ACC's Experience Showing in Rankings

Wednesday, January 17th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) â€” The Atlantic Coast Conference hasn't been faced with many comebacks in its 48 years. But one of college basketball's top leagues has done it with style this season.

The powerful nine-team ACC had landed four, five or even six teams in the NCAA tournament field of 64 on a regular basis for 15 years before getting just three bids after each of the last two seasons.

The snub angered the ACC's coaches, some of whom suggested the competitive conference was being punished by the NCAA selection committee for years of domination.

There also was a theory that Duke's superiority over the rest of the league somehow hurt the ACC, much like Florida State's 70-2 ACC mark in football has given the league the nickname of ``Florida State and Eight Dwarfs.''

``The league is what it is because it's been strong from top to bottom,'' said Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. ``What we allowed to happen was that Duke became very, very good in a time when there were a lot of personnel losses to the rest of the league. The rest of us just didn't keep up.

``It's our responsibility to keep up, and I think you are seeing a turn back in that direction. Whether we've made it completely that way or not, I don't know.''

Duke is still there, ranked second in the nation and 4-0 in the ACC. But four other teams â€” North Carolina, Wake Forest, Maryland and Virginia â€” are in the top 13.

And unranked Georgia Tech has positioned itself for a run at an NCAA bid under first-year coach Paul Hewitt. The Yellow Jackets have beaten UCLA and Kentucky, and last week knocked off consecutive top-10 teams in Wake Forest and Virginia.

Hewitt, who came to Atlanta from Siena, laughed when asked about his view of the league. His first four ACC games have been against ranked teams.

``No surprises here,'' he said. ``There is tremendous talent in this league.''

Starting play Wednesday night â€” when North Carolina hosted Clemson and Wake Forest visited Marylandâ€” the five ranked ACC teams were a combined 66-12. The league produced some major wins in the non-conference schedule, including Duke beating No. 11 Illinois, Virginia topping No. 4 Tennessee by 18 points and Wake Forest crushing No. 5 Kansas by 31.

``Our league has more experience this year,'' said North Carolina State coach Herb Sendek. ``The teams in our league have demonstrated on the floor that they are deserving of those kind of rankings.''

Sendek is correct. The ACC returned 35 of a possible 45 starters and didn't lose any players early to the NBA draft.

``In this day and time in basketball, it's probably as veteran a league as you can get,'' said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. ``There are so many big games this year. There's anticipation every game, not just some games like last year.''

During a two-year period prior to last season, the ACC lost underclassmen Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Elton Brand, Steve Francis, Corey Maggette, William Avery and Dion Glover to the pros.

Such defections dropped the ACC's power ranking to fourth in 1999-2000 behind the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten and the Big East.

This season, the ACC is back at No. 1 as players like Duke's Shane Battier, North Carolina's Brendan Haywood and Maryland's Terence Morris stayed in school instead of heading to the NBA.

``Duke was just wiping everybody out, and a couple of other teams were playing at such a high level,'' said Clemson coach Larry Shyatt. ``The supposition was that these others aren't good, and that wasn't true. They were very good.''

He no longer sees Duke, North Carolina and Maryland as the long ACC elites.

``Those teams were playing with a stacked deck talent-wise, not just in this league, but in the entire country,'' Shyatt said. ``Now, we have five teams that can win almost every league in this country and win the national title in the next couple of months.''

Wake Forest was one of those teams that didn't make the NCAA tournament last season. But the Deacons but went on to take the NIT championship, then reeled off 12 straight wins in 2000-2001 before losing at North Carolina 70-69 on Jan. 6.

After that close win by the Tar Heels, coach Matt Doherty was right back in his team's face in practice.

``These ACC games come so quickly that if you enjoy a win too much or you think you've done something you are going to get smacked the next time you step on the floor,'' said North Carolina's first-year coach.