AROUND THE ACC

With a strong finish to the regular season, Florida State has likely earned the right to dance come Tournament time. The Seminoles have won seven of their last 10 games, including a thrilling 79-74 victory over then No. 1 Duke. The upset gave Florida State a signature win to put at the top of an NCAA Tournament resume that had previously placed the Seminoles squarely on the bubble. "I feel very confident that we're one of the top 64 teams," head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "I'm just hopeful that people will have a healthy respect for the ACC and the quality of the league we have." Hamilton added that although he expects the NCAA Selection Committee to take a statistical approach in its evaluation, he hopes that it will not discount the quality of his squad's conference victories and close losses. Three of the Seminoles' conference losses have come to Duke, North Carolina and Boston College-the top three teams in the ACC. Of those three losses, Florida State fell to the Blue Devils and Tar Heels by one and the Eagles by three. "We've lost to some very good basketball teams," Hamilton said. "We still believe that our best basketball has not been played. We think we're a team that's still developing, and we hope we're a team on the rise." With a victory over Miami in their final game of the regular season, the Seminoles captured the fifth spot in the ACC standings, exceeding many preseason expectations that placed Hamilton's squad among the bottom teams in the conference. Florida State's 9-7 ACC record marks the first time since 1993 that the Seminoles have finished above .500 in the conference. "It was a tremendous motivator that the media picked us to finish 11th or 12th in our league," Hamilton said. "We had a lot to prove and deep down inside we felt that we would develop into a pretty good basketball team." Regardless of the team's current NCAA Tournament credentials, Hamilton emphasized that his team will not let up in the ACC Tournament. "This gives us the opportunity to go into the ACC Tournament and continue to earn the respect that a program like ours deserves," Hamilton said.