that year, and with Frank McGuire at the helm, the Gamecocks lost in the Regional Semifinals to a Pennsylvania team coached by future Charlotte Hornets coach Dick Harter 79-64. They would go on to lose in the third-place game to a Fordham squad coached by longtime Notre Dame coach Digger Phelps 100-90. In June, 1971, South Carolina became the first charter member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to resign.

Answer: NC State defeated Maryland 103-100

The Greensboro Coliseum provided some good home cooking for the Wolfpack in 1974. Not only did NC State win the highest-scoring championship game, they also won their first national championship there later that year, beating UCLA and Marquette to win it all.

The seat of the ACC, Greensboro NC, hosted 24 of the first 60 tournaments (1954-2013), more than any other city during that period.

Answer: Landover, Maryland

Capital Centre, the longtime home of the Washington Bullets (later Wizards) of the NBA and the Washington Capitals of the NHL, played host to the 1976 ACC Tournament. In that tournament, the Virginia Cavaliers became the lowest-seeded team (#6 seed) to win the championship, knocking off third-seed NC State, second-seed Maryland, and top-seed North Carolina to win its first title. Tournament MVP Wally Walker would go on to have an eight-year NBA career, primarily with the Seattle Supersonics and the Portland TrailBlazers, and later served as Seattle's general manager.

Answer: Virginia

The year 1983 marked the third time that the ACC Tournament was held outside North Carolina - the first two times being in 1976 and 1981, both in suburban Washington, D.C. The Omni in downtown Atlanta played host to the tournament that year, and saw NC State, the fourth seed, defeat fifthe seed Wake Forest, North Carolina (in overtime), and second seed Virginia to earn the ACC's automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack, the number-six seed in the West Region, defeated Pepperdine, UNLV, and Utah before meeting the Cavaliers again in the West Region Final. NC State defeated Virginia, the West's top seed, by a single point, 63-62, and would go on to defeat the Houston Cougars in a memorable national championship game, 54-52, on a dunk by Lorenzo Charles.

Point guard Sidney Lowe, who was the 1983 ACC Tournament MVP, would return to Raleigh after spending time as a player and a coach in both the NBA and the CBA (the Continental Basketball Association) to serve as head coach of the Wolfpack. He held that position from 2006 to 2011.

Answer: Mark Price

Before leading the Yellow Jackets to victory in 1985, Mark Price was a member of the US Pan American Games basketball team that took the gold medal in Caracas in 1983. The Bobby Cremins-coached squad, the top seed in the tournament that year, defeated Virginia and Duke before beating North Carolina in the final game.

During his 12-season NBA career, which he spent mainly with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Price became just the second player in league history to shoot 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three-point range, and 90 percent from the free-throw line. He also won two Three-Point Shootouts during All-Star Weekend, and helped lead the US team to gold at the FIBA World Championships in Toronto in 1994.

Answer: True

Despite having a bevy of talented players over the years, including Horace Grant, Larry Nance, and Tree Rollins - all of whom had fine professional basketball careers - Clemson was not able to lay claim to an ACC Tournament championship. The Tigers did, however, make it to the championship game - under head coach Press Maravich, they lost to Wake Forest in 1962. Prior to 1954, the only conference title Clemson had ever won came in 1939, when they were still in the Southern Conference.

The eight charter members were - Duke (first title in 1960), Clemson, Maryland (first title in 1958), NC State (1954) , North Carolina (1957), South Carolina (1971), Virginia* (1976) and Wake Forest (1961).
* became a full-member six months after it was founded (it was a non-football charter member for those first six months)

Answer: Jim Spanarkel (Duke)

En route to an appearance in the 1978 NCAA championship game against Kentucky, the Duke Blue Devils under head coach Bill Foster defeated Clemson, Maryland, and Wake Forest to win the ACC Tournament title. Shooting guard Jim Spanarkel was an integral part of the team's success, earning ACC Tournament MVP honors for his work. After leaving Duke, Spanarkel played five seasons in the NBA with Philadelphia and Dallas, worked as a certified financial planner, and served as a television color analyst during CBS's coverage of the NCAA tournament, often alongside play-by-play man Ian Eagle. Spanarkel, however, did not win the ACC Tournament MVP award twice. Fellow Duke standout J.J. Reddick did, however, when he led the Blue Devils to back-to-back tournament wins in 2005 and 2006. He was thr fourth to achieve this feat; the first three bring:
1961 and 1962 - Len Chappell (Wake Forest)
1966 and 1967 - Larry Miller (North Carolina)
1973 and 1974 - Tommy Burleson (NC State).

Answer: Duke

Hated though they have been over the years, there's no denying that the Blue Devils became the kings of the ACC Tournament. Duke won their 18th title in 2010. Behind North Carolina were NC State with 10 championships, last winning in 1987, and Wake Forest with four trophies, the last coming in 1996. Georgia Tech with three (the last in 1993) and Maryland with three (the last in 2004) were the only other schools with multiple championships when Duke won their 18th title.