RJ Davis, Seth Trimble call Louisville's seeding 'disrespectful' to ACC

The ACC has been battling a national perception throughout the 2024-25 season. Perhaps no other place was that more clear than when the conference saw its seeding in the NCAA Tournament, which included the Louisville Cardinals, who finished second in the regular season and conference tournament, getting an eight seed.

That seed was a shock to much of the conference. Even North Carolina Tar Heels stars RJ Davis and Seth Trimble pushing back on it, calling the seeding disrespectful to the ACC.

“Yeah, Louisville had a really good year and I feel like an 8 seed was kind of disrespectful to them,” RJ Davis said. “But then I didn’t really know where we were going to end up at. It was kind of just like a guessing game, like what seed they were going to be. So, yeah.”

Louisville finished the season 27-7 and 18-2 in ACC play. The Cardinals have also won 11 of their 12 final games. That included going 4-6 against Quad 1 opponents and 11-1 against Quad 2 opponents in the NET rankings. Given their resume, Seth Trimble agreed that it was disrespectful to Louisville and the conference as a whole.

“I just took it as a sign of disrespect to our conference, honestly. I know we’ve had somewhat of a down year this year in the ACC,” Trimble said. “But I feel like every single year once it comes to March, the ACC does a great job. But I think it was just a little bit disrespectful. Louisville had a great year. They had a really good tournament run in the ACC Tournament. That’s all I really saw it as. I wasn’t worried about it for us.”

In the end, the ACC only got four schools into the NCAA Tournament. That included North Carolina’s own controversial role as an 11 seed that will have to appear in a First Four game. Meanwhile, Duke has a one-seed and Clemson will be a fifth seed. The ACC only getting four teams into the field is the fewest they’ve had since 2013.

Despite all of that, ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi pushed back against the idea that the ACC has a perception issue even before the NCAA Tournament field was announced. At the time, it looked as though the Tar Heels would miss the field, and Lunardi accused the conference of having a basketball issue first and foremost.

“I got in a lot of trouble this time last year in reacting to the drumbeat from the ACC that there was a perception problem,” Joe Lunardi said. “The ACC does not have a perception problem. The ACC is the greatest basketball conference college basketball has ever seen historically. The ACC has a basketball problem.”

The First Four for the NCAA Tournament begins on Tuesday night. After that, the First Round tips off on Thursday. There, the ACC has a chance to make noise and help change that perception of the conference.