The final 2018 ACC Basketball Tournament bracket, with FSU’s improved seed

The ACC Basketball Tournament begins on Tuesday, and after a tumultuous close to the conference slate for Florida State, the Seminoles got as good a seed as they could have hoped for entering Saturday’s action.

To begin, and most importantly, the ’Noles took care of their own business, beating Boston College at home to finish 20-10 and 9-9 in the ACC entering the conference tourney. Coming into Saturday as the 10-seed and facing the dire prospect of opening the ACC Tourney on Tuesday against Pitt, FSU will instead commence as the 8-seed, thanks to losses by Notre Dame and Louisville.

That means that the Seminoles get to open on Wednesday instead, albeit against a desperate Cardinals squad. The final bracket is included below.

Now, a prospective Thursday date with the Cavs is certainly a challenge; whichever team gets that job will be functioning against a superior, fresh team on less than 24 hours rest. However, the upside of a win in that position far outweighs the negative effect of a loss— you’re simply not going to be penalized for dropping a game to the conference’s 1-seed.

Welcome to March.