1997 ACC men's basketball tournament

The 1997 Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament took place from March 6–9 in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Coliseum. In what turned out to be Dean Smith's last season of coaching, North Carolina won the tournament, defeating a surprising NC State team in the final.

1997 ACC men's basketball tournament
Classification	Division I
Season	1996–97
Teams	9
Site	Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte Coliseum
Champions	North Carolina (14th title)
Winning coach	Dean Smith (13th title)
MVP	Shammond Williams (North Carolina)
ACC men's basketball tournaments ← 1996 1998 →

1996–97 ACC men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 8 Duke	12	–	4		.750			24	–	9		.727
No. 9 Wake Forest	11	–	5		.688			24	–	7		.774
No. 4 North Carolina †	11	–	5		.688			28	–	7		.800
No. 14 Clemson	9	–	7		.563			23	–	10		.697
No. 22 Maryland	9	–	7		.563			21	–	11		.656
Virginia	7	–	9		.438			18	–	13		.581
NC State	4	–	12		.250			17	–	15		.531
Georgia Tech	3	–	13		.188			9	–	18		.333
† 1997 ACC tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

NC State became the first team in ACC history to advance past the quarterfinal round after playing in the First Round game. The ACC adopted the first-round game format in 1992 when Florida State joined the conference. After defeating top seed Duke in the quarterfinals, NC State beat fifth-seeded Maryland to advance to the championship game. Their Cinderella run through the tournament ended against rival North Carolina in the final. The 1997 NC State Wolfpack became the first team to play four games in the ACC Tournament and remained the lowest-seeded team to make the Tournament final until 2007.

Shammond Williams of North Carolina was named tournament MVP.

Bracket

	First round March 6					Quarterfinals March 7					Semifinals March 8					Championship Game March 9
						1	#7 Duke	60
						8	NC State	66
	8	NC State	60
	9	Georgia Tech	46
											8	NC State	65
											5	#22 Maryland	58
						4	#13 Clemson	61
						5	#22 Maryland	76
																8	NC State	54
																3	#5 North Carolina	64
						2	#8 Wake Forest	66
						7	Florida State	65
											2	#8 Wake Forest	73
											3	#5 North Carolina	86
						3	#5 North Carolina	78
						6	Virginia	68

AP rankings at time of tournament

Awards and honors

Everett Case Award

Player	School
Shammond Williams	North Carolina

All Tournament Teams

First Team Player School Tim Duncan Wake Forest Justin Gainey NC State C. C. Harrison NC State Antawn Jamison North Carolina Shammond Williams North Carolina

Second Team Player School Keith Booth Maryland Ed Cota North Carolina Jeremy Hyatt NC State Danny Strong NC State Serge Zwikker North Carolina

External links

• . Atlantic Coast Conference. 2008. p. 106. Archived from the original on January 1, 2011. Retrieved April 11, 2020.