ACC Tournament 2017: Round 1 Schedule, Live-Stream Info and Bracket Predictions

The ACC is the deepest conference in men's college basketball this season, as a double-digit number of teams could make the NCAA tournament field. Per ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi's latest projections, 10 ACC teams are in the dance right now, with 11th and 12th teams (Georgia Tech and Clemson) on the outside looking in.

The tournament, which will be live-streamed on WatchESPN, should, therefore be a battle royale in the first few rounds, as teams in the bottom half of the league compete for NCAA tournament bids.

Here's a look at the entire tournament schedule, starting with Tuesday's first-round games, as well as round-by-round predictions for the entire bracket.

ACC Tournament Schedule

Date	Game	Round	Matchup	Time (ET)	Television
Tuesday, March 7	1	First	No. 13 NC State vs. No. 12 Clemson	Noon	ESPN2/ACC Network
Tuesday, March 7	2	First	No. 15 Boston College vs. No. 10 Wake Forest	2 p.m.	ESPN2/ACC Network
Tuesday, March 7	3	First	No. 14 Pitt vs. No. 11 Georgia Tech	7 p.m.	ESPNU/ACC Network
Wednesday, March 8	4	Second	No. 9 Miami vs. No. 8 Syracuse	Noon	ESPN/ACC Network
Wednesday, March 8	5	Second	Game 1 winner vs. No. 5 Duke	2 p.m.	ESPN/ACC Network
Wednesday, March 8	6	Second	Game 2 winner vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech	7 p.m.	ESPN2/ACC Network
Wednesday, March 8	7	Second	Game 3 winner vs. No. 6 Virginia	9 p.m.	ESPN2/ACC Network
Thursday, March 9	8	Quarterfinals	Game 4 winner vs. No. 1 UNC	Noon	ESPN/ACC Network
Thursday, March 9	9	Quarterfinals	Game 5 winner vs. No. 4 Louisville	2 p.m.	ESPN/ACC Network
Thursday, March 9	10	Quarterfinals	Game 6 winner vs. No. 2 Florida State	7 p.m.	ESPN/ACC Network
Thursday, March 9	11	Quarterfinals	Game 7 winner vs. No. 3 Notre Dame	9 p.m.	ESPN/ACC Network
Friday, March 10	12	Semifinals	Game 8 winner vs. Game 9 winner	7 p.m.	ESPN or ESPN2/ACC Network
Friday, March 10	13	Semifinals	Game 10 winner vs. Game 11 winner	9 p.m.	ESPN or ESPN2/ACC Network
Saturday, March 11	14	Final	Game 12 winner vs. Game 13 winner	9 p.m.	ESPN/ACC Network

Bracket Predictions

First Round

The odds are out for the first-round games, per OddsShark.

Wake Forest is a 13-point favorite over Boston College, and Clemson is a 6.5-point favorite over North Carolina State. The safe bet is to pick the Demon Deacons and Tigers to advance through to Round 2.

Pitt-Georgia Tech should be the best game of the first round (Pitt is just a 1.5-point favorite). The Panthers are better than their 4-14 ACC record implies, as they have some strong wins against Maryland, Syracuse, Florida State and Virginia on their resume. On the flip side, they've also lost 13 of their last 16 games.

Although Pitt is favored, give the edge to the Yellow Jackets, who are motivated to earn a better chance at an NCAA tournament at-large bid with a deep run.

Second Round

Wake Forest sophomore big man John Collins, who is projected to go 15th in the latest NBA mock draft from DraftExpress, is putting the Demon Deacons on his back to the NCAA tournament.

Collins has accrued eight double-doubles in his last 11 games, including a 31-point, 15-rebound performance against Duke.

Check out some of his plays this year:

Collins will lead Wake Forest to the quarterfinals with a win over Virginia Tech, who the Demon Deacons beat in Blacksburg to end the regular season.

Duke is struggling down the stretch, losing three of its last four games, but it's a more talented team than Clemson and should win.

Virginia has the best defense in the country, per the Ken Pomeroy College Basketball Rankings, and will beat Georgia Tech, and Syracuse graduate-transfer point guard John Gillon, who poured in 43 points against NC State this year, will lead 'Cuse to a win over Miami in New York City, Syracuse's home away from home.

Quarterfinals

The only easy call in the quarterfinals is for UNC, a future No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, to beat Syracuse, which is hanging onto an at-large bid by a thread.

No. 2 Florida State will face Wake Forest in a battle between stars (Collins and sophomore guard Dwayne Bacon). Wake's Achilles heel is its defense, as it ranks 129th in Division I, per Pomeroy. Bacon scored 23 points in an 88-72 win over Wake Forest this season, and you can expect the Demon Deacons to struggle defensively again.

Flip a coin to decide the matchup between Duke and No. 4 Louisville. One could make a good case for either school winning that contest. The guess here is that the Cardinals turn up the defensive pressure and create a late turnover down the stretch to seal a close win.

UVA's defense will be too strong for No. 3 Notre Dame, which shot just 17 percent from deep in a 71-54 loss to the Cavaliers this year.

Semifinals

Here's an interesting stat I noticed while scrolling through UVA's game log.

The Cavaliers have lost nine games season. With the exception of one of those games (a 65-41 loss to UNC), UVA has either (a) lost in overtime or (b) led at halftime in those losses.

Pomeroy ranks each team by luck, and UVA ranks one of the worst in Division I in that category at 302nd. UVA doesn't have the scoring punch other teams do (only senior guard London Perrantes averages more than 10 points a game), but it also has been on the wrong side of variance more often than not.

The guess is that this bad luck changes in March and that the Pack Line defense leads to a low-scoring, ugly win against Florida State. Ultimately, UVA is better than its 21-9 record indicates.

UNC will face Louisville in a No. 1 vs. No. 4 matchup. The Tar Heels beat the Cardinals, 74-63 when these two teams matched up in February. UNC was able to score 74 points despite only shooting 37 percent from the field. The key was on the boards, as North Carolina had 46 to Louisville's 33.

Expect more of the same in the semifinals, with UNC winning comfortably.

Finals

North Carolina will win the ACC title by virtue of its fantastic, NBA-level talent and elite offensive play. The Tar Heels average 85 points per game, and it's unlikely that they are held to 43 points again, which was the case when UVA beat UNC 53-43 in Charlottesville this season.

The final should be a good game, and UVA never goes away quietly, but UNC will make some key buckets down the stretch and win a close contest.