Duke and Maryland don't often play for match sticks. The stakes are usually much bigger, like the 2000 ACC tournament championship, or a spot in the 2001 NCAA title game, or the No. 1 regular-season ranking that was on the line both times they played in 2002.

	J.J. Redick and the Blue Devils can claim a share of first place by beating Maryland tonight.

None of that will be on the table when the Terps visit Duke on Wednesday night, although they're not exactly playing for pennies. The ACC regular-season title looks to be a three-team race, and Duke and Maryland are in that trio (along with Wake Forest), which makes their second meeting in 2003 one of a handful of big conference games remaining to be played -- but by no means the biggest. Not with so many games left, and so little separating the three teams at the top of the ACC standings.

"We are a very good league, and that's (proof) of it," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "(The parity atop the league standings) is not because we have bad teams. If you look at our record against the other major conference, it's as good as any."

The stakes of recent Duke-Maryland games have been easier to decipher than this one. Whoever wins Wednesday won't necessarily win the ACC title or even assume occupation of the catbird seat, although Maryland could put some distance between itself and Duke. By winning for the third time in four years at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Maryland would be two full games ahead of Duke -- but tied with Wake Forest in the loss column, with three ACC defeats each.

A Duke win would make a mess of the top of the league standings, leaving the Blue Devils, Deacons and Terps within a half-game of each other. A Duke win also would make a very happy man of Blue Devils sophomore Daniel Ewing, who has been through the league three times now -- twice last season, and once this season -- and knows where he ranks the Maryland game.

"Maryland is our biggest rival," Ewing said. "North Carolina is bouncing back from last season, and Wake Forest is a tough game, but for me, Maryland is the biggest."

But past Duke-Maryland games have been more definitive than this one. In the past year or two, there was a sense of now-or-never about a Duke-Maryland game -- only Duke could beat Maryland, and only Maryland could beat Duke. To win this game was to break away from the ACC pack, first place straight ahead. To lose this game was to lose a chance at first place, probably until next season.

"The conference was that way the last few years, but it's certainly not that way this year," Williams said. "We're playing very well as a league, and there's a lot of good teams that make it tough to win, especially away from home."

Regardless of Wednesday's outcome, anything remains possible. Maryland has lost to Wake Forest, Georgia Tech and Virginia. Duke has lost to Maryland, N.C. State, Florida State and Wake Forest.

What happens when Maryland visits Duke still matters, but what happens over the next three weeks -- for a change -- matters more.

Games of the Week

Wake Forest at Georgia Tech Thursday Best team in the ACC tries to become the first to topple Jackets at home. Xavier at Dayton Saturday Stakes includes Ohio bragging rights, the A-10 West title and NCAA tournament seeding. Boston at Vermont Saturday Terriers are closing in on America East title, but Vermont's T.J. Coppenrath has other ideas. Connecticut at Notre Dame Monday Brutal road test for Huskies without their coach or point guard.

West Kept St. Joe's From Going South
We'll tell you why Saint Joseph's wasn't supposed to be any good this season. Marvin O'Connor is why. He scored 1,678 points in three years with the Hawks, and without him this season, who was going to score, anyway?

Teams were going to focus on point guard Jameer Nelson, take him out of games, and then pick apart the rest of the Hawks.

Sounded good, anyway.

Reality intruded in the form of 6-foot-3 sophomore Delonte West, although he has not been O'Connor's equal.

He has been O'Connor's superior.

With West scoring like O'Connor, but providing superior defense, rebounding and decision-making, the Hawks are bearing down on an NCAA Tournament berth, and West is bearing down on a spot on the all-Atlantic-10 team.

West is among A-10 leaders in scoring (fourth, 19.2 points per game), field-goal shooting (fourth, 49.5 percent), assists (ninth, 3.7 per game), free-throw shooting (eighth, 80 percent), steals (seventh, 1.8 per game) and three-point shooting (seventh, 39.4 percent). He's just outside the top 20 at five rebounds per game.

Across the board, West's statistics are superior to O'Connor's -- even scoring average -- from last season, when the Hawks went from a preseason top-10 team to a 19-14 NIT disappointment. West spent last season as O'Connor's understudy, averaging 5.9 points in 17 minutes per game. This season, in double the playing time, he has tripled his scoring and made especially significant strides in his perimeter shooting; he was just 2-for-17 last season on 3-pointers (11.8 percent).

"He has become a virtual scoring machine," Hawks coach Phil Martelli said. "There (have been) times where every time he has gone up, the ball has gone in."

In his last four games, West has averaged 28.5 points on 56.7 percent shooting. With West distracting defenses, Nelson has been freed up to average 17.1 points, 5.2 assists and 2.3 steals a game.

"They have great guards," said Villanova coach Jay Wright after West and Nelson combined for 55 points in the Hawks' 92-75 victory on Feb. 3. "Not good guards -- great guards."

And get this: West might not even be the most improved player on his team. That distinction could go to 6-5 sophomore Pat Carroll, who scored 16 points all season as a freshman -- and now averages 12.3 per game. Carroll is shooting 50.4 percent on 3-pointers (58 for 115).

"When Pat and Delonte shoot, it seems the ball is going in -- and you have to avoid being disappointed when it doesn't," Martelli said.

Around the East