ACC Tournament 2015: Full Schedule, Projected Seeds and Bracket Predictions

March Madness will be in full effect well before the NCAA tournament kicks off thanks to a very talented ACC.

The Atlantic Coast Conference features an immensely talented bracket, including five teams currently residing in the nation's Top 25. This has been a highly competitive conference all season long, and the tournament atmosphere will only elevate the intensity.

Will Virginia cut down the nets for a second consecutive year? Will a revamped Duke squad clinch the title for the first time since 2011? Can Notre Dame, Louisville or North Carolina shock the conference with an impressive run?

Before those questions are answered, let's take a look at the full tournament schedule, projected seeds and bracket predictions.

Tournament Schedule

Gm - Rd	Date	Time (ET)	Matchup	TV
1 - R1	Tue., Mar. 10	1 p.m.	No. 12 vs. No. 13	ESPN2
2 - R1	Tue., Mar. 10	3 p.m.	No. 11 vs. No. 14	ESPN2
3 - R2	Wed., Mar. 11	12 p.m.	No. 8 vs. No. 9	ESPN
4 - R2	Wed., Mar. 11	2 p.m.	Gm 1 Winner vs. No. 5	ESPN
5 - R2	Wed., Mar. 11	7 p.m.	No. 7 vs. No. 10	ESPN2
6 - R2	Wed., Mar. 11	9 p.m.	No. 6 vs. Gm 2 Winner	ESPN2
7 - R3	Thu., Mar. 12	12 p.m.	No. 1 vs. Gm 3 Winner	ESPN/2
8 - R3	Thu., Mar. 12	2 p.m.	No. 4 vs. Gm 4 Winner	ESPN/2
9 - R3	Thu., Mar. 12	7 p.m.	No. 2 vs. Gm 5 Winner	ESPN
10 - R3	Thu., Mar. 12	9 p.m.	No. 3 vs. Gm 6 Winner	ESPN
11 - Semi	Fri., Mar. 13	7 p.m.	Gm 7 Winner vs. Gm 8 Winner	ESPN/2
12 - Semi	Fri., Mar. 13	9 p.m.	Gm 9 Winner vs. Gm 10 Winner	ESPN/2
13 - Final	Sat., Mar. 14	8:30 p.m.	Gm 11 Winner vs. Gm 12 Winner	ESPN

The tournament schedule can be viewed at Raycom Sports.

Projected Seeds

Seed	Team
1	Virginia
2	Duke
3	Notre Dame
4	Louisville
5	North Carolina
6	Pittsburgh
7	Miami
8	NC State
9	Clemson
10	Florida State
11	Wake Forest
12	Boston College
13	Georgia Tech
14	Virginia Tech

Note: This year's tournament is reduced to 14 teams due to Syracuse's self-imposed ban.

Bracket Predictions

Gerry Broome/Associated Press

One intriguing team to watch this year will be North Carolina. The Tar Heels had mixed results against better ACC opposition this season, defeating Louisville and losing in extremely close games against Notre Dame, Duke and their second contest against the Cardinals.

While inconsistent, North Carolina can certainly put up points. A good shooting team with nice ball movement and decent play down low, the Tar Heels can be disruptive. However, their Achilles' heel comes on the defensive side of the ball. They are unable to keep decent shooting teams in check, and when faced against a better defense, the Tar Heels are outmatched.

Louisville is a nice defensive squad that gave Virginia fits during their Feb. 7 contest. The Cavaliers were held to just 33.3 percent shooting as a team and were forced to withstand a late Cardinals rally to squeeze out the win. That low-scoring affair was a testament to Louisville's offensive woes.

After watching his team struggle to shoot consistently, Cardinals head coach Rich Pitino had this to say during a press conference, per The Associated Press (via ESPN.com): "Their defense is awesome. I won't take anything away from them, but our offense was ridiculous."

One strong offensive squad in the tournament is Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish took Duke down 77-73 in a Jan. 28 meeting in which the team shot an impressive 51.8 percent from the floor. However, Notre Dame has struggled since, losing to Pittsburgh and Syracuse while dropping its second game against the Blue Devils by a whopping 30 points.

Notre Dame's biggest obstacle will be controlling the boards. The team lacks size and has struggled to pull down rebounds for the majority of the season, recently losing the rebound battle to Syracuse in a devastating home loss.

Duke had a rocky two-game stretch in mid-January, losing to NC State and Miami in back-to-back contests; however, the Blue Devils were able to quickly right the ship, defeating Louisville in their next contest and going on to be the only ACC team to defeat Virginia.

The Blue Devils shot 50.9 percent from the floor against Virginia's top-ranked defense, but it did rely on an abundance of perimeter shooting to get the job done. Duke does have some sharpshooters in the fold, but relying too much on the jumper against a defense like Virginia's is a risky endeavor.

Speaking of the Cavaliers, that loss to Duke was their only blemish on the season. They aren't an offensive juggernaut, but a team shooting percentage of 46.3 has been good enough to allow their stout defense to maintain leads and control the pace of games.

Controlling the pace will be Virginia's biggest weapon in the ACC tournament. With several of the conference's better teams relying heavily on possessions, slowing things down will force those squads to adapt and adjust, giving the Cavaliers the advantage.

The one team that was able to flourish in that scenario this season was Duke; although, accomplishing that feat twice is a tall order.

Prediction: Virginia defeats Duke in tournament final.