The ACC proved once again on Monday night why it’s the best basketball conference.

Sure, it didn’t have many teams left throughout the great parts of the 2017 NCAA Tournament. Sure, some teams had a disappointing early exit.

But, North Carolina claiming the title shows that the ACC is basketball king.

It’s a position I’ve held for a long time. Other conferences, such as the Big Ten and the PAC-12 show glimpses throughout the basketball season of being the best conference, but night in and night out, top to bottom, you won’t find a better conference.

While you may see that as a bold statement, when you look at the Big Ten, I think if you put the ACC’s worst against the Big Ten’s worst, you still see the ACC team come out on top.

Winning the tournament is about getting hot at the right time. It’s a series of smaller tournaments that you must take game-to-game, or you won’t survive. It’s the thrill of new matchups early on that make the NCAA tournament so exciting.

I’m a Duke fan, and I’m not looking forward to my pro-Carolina fans rubbing it in my face for the next year that the Tar Heels passed the Blue Devils in all-time program championships. But I can say that playing the ACC slate did help prepare Carolina for this win.

I really thought Gonzaga had the game on Monday, but they had chances that they let slip away due to poor execution, and Carolina was ready to capitalize.

I think that down the line, the ACC will only continue to be college basketball’s best conference.