ACC basketball tournament 2013 schedule and bracket: Who can crash the NCAA party?

The top four seeds in the ACC tournament have a first-round bye, and all of the lower seeds need to make a run if they hope to make the NCAA Tournament.

By Peter Woodburn@wernies Mar 14, 2013, 10:00am EDT

The first round of the ACC tournament gets underway on Thursday, with all the opening-round teams hoping to play their way into the NCAA Tournament.

More: SB Nation's ACC tournament coverage

Chris Dobbertean of SB Nation currently has the ACC as a four-bid conference. Three of those four teams, Miami, North Carolina and Duke, all have first-round byes. For anyone playing on Thursday, they are going to need a deep run in the ACC tournament to have a shot.

The No. 8 Boston College Eagles and No. 9 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets open up the tournament, which will take place in the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. It's the second consecutive meeting between the two teams; the Eagles narrowly defeated the Yellow Jackets in the final game of the season, 74-72. The Eagles shot 55 percent in the game as freshman guard Joe Rahon helped spur a 12-0 run in the second half to secure the win.

No. 5 N.C. State Wolfpack draw the No. 12 Virginia Tech Hokies in the second game of the afternoon. The Wolfpack are sitting in the tournament by many projections, but can't afford to slip up against the Hokies, who finished last in the conference with a 4-14 record. N.C. State needed overtime to defeat Virginia Tech earlier this year as junior guard Lorenzo Brown scored six of his 15 points in overtime to snare a 90-86 win.

The third game of the evening will be between the No. 7 Maryland Terrapins and the No. 10 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The match-up sets up a potential swan song for the Terrapins against the Duke Blue Devils in the second round of the tournament. Maryland is set to move to the Big Ten next season, and so far, has the final laugh with an 83-81 over then-No. 1 Duke on Feb. 16. WIth a RPI ranking in the mid-80s, Maryland is on the outside looking in and will need a win over Wake Forest and a win over Duke to even be in consideration for an at-large bid.

The No. 6 Florida State Seminoles and the No. 11 Clemson Tigers are the final game of the evening. The Seminoles beat the Tigers in both games this season, but only by a combined eight points. Florida State currently sits 80th in the RPI rankings and will need a deep run, most likely to the ACC tournament finals to secure an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The Seminoles are playing well, having defeated both Virginia and North Carolina State to close out the season.

A link to the full bracket can be found here.

Game 1: No. 8 Boston College vs. No. 9 Georgia Tech, noon ET

Game 2: No. 5 N.C. State vs. No. 12 Virginia Tech, 2 p.m. ET

Game 3: No. 7 Maryland vs. No. 10 Wake Forest, 7 p.m. ET

Game 4: No. 6 Florida State vs. No. 11 Clemson, 9 p.m. ET