Sandwiched between the misery of Virginia and the glorious seasons of Duke and North Carolina, six ACC teams are still clawing to earn NCAA Tournament bids.

The final forum for those six to plead their case begins Thursday night at the Greensboro, N.C., Coliseum at the annual ACC Tournament.

"Knowing what went on in our league this year," Clemson coach Rick Barnes said, "you could probably pick out seven sleepers in this league. From Maryland all the way down, this league is so close.

"Look at our opponent, Wake Forest. When they're shooting the ball they way they're capable of shooting it, they're as dangerous as anybody we play. Unless you've gone through this, and feel the intensity that goes with every single game, every building you go into, this league deserves six teams in (the NCAA Tournament).

This is the first year of a new format.

From the time Florida State joined in 1991, there was a play-in game on Thursday night between the eighth and ninth seeds. Then there were four quarterfinal games on Friday, two semifinal games on Saturday and the title game on Sunday.

Now there are two games Thursday, three Friday, two Saturday and the title game at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.

Many fans will be looking ahead to a possible third meeting between Duke and No. 4 North Carolina in the championship game. But there should be some terrific basketball played in the early stages of this event.

THOSE ARE THE TEAMS THAT FEEL THEY must win if they don't want to wind up in the postseason NIT.

The brutal competition is one reason why the ACC has the best NCAA Tournament record of any league. The teams that survive the grind have been toughened.

Forty of the ACC's 71 entries since 1985 made it to the round of 16. That is 56.3 percent of the league's entries.

The SEC is second with 49.2 percent (29 of 59). The Big Ten has put more teams in the tournament during the same period (75), but only 24 of those (32 percent) made it as far as the round of 16.

This season the other ACC teams fell behind by having to play the round- robin schedule with Duke and North Carolina. Those two dominated conference play in as impressive a fashion as any pair before them.

THE OTHERS HAVE IMPROVED, but that is difficult to discern from their records. This is why the top-rated league in the nation is hoping for five NCAA Tournament bids and praying for six.

Only three teams -- Duke, UNC and Maryland -- finished with winning conference records.

"It's been a unique year in the league," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Going into the Carolina game, had Carolina won, we would have had two teams win 14 games. That's just not going to happen very often.

"As a result, records for the rest of the league are skewed. The league is the best in the country."

Wake Forest is the fourth-seeded team in the ACC Tournament with a 7-9 record. The fourth team in the league would normally be assured of an NCAA bid, but the Deacons' overall record is 15-12.

THE NCAA BASKETBALL COMMITTEE is not in the habit of offering bids to 15-win teams.

Clemson has probably tied up the fourth bid, even though it is seeded below Wake Forest in the league tournament. The Tigers are 7-9 in the league and have won 17 games overall.

"I don't know that I've ever seen it this confused," Wake coach Dave Odom said. "Our team feels fortune to be the fourth seed. ... I think Wake Forest has amazingly put itself into the conversation (for an NCAA bid).

"I'm not saying we're in. I'm not saying we're out. We're in the conversation. We're there for consideration."

So is Georgia Tech, which finished 6-10 in league play but won 17 overall games. So is Florida State, which defeated Arizona and Connecticut early. The Seminoles had a 6-10 league record and lost five straight in February before ending the regular season with a victory over ninth-place Virginia.

THE ACC TOURNAMENT IS GOING TO LOOK a lot like one of those machines in which the Ping-Pong balls bounce off one another until a few pop out to determine the winning lottery number.

Only this time the NCAA will announce the winners on Sunday afternoon.

"I don't see any type of scenario where the ACC should ever get less than five teams," Krzyzewski said. "We could get six teams based on overall record, especially because the league is so different this year with the record of our team and Carolina's.

"Hopefully because we have a former coach, and a guy who is as knowledgeable as anybody about the game heading the committee, (Kentucky's) C.M Newton, I think that will be taken into consideration."

Eddy Landreth is a writer for College Sports Xchange.

Return To College Sports Xchange index.

COPYRIGHT (C) 1998 COLLEGE SPORTS Xchange All Rights Reserved. Reprints, duplication or redistribution is prohibited without written permission from College Sports Xchange.