We can only hope the level of play will be better Friday.

Each year, as the conclusion of the ACC regular season approaches, league enthusiasts begin speaking with fond anticipation of the upcoming ACC Tournament. The expectation is that the action will be spirited, polished, and intense, with cliffhangers and upsets liberally intermingled with powerful displays by conference leaders rounding into shape for the NCAAs.

The tournament has lived up to that billing in recent years. Last season, for instance, 8 of 11 games were decided by 10 or fewer points. Three games went to overtime. The first round saw the lower seeds win all four contests.

Of the last 41 ACC Tournament games, 25 were decided by 10 points or less.

The first round of the 2008 ACC Tournament conformed to recent standards, but barely. Florida State beat Wake Forest by 10, and six seed Maryland vainly scrambled to the end in a 71-68 upset loss to No. 11 Boston College. But even in those cases numbers are deceiving.

FSU handled Wake with relative ease. Maryland simply collapsed, a fitting conclusion to a day in which action was sporadically close but rarely sustained at a high level for an extended period.

The Terps broke out of the gate like a team intent on proving they merit an NCAA bid, jumping to a 20-5 lead in the first six and a half minutes against BC. Gary Williams’ squad set an aggressive tone, running its fast break with aplomb, trapping and pressing the Eagles to distraction. This was the Maryland team that defeated North Carolina at Chapel Hill, that won half its ACC contests.

Then the problems that plagued the Terps this season, particularly down the stretch, came bursting to the fore, even as BC settled down.

Maryland seemed incapable of adjusting its offensive pace. Everything was done quickly, at the very edge of control. The attack was pushed even when the odds were two against too many. Passes were flung into traffic, across the lane, at all sorts of odd angles, resulting in 21 turnovers.

The Terps failed to control their defensive boards; BC had 21 offensive rebounds and made more than half its shots in the second period. “They destroyed us on the glass in the second half,” Williams said. “Whenever we turned the ball over, they made us pay.”

So Maryland (18-14) lost for the fifth time in its last six games and bowed out of the NCAA picture for the third time in four years. Meanwhile BC, which improved to 14-16, won at least once for the third time in three ACC Tournament appearances, earning the right to play No. 3 Clemson in the quarterfinals.

“This was a new season, and this gives you an opportunity to recapture some of the luster that you’ve lost throughout the year,” said BC coach Al Skinner. Unless his team wins the tournament, and with it the ACC’s automatic bid, its streak of four straight NCAA appearances is about to end. “It’s an opportunity for us to at least feel good about ourselves.”

Friday’s most interesting matchups figure to be No. 2 Duke against seven seed Georgia Tech, which broke open a close game to crush Virginia, and Miami against No. 4 Virginia Tech.

The Yellow Jackets had 94 points against the Cavaliers, the most they’ve scored in regulation play in an ACC Tournament game since joining the league in 1980. At 15-16, Georgia Tech has the same record at N.C. State, but is peaking at the right time, with four victories in its last five outings.

Facing Duke is sure to stoke Paul Hewitt’s competitive fires. The Georgia Tech coach respects the Blue Devils and coach Mike Krzyzewski. But he has not forgotten what he considered questionable calls down the stretch in his team’s last ACC Tournament meeting with Duke in the 2005 finals.