Pick up a copy of yesterday's Chronicle and take a look at the latest Associated Press Basketball Poll. All of the Atlantic Coast Conference teams are in bold and there's a whole lot of bold near the top of the list.
Wake Forest is No. 5, Duke No. 7, North Carolina No. 8, Clemson No. 12 and Maryland No. 16, giving the ACC five out of the top 16 teams, while no other conference has more than two schools ranked that high.
With the ACC Tournament just a week-and-a-half away, teams are still jockeying for seeding, with those five top-25 programs within three games of each other in the conference standings. While only seven games remain on the ACC ledger, most of them will have major bearing on schools' postseason positions.
"Going into the week there's so many important games throughout the conference and I think it's indicative of the fact of how great the conference has been, how exciting it's been each week," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "And that's a real credit to the players in the league. They've certainly given their fans some great basketball this year and there's still more to come."
The Blue Devils are currently atop the conference with an 11-3 record. With its win over Georgia Tech last night, Wake Forest pulled within a half-game of first place, while Maryland and North Carolina are tied for third at 9-5. Just a game behind them is 8-6 Clemson.
Duke can clinch a share of the ACC title with a win over the Terrapins tomorrow night, in a critical game for both teams. Maryland won their first meeting of the season in College Park, but the two schools' fortunes have reversed since then.
"We're playing against a team that has a lot more momentum than the first time we played them, so that is why this is going to be a tough game for us," Terrapin coach Gary Williams said. "We've lost some lately, too, so that's a factor. We're not flying in like we've won four or five in a row."
The Blue Devils have won their last seven games in conference; Maryland, on the other hand, has gone 3-5 over its last eight games after a 17-2 start which earned it a No. 5 ranking. In fact, streaks have been the norm in the ACC this season. Clemson, like the Terrapins, got off to a hot start-going 15-1 and vaulting to second in the nation-but has been 4-6 since. And Wake Forest, which started out 13-0, has been proven mortal recently, losing to cellar dweller North Carolina State a week-and-a-half ago.
In contrast, there is UNC, which has never finished below third in the conference under coach Dean Smith but began the ACC schedule 0-3. The Tar Heels, who have won seven straight, travel to Clemson today in another pivotal contest. The Tigers are looking to avenge a Jan. 26 loss against a very hot UNC team.
"I think they're defending better now than they were earlier in the year," Clemson coach Rick Barnes said. "And if you look at their team as a whole, all of them are shooting the ball, playing well."
The final ACC contest of the season could play a significant role in the final conference standings. Duke will visit Chapel Hill to renew its famed rivalry with the Tar Heels on Sunday afternoon. The Blue Devils need to win their last two games in order to secure the regular season ACC crown and the top seed in the conference tournament. No matter what the final standings, the cream of the ACC crop-and the other four teams which have repeatedly shown the ability upset the conference leaders-will face off once again in the ACC Tournament starting next Thursday. Still, whoever ends up with the best record after Sunday will have the bragging rights of winning the toughest conference in the country.
"We feel that to win this league during the regular season, especially this year, would be a tremendous accomplishment," Krzyzewski said. "Winning the regular season, to me, is a much bigger accomplishment than winning the [ACC] Tournament. You have to play everybody, and you have to play them twice. In the ACC Tournament you might not play a team that could have beaten you because they're in the opposite bracket."
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