March Madness is getting an early start in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
With a little less than two weeks left in the regular season, teams are jockeying for position with hopes of securing one of the top four spots and a first-round bye in the ACC tournament.
No. 1 Duke (26-0, 10-0 ACC) separated itself further from the rest of the league with Sunday?s 77-45 win at Wake Forest (9-15, 0-10). The victory came three days after Duke knocked off then-No. 2 North Carolina (24-1, 8-1).
But six teams are bunched closely together following a wild week of league play, including No. 6 Maryland (24-3, 8-3), which is in fourth place after its 83-74 win at Virginia (14-11, 3-7) Sunday.
“We know the implications of every game, and every game counts the same,” Maryland coach Brenda Frese said. “We will just continue to build on this progression and keep getting better, specifically on the defensive end. Our team is smart enough to know that if we position ourselves in the ACC, we will get a day of rest in the ACC tournament. We?re just trying to play one game at a time.”
Maryland still has games against two of the three teams in front of it in the standings. The Terps at third-place Florida State Thursday and home against Duke Sunday. The Seminoles (18-6, 7-2 as of Sunday) hosted North Carolina Monday night in a game that ended too late for this edition.
All of these games could drastically impact Maryland?s spot in the final conference standings. The Terps are going after their first ACC tournament title since 1989. This year?s tournament is March 1-4 in Greensboro, N.C.
Virginia Tech coach Beth Dunkenberger hoped to make things even difficult for Maryland after the Hokies beat Georgia Tech last Monday. But now the Hokies (16-11, 5-6) must regroup after it lost, 78-59, at Maryland Thursday and 73-69 at Clemson Sunday.
“It was frustrating because we played so well against Georgia Tech,” Dunkenberger said. “We came back from an 11-point deficit against them, but [against Maryland] we looked disjointed and out of sync. We didn?t look like the team we?ve built over the last few weeks.”
ACC NOTES
» No. 1 Duke is now the only undefeated team in the country. The Blue Devils host Boston College Thursday and play at Maryland Sunday.
» With wins over Florida State and Clemson last week and a loss Sunday at Georgia Tech, N.C. State coach Kay Yow now has a 701-322 lifetime career coaching record. She joins Tennessee?s Pat Summitt, Texas? Jody Condradt, Rutgers? Vivian Stringer, North Carolina?s Sylvia Hatchell and former LSU coach Sue Gunter as the only Division I women?s basketball coaches with at least 700 career wins.
