Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991                   TAG: 9103070194
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE BYE IS BACK IN THE ACC BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT,

There have been nine tournaments played with a bye. One was in 1961 when North Carolina was on NCAA probation and, although eligible for the tournament, chose not to compete. The other eight were from 1972 through 1979, after South Carolina left the league and before Georgia Tech joined.

Of those nine tournaments, six were won by the team with the bye. Of the 28 tournaments played without a bye, 14 were won by the top-seeded team. That's 67 percent for the top-seeded team with the bye and 50 percent for the top-seeded team without the bye.

The evidence would appear fairly irrefutable. Coach Dean Smith of North Carolina has grumbled in the past about byes in the NCAA Tournament, but he seems thoroughly convinced of just what he lost in the Dean E. Smith Center last Saturday.

"For a long time there I was opposed to the bye idea in the NCAA Tournament because so many times it's so tough," Smith told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal. "You were playing a top 32 team in America who already had their NCAA butterflies gone.

"But now with the ACC Tournament, I don't think there's the butterflies like the NCAA Tournament. So consequently we treat it like the regular season.

"So you look at it like a back-to-back regular-season game for one team and the other team is resting. Then I'd say the bye is an advantage."

After Maryland was banned from live television as a result of NCAA probation, the ACC ruled the Terrapins ineligible for the ACC Tournament. The decision reduced the tournament field to seven teams, spoiling the easy eight-team symmetry it had since Georgia Tech joined the league in 1980.

The pending arrival of Florida State, from all indications, assures that the symmetry will not return soon. By 1992, any ACC team that finishes below fourth in the regular season will have to play four games to win the tournament, whereas the team that finishes first will have to play only two.

Duke earned this year's bye by beating North Carolina at the Smith Center last Sunday to finish first in the regular season.