The road to the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament just hasn't gone through the Research Triangle since 2002-03, when Wake Forest took the spot in Josh Howard's senior season.
Instead, the Triangle has remained a dead end.
Florida State's bid to break up the regular-season hegemony Duke and North Carolina have maintained over the conference will resume today when the fifth-ranked Blue Devils play the 15th-ranked Seminoles at the Tucker Center at 7 p.m. (ESPN Ch. 33)
FSU and Duke are both 10-2 in the ACC, and North Carolina is 11-2 after Tuesday's victory at N.C. State. But FSU holds the upper hand over both after its 76-73 victory at Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 21 and its 90-57 thumping of UNC in Tallahassee on Jan. 14.
Coach Leonard Hamilton of FSU spent the week downplaying any hype surrounding his team's rematch with Duke. Besides the standings implications, a victory tonight would give the Seminoles their first three-game winning streak against the Blue Devils.
"I think that every team in the ACC starts out with that as a goal in mind,'' Hamilton said of a first-place finish in the regular season. "However, at this particular time in the season, we have not had anything other than the one-game-at-a-time approach.
"This is uncharted territory for us, so to do anything different and try to look too far ahead would be counterproductive for us."
Over the years, ACC teams outside North Carolina have complained about not being given the same attention and consideration as North Carolina, Duke, N.C. State and Wake Forest. In a twist, Hamilton said that in this instance, his program's relatively remote location might work in its favor.
"There are a lot of people in that area, and that's what makes the ACC so exciting because of that scenario," Hamilton said. "I think it's great for the league. I think it's great for the image, the brand.
"It's just that from a day-to-day standpoint, we don't get caught up in it maybe as much as other people. And so that anticipation — and maybe it's excitement or maybe even pressure — it's not something that's built as or caused us to be quite as exposed as some of the other teams."
Duke has remained in the thick of the ACC race with two remarkable comebacks. It outscored North Carolina 13-2 in the final 2:38 to win 85-84 in Chapel Hill on Austin Rivers' 3-pointer at the buzzer and rallied from a 20-point deficit in the final 11:33 to beat N.C. State 78-73 in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"I do think our team has shown a great will to win, and they have shown that the entire season," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We have become a pretty good defensive team, so we can make some stops. But we can shoot the ball.
"So part of coming back is scoring. Our guys pretty much believe they can score, and when you're coming back sometimes like that, you can get on a roll because they are like free shots, like 'What do you have to lose?'
"We are down by 15, or you're down by 11 or you're down, in one case, by 20. Come on. If there's no pressure, let's go."
The Seminoles knocked off the Blue Devils 76-73 in Cameron on Michael Snaer's 3-pointer at the buzzer. But FSU did its heavy lifting on defense, holding Duke to 39.7 percent accuracy from the floor.
FSU leads the ACC with a field goal-percentage defense of .370, and is making a strong bid to lead the conference in that category for the fourth straight season.
"They have a great combination that you can't teach, of length and quickness," Krzyzewski said. "You can't simulate that in practice. You know, the length that they come at you (with), and they are quick and they have great athletic ability.
"And then they are well-coached in principles. They do a great job teaching man-to-man defense. It's a combination that will produce the results that they have. Leonard has done a great job of not just teaching it, but recruiting to his system."
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