Everything's On The Line for UNC

Much is at stake for 23rd-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels on Wednesday against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, and in the five league games that follow for the Heels.

Only the top four seeds at next month's ACC Tournament in Greensboro will have a bye into the quarterfinals. Teams seeded 5-12 have a longer, more treacherous road to the title. As things stand, UNC is one of six schools with either four or five league losses. Two of those teams will get byes; four won't.

"In the Big 12, it never happened," Williams said of the four-in-four gambit. "It's awfully difficult to do, so you want to avoid that. But the biggest reason you want to avoid it is it means you had a more successful year. You're not playing just thinking about that one weekend in Greensboro -- or, in the Big 12, that one weekend in Dallas or Kansas City."

In other words, he's more worried about his NCAA tournament seeding.

Since the Big 12 tournament first was played in 1997, no team came closer to going from the first round to the crown than Missouri in 2003. The Tigers knocked off Williams' top-seeded Jayhawks in a semifinal and lost to Oklahoma State, 49-47, in the title game.

Two other first-rounders made the final, but got clobbered by Kansas.

No Big East team has come out of the first round to win the title since the conference expanded its tournament to 13 -- now 12 -- teams. Since the Southeastern Conference went to 12 teams in 1992, the only long-shot success story has been Arkansas in 2000.

N.C. State gave it a good run from the ACC's play-in game in '97. But that was the exception to the rule.

"It's tough. Physically, it's got to be tough," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "But if you do get in that situation where you have to play, I'm sure every team believes they can play four games and win the thing."

Maryland was 5-5 in the ACC (and 15-8 overall) entering Tuesday night's game at Clemson. Florida State, which visits N.C. State, also is 5-5 in the league. Virginia and Miami are 6-5. North Carolina is 6-4. And Boston College is 7-4, a game behind the second-place Wolfpack.

UNC has a formidable RPI -- it ranks 23rd -- but most of those clustered teams are in danger of NCAA tournament exclusion. That's yet another motivation for finishing among the top four in the regular season.