An Interesting Final Week

The final week of the regular season in men’s college basketball is upon us, and it certainly will bring us more drama than Sunday’s Academy Awards. I’m thinking it will. I’m hoping it will. It had better.

Four Atlantic Coast Conference teams are ranked in the latest Associated Press poll, which was released on Monday. The Big East Conference has the most ranked teams with five. The PAC 10 also has four ranked in the top 25.

With their loss to Maryland, North Carolina has fallen to eighth in the poll. Duke, which was out of the poll two weeks ago, has now risen to 14th. Virginia Tech is 21st and Maryland is 24th.

Virginia, which is tied with Carolina and Virginia Tech for the ACC lead at 10-4, is not ranked. That’s what happens when you can’t beat Miami.

It will be a very intriguing final week to the regular season, to say the least. I don’t think it’s what most observers expected back in January.

All season, the presumption has been that North Carolina, which has all that dazzling talent, was going to win the regular season. I know I felt that. But entering the final week of the season, that is certainly not a given.

The Tar Heels have a road game Thursday at Georgia Tech and a home game Sunday with Duke. Neither will be easy. Both are certainly winnable for North Carolina, but are also ones they can lose.

Virginia Tech plays at Virginia on Thursday.. One of these teams will go to 11-4 in the league. Virginia Tech clobbered Virginia in their first meeting. Virginia Tech has the tie breaker with Carolina by virtue of its two wins over the Heels. Carolina has the tie-breaker with Virginia for the top seed in next weeks ACC tournament.

The Cavaliers close out their regular season at Wake Forest. Virginia Tech will be at home with Clemson. I would say Virginia and Virginia Tech will be favored in these games. But let’s not forget that Virginia Tech is a team that lost twice to N.C. State -- both times by double digits -- and dropped pre-season games to the likes of Marshall and Western Michigan.

And Virginia lost to Miami less than a week ago, was beaten by 27 by Virginia Tech, and lost by 11 to Appalachian State back in December.

So you never know with those guys.

North Carolina has had some trouble keeping its poise on the road. No question they should have put Maryland away on Sunday. They let it get away.

We sometimes forget though how young this team is. Because of their talent level, the inexperience factor is often overlooked. But this is still a very young team and at times they’ve played like it. However, this late in the season great young players should be coming into their own. It’s always a learning experience right up to tournament time and North Carolina is still learning. School is out soon.

When the Heels are running and gunning and blowing teams out, they seem unbeatable. But when things are as close as they were Sunday, North Carolina can look tentative and tight.

North Carolina was not tested much in the pre-season on the road. Maybe they needed more road tests earlier to get tougher. Who knows? But let's not forget this is still a 24-5 team that is talented as any in the country.

All season long, when the experts have talked about No. 1 seeds for the NCAA tournament, North Carolina was always mentioned as a sure thing. But if the Heels don’t win the outright conference regular season title, will they get a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament?

I think they would if they won the ACC tournament, but that has never been something that Roy Williams seems to care about. He might have to care a little more, depending on what the final week brings.