5 things to know about the ACC lacrosse tournament

6 p.m.: No. 1 seed North Carolina vs. No. 4 seed Syracuse

8:30 p.m.: No. 2 seed Notre Dame vs. No. 3 seed Duke

Saturday

ACC-Brown Classic

7 p.m.: Virginia vs Brown

Sunday

12 noon: Finals

Tickets

Single-day tickets start at $20. All-session books start at $50.

Info: Call 470-578-4849 or go to www.wherekennesawplays.com

The ACC brings its lacrosse tournament to town this weekend for the first time in the event’s 28-year history and for those who follow the college game, the circus has hit Cobb County.

Even with the 2014 departure of Maryland, the ACC remains the highest-profile lacrosse league in the country, even more so with the additions of Syracuse and Notre Dame. There are NCAA tournament implications this weekend and a recruiting angle too, as Georgia continues to emerge as a new incubator for high school talent.

Five things to know about the ACC tournament, which gets underway Friday night at Kennesaw State’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium:

About 2016

Since the NCAA began holding a championship lacrosse tournament in 1971, ACC schools have won 14 of them. Make that 24, when adding Syracuse’s 10 titles — an 11th was vacated — from before the Orange joined the league. But even with Notre Dame holding the No. 1 ranking most of the spring, the conference has had a bumpy ride.

All five member schools were listed in the top eight in the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) preseason rankings. But the 2011 national champion, Virginia (7-7) won’t make the NCAA field, and Duke (9-6), the national titlist two years ago, is on the bubble after losses to Harvard (7-6) and unranked Richmond.

North Carolina (8-5) also was on the outside looking in until a miraculous win against the Fighting Irish last weekend, which somehow catapulted the Tar Heels to their first ACC top seed since 1996.

Check out Myles Jones

As a high school junior, Myles Jones was good enough to make the all-Long Island basketball team and was pursuing the college recruiting routine when he had a change of heart and went out for the Whitman High lacrosse team.

Good choice. Jones, now 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, wound up at Duke, where he just became the first midfielder in Division I history to record 100 goals and 100 assists. With 222 career points, he is the game’s leading active scorer and with his outstanding speed, he is something to behold in the open field.

He’ll be back this summer. The MLL Atlanta Blaze recently drafted him.

Local knowledge

There will be scant local presence on the field this weekend. Nate Solomon, a three-time All-American at Centennial, is a reserve freshman attackman at Syracuse. Other area players in the ACC include Notre Dame freshman defenseman Charlie Trense (Westminster), who missed the season because of injury, and freshman Cole Haverty (Westminster), who is a walk-on middie at UNC.

But Georgia’s contribution to the college game is ballooning. Last year, the state placed 90 players in NCAA-sanctioned college programs, including 21 in Division I, according to the recruiting database at laxpower.com. In 2007, only 30 Georgia players continued to on college ball.

“It isn’t any different than anywhere else, whether it’s Dallas or Seattle, the game is growing and expanding,” said Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan, who in 2007 signed his first Atlantan in Lovett’s Neal Hicks, who went on to become an Irish captain. “For us, in an area like (Atlanta) where it’s just starting, it doesn’t take very long to get down to the guys that can play at our level.”

A quarter to remember

If North Carolina is to make any noise this postseason, the genesis came last weekend in Chapel Hill, when the Tar Heels were being capably handled by Notre Dame, which took a five-goal lead into the last 10 minutes. The deal should have been sealed. The Irish had been giving up just 6.6 goals per game.

But Carolina ripped off seven goals in the final 7:29 for a 17-15 win in what was being hailed as the greatest fourth quarter in the program’s history, which dates to 1949.

About the Orange

Syracuse roared into the new century, running off five national titles between 2000-09. Now, not so much.

The Orange has gone six years without a championship, its longest drought since coach Ray Simmons led the program to its first NCAA title in 1983. Since 2010, the program has advanced past the second round of the playoffs only once.

Syracuse, ranked No. 7, is 8-4 primarily because of a three-game midseason losing streak that included overtime losses at Johns Hopkins and Duke. When the program held its 100th year celebration April 2, inviting past generations of lettermen back to the Carrier Dome, the team responded with a 17-7 route by Notre Dame, Syracuse’s first double-digit loss in 12 years.