By R.L. Bynum

As No. 1 seed, No. 7-ranked North Carolina opens play at the ACC tournament with a quarterfinal game on Thursday at Washington’s Capital One Arena.

The Tar Heels (25–6, 16–3 ACC) play at noon against the winner of the noon Wednesday second-round game between No. 8-seed Virginia Tech (18–13, 10–10) and No. 9-seed Florida State (16–15, 10–10).

UNC won its regular-season games against both, winning at home against the Seminoles on Dec. 2 78–70 and at Florida State 75–68 on Jan. 27 and beating Virginia Tech on Feb. 17 in Chapel Hill 96–81.

The last time the event was held in that arena was in 2016. In what was then called the Verizon Center, a UNC team that made the NCAA championship game beat Virginia 61–57 in the ACC tournament final.

The tournament opens Tuesday with three games. No. 12-seed Notre Dame (12–19, 7–13) faces No. 13 Georgia Tech (12–19, 7–13) in the opener at 2 p.m. No. 10 N.C. State (17–14, 9–11) plays No. 15 Louisville (8–23, 3–17) at 4:30 p.m., and No. 11 Boston College (17–14, 8–12) takes on No. 14 Miami (15-16, 6-14) in the final game at 7 p.m.

With a win on Thursday, UNC would play in a 7 p.m. semifinal on Friday night against the winner of the 2:30 Wednesday quarterfinal. In that game, No. 4-seed Pittsburgh (21–10, 12–8) will play either No. 5-seed Wake Forest (19–12, 11–9), Notre Dame or Georgia Tech.

The Tar Heels won their only regular-season games against Pittsburgh (70–57 on the road Jan. 2), Wake Forest (85–64 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 22) and Notre Dame (84–51 on March 5) but lost to the Yellow Jackets 74–73 in Atlanta on Jan. 30.

No. 2-seed and No. 9-ranked Duke (24–7, 15–5) plays at 7 p.m. Thursday against the winner of the 7 p.m. Wednesday game. In that game, No. 7-seed Syracuse (20–11, 11–9) will face either N.C. State or Louisville.

No. 3-seed Virginia (22–9, 13–7) plays in the final quarterfinal at 9:30 against the winner of Wednesday’s 9:30 second-round game. That contest will match No. 6-seed Clemson (21–10, 11–9) against either Boston College or Miami.

ACC tournament

Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2 OTs
No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s second round
No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
No. 5 North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 56
No. 7 Stanford 78, California 73
No. 6 SMU 73, Syracuse 53
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 (and No. 1-ranked) Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
No. 2 (and No. 13-ranked) Louisville 75, Stanford 73
No. 3 (and No. 10-ranked) Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinals
Duke 72, North Carolina 71
Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Saturday’s championship
Duke 73, Louisville 62

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 9 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. ETSU	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	W, 71–70	vs. Ohio State	11–1
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte