North Carolina tops stacked conference field

For the 12 teams in the ACC, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

With regular-season play finished, every team is getting ready to pack their bags for Greensboro to take on some of the most elite squads in the ACC-and the nation.

"Tournament time is an important time," said Sylvia Hatchell, No. 2 North Carolina's head coach. "That's what you gear everything you do through the year. We are usually a pretty good tournament team.... We tell them if [what we are doing] is not going to help us beat Tennessee, Connecticut, Duke and all these other schools that are going to be contending for a Final Four, then we do not need to be doing it."

The Tar Heels are no strangers to the Final Four themselves. They have made it to the past two national semifinals and are arguably the conference's best hope to make a deep run this year. The tandem of seniors Erlana Larkins and LaToya Pringle, both first-team All-ACC selections, led North Carolina to its first-ever ACC unblemished mark.

Right behind the Tar Heels in the conference and national rankings is Maryland, the 2006 National Champions. The No. 5 Terrapins boast two first-team All-ACC selections of their own in senior Crystal Langhorne and junior Kristi Toliver. Toliver, who missed a potential game-winning mid-range jumper in Maryland's 97-86 double-overtime loss to North Carolina Jan. 26, will look for revenge with the rest of her team as the No. 2 seed in this week's ACC Tournament.

A potential dark-horse candidate in the postseason is No. 25 Virginia. The Cavaliers are ranked for the first time in four years and finished fourth in the conference. Head coach Debbie Ryan, however, thinks her team is on the same level with the Tar Heels, Terrapins and Blue Devils-the league's perennial powerhouses.

"We're really not far away, and we know that," Ryan said. "The distance between us and the top three teams in this conference right now is razor thin. Our team knows that. It's going to be a neutral floor we play on, and I'm really looking forward to the fact that we have a chance to step up and really make a showing in the ACC Tournament."

Georgia Tech, Florida State, Boston College and N.C. State-the other higher-seeded teams in the ACC Tournament-are looking to make a big splash this week to impress the NCAA selection committee. The Wolfpack, who had the final member of the first-team All-ACC in Khadijah Whittington, have not flown under the radar of the top teams in the conference by any means and are looking to make a run. For any of the teams though, a successful week in Greensboro would go a long way towards securing either a tournament berth or easier road to the Final Four.