The 2024 ACC tournament final pits a team in search of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament against a program looking to steal a bid into the field of 68.

The North Carolina Tar Heels have been the class of the ACC all season and they will play for their first ACC tournament crown since 2016.

The NC State Wolfpack stunned the Virginia Cavaliers in Friday's second semifinal to win their fourth game in four days.

NC State can only get into the NCAA tournament with a win that lands it the ACC's automatic bid. A fifth win in five days is highly unlikely, but the Wolfpack proved convention wrong so far inside Capital One Arena.

Sign up to Play the NCAA March Madness Men's Bracket Challenge, Tournament Run, and Conference Tournament Pick Em.

Semifinal Scores

No. 1 North Carolina 72, No. 4 Pittsburgh 65

No. 10 NC State 73, No. 3 Virginia 65 (Final/OT)

Championship Game Info

Date: Saturday, March 16

Start Time: 8:30 p.m. ET

Live Stream: ESPN.com and ESPN app

Game Preview

North Carolina and NC State both have different goals they want to achieve with a Saturday win inside Capitol One Arena.

UNC is in the driver's seat to land the fourth No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament after the upsets suffered by the Arizona Wildcats and Tennessee Volunteers on Friday.

Arizona and Tennessee each lost twice in the last week to open up the door for UNC to join the Houston Cougars, Connecticut Huskies and Purdue Boilermakers on the top seed line.

A regular season-tournament double should give the Tar Heels an added boost their resume needs to jump over Arizona and Tennessee.

A bad loss to NC State would make that conversation even more interesting going into Selection Sunday.

For NC State to complete the improbable five wins in five days, it needs to beat a team it lost to twice in the regular season. NC State lost by scores of 67-54 and 79-70 on January 10 and March 2.

The Wolfpack must solve an improved UNC defense to win on Saturday night. The Tar Heels held five opponents to 70 points or less during their eight-game winning streak.

A NC State win would cap off an incredible March story while also stealing a bid away from a bubble team. That dynamic means that few fans across the country outside of Raleigh will root for the Wolfpack.