The ACC and ESPN tried to manipulate its television ratings this week in Charlotte, and it backfired in multiple ways. Now, Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer is not happy with the situation.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Blue Devils – the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament – were not playing its quarterfinal matchup at 12:00 p.m. ET. It became apparent late in the regular season that the league and its primary TV partner were going to change the time of its games after it confirmed tipoff times would not be set until the bracket was confirmed.
The biggest reasoning behind this was to get Duke, the league’s biggest draw, in primetime instead of the afternoon. In order to do this, the league sacrificed the rest advantage for its outright regular season championship.
The No. 2 seed, Virginia, played at noon and the No. 3 seed Miami played at 2:30 p.m. ET. Typically, the 2-seed and 3-seed play in the evening session in the quarterfinals, starting at 7:00 p.m. ET and 9:30 p.m. ET, respectfully.
It bumped Duke and North Carolina to the evening, with its potential semifinal matchup not beginning until 9:30 p.m. ET on Friday.
Down two starters due to injury, the Blue Devils were pushed to the limit by Florida State as the Seminoles missed potential game winning basket in the final seconds.
After the 80-79 victory, Scheyer didn’t mince words about how Duke was shortchanged on the rest advantage it should have secured by winning the regular season championship.
“We have to recover quickly,” he said. “We're not playing the noon game this year. We're the only 1-seed not to be playing early in the country. But it's a quick turnaround, and we're going to work on keeping this thing going.”
To make matters worse for the ACC and ESPN, North Carolina lost to Clemson in the nightcap in Charlotte, wrecking its plans to have an elevated platform for a third matchup between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels.
The plan was flawed from the start, and it backfired big time.
Now, the best team in the ACC will have to prepare for its semifinal matchup on short rest with the hopes of repeating as the champions of the conference tournament.