It was a scene of pure jubilation. Fans from all sides of the stands stormed the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla., celebrating Florida State's 79-74 upset of top-ranked Duke.
The March 1, 2006 victory appeared to be the signature win on an NCAA Tournament résumé and the start of a special month for the Seminoles. But on Selection Sunday, Florida State did not get its name called despite a 9-7 record in the ACC.
"It appears to me that the powers that be went through a real intense process to tweak the evaluation process to evaluate differently than they had in the past," Seminoles head coach Leonard Hamilton said about last season's selection process. "I'm not sure we have a full understanding of what the formula is for evaluating."
2006 marked the third time in seven years that the ACC failed to earn more than four NCAA Tournament teams. Even so, the conference has averaged one team in the Final Four in that span, including three national champions-both tops among Division I conferences. Last season was only the second time since 1996 that an ACC team failed to advance to the Final Four.
"This league has gotten messed over for the last five years," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We should get six or seven teams every year in the darn thing because of how well our teams play."
The ACC is once again starting to receive national recognition as the nation's best conference in 2007, particularly after North Carolina routed Arizona on the road Saturday, 92-64. Much of the early-season media attention focused on the Pac-10's depth, but the ACC is now first in conference RPI, with seven teams in the top 35 in the RPI and two more in the top 55.
"Our league is the best league," Krzyzewski said. "People may not think this, but I was cheering like crazy for [North Carolina head coach Roy Williams]. That win over Arizona was huge for our league."
The Tar Heels' 28-point thrashing of the No. 20 Wildcats was just one of several big non-conference wins by ACC teams this season. Virginia knocked off Arizona, Florida State defeated No. 1 Florida, North Carolina beat No. 4 Ohio State and Georgia Tech took down No. 11 Memphis-all before the start of the conference season. The ACC also dominated the ACC-Big Ten Challenge for the eighth consecutive year, winning eight of the 11 matchups.
"Hopefully the word is out there just how good the teams are in this league," Maryland head coach Gary Williams said. "You look at some of the wins this year outside the league-they're starting to stack up."
But Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt believes the conference may suffer from the separation caused by traditional powerhouses Duke and North Carolina.
"People nationally are going to look at our league as being basically Duke and Carolina-everybody else is also-rans," Hewitt said. "Often, our league is shortchanged, because those guys are so good. If we beat them, we hear that they're down-which I've been hearing all year about Duke, which is very laughable-and if they beat us, they're like, 'Well, their league isn't good. Duke and Carolina dominate the league.'"
Hewitt has a right to be concerned about his team's national reputation. The Yellow Jackets began the season in the top 25, but have skidded to a 2-5 start in the conference and sit in ninth place in the ACC. Georgia Tech is one of a number of teams in the middle of the league that currently appears to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble. Seven ACC teams have been in the top 25, and that depth and balance dictate that easy wins are about as rare as last-second buzzer beaters.
"Sometimes you can get a false picture of a league, but I think that's really true in our league in terms of the balance," Gary Williams said. "I think it's going to be as exciting a year for the ACC as you've seen in a long time."
Williams and the other coaches in the ACC can only hope that they get the opportunity to experience that excitement a little deeper into March this year.
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