After winning national championships in 2001 and 2002, the ACC could be returning to the gory days of 1999 and 2000, when the league advanced just three teams into the NCAA Tournament. Not since 1979 had the ACC failed to put at least four teams into the tournament, and usually the league received five or six bids.

	Herb Sendek and N.C. State enter the ACC tournament needing wins.

Entering this week's ACC tournament, though, the ACC has only three NCAA locks -- Wake Forest, Duke and Maryland -- and only one team on the bubble. That would be N.C. State, and frankly, short of a run to the ACC title game this week, the Wolfpack's bubble may have burst when it was blown out at Temple on Feb. 15.

Even with its 9-7 ACC record, N.C. State is in mortal NCAA danger thanks to a non-conference schedule that was weak, and even worse than weak: It got the better of the Wolfpack. They lost not only to the best non-conference teams on their schedule -- Gonzaga and Boston College -- but to sub-.500 foes Massachusetts and Temple. N.C. State's most impressive non-conference victory? South Carolina, in Raleigh. Try selling that one to the NCAA Tournament selection committee.

"We're in a bad position," junior forward Marcus Melvin says. "We've got to win big (this week)."

The ACC has been top-heavy before, but differently. For most of the past two decades, Duke and North Carolina have beaten up on the rest of the league en route to the Final Four. In the past five years Maryland has joined that duo atop the rest of the league, and country, and in 1999 and 2000 that trio's dominance cost the ACC's rank-and-file. While the Tar Heels, Blue Devils and Terrapins were going 39-9 in league play in 1999 and 35-13 in 2000, the best of the rest of the ACC were going to the NIT.

Last season North Carolina dropped back to the pack, but Wake Forest has taken the Tar Heels' place this season, joining Duke and Maryland in breaking away from the ACC peloton.

Result? Three teams with double-figure wins in league play, five teams without a realistic shot at the NCAA Tournament, and N.C. State somewhere in the middle. Unlike in past seasons, though, the ACC probably won't have a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Unless Wake Forest, Duke or Maryland makes an unexpected tournament run, the ACC would fail to put a team in the Final Four for the first time since 1996. Couple that with a lowly three NCAA bids, and you've got a conference that looks, right or wrong, as top-heavy as a bulldog -- and just as ugly.

	Games of the Week
	Atlantic 10 championship Saturday Coronation for one of the three kings? Or will someone else join Xavier, Dayton and Saint Joseph's in the NCAA Tournament? Big East championship Saturday Oh, to be in the Garden for this one. ACC championship Sunday Wacky season for the league concludes at Greensboro Coliseum.

Speaking of top-heavy
Before the season, it was beyond the wildest dreams of even the most ardent Atlantic 10 fans -- and we know who you are; thanks for the e-mails -- that four A-10 teams would get into the NCAA Tournament. That could happen, but only if someone from outside the league's Big Three (Xavier, Dayton and Saint Joseph's) wins this week's conference tournament to claim the A-10's automatic bid.

Whatever happens this week, Xavier, Dayton and Saint Joseph's ought to be in the NCAA Tournament thanks to their similarly strong résumés, all of them with records in the 22-5 range and with Top-30 RPIs.

Looking for a darkhorse, then, to ride in from the cold and win the A-10 tournament? Look no farther than Thursday's quarterfinal between Richmond and Temple. If anyone in the league has the talent, experience and coaching to pull off three victories in three days, it's Richmond or Temple.

The Spiders have been a disappointing 15-12 this season thanks in large part to the back injury of their best player, Reggie Brown, but they still have beaten Stanford and Xavier, and played Wake Forest close.

The Owls aren't even eligible -- yet -- for the NIT, what with their 13-14 record. But they went 10-6 in conference play after going 3-8 against the most brutal non-conference schedule in the country. As usual, Temple is worth watching in March, its 96-55 loss Saturday at Xavier notwithstanding.

"I would like to see them again," Temple coach John Chaney said after that game.

If the Owls beat Richmond, Chaney probably will get his wish. Barring an upset along the way, Xavier will be waiting in the semifinal for the Temple-Dayton winner.

Big East history: Win 10 and get in
Which Big East bubble team, Boston College or Seton Hall, will get into the NCAA Tournament?

Both, says history.

In the 12 seasons that the Big East has played a 16-game conference schedule, 40 teams have won at least 10 league games. Of those 40, guess how many made it into the NCAA Tournament.

Hint: 40.

That's history, but then again, it's also history, know what we're saying?

If the day ever comes when a 10-6 team in Big East play can be left out of the NCAA Tournament, that day could be at hand. Entering the Big East tournament this week, neither Boston College nor Seton Hall had amassed the kind of résumé that would make the NCAA selection committee leap from its conference room to award an at-large bid.

Boston College is 17-10 overall, with an RPI of 46. Seton Hall has a better RPI (36), but a worse record (16-11). Neither has a non-conference victory against a sure-fire NCAA Tournament team, although the Eagles come close with a win against fellow bubble-mate N.C. State.

In league play, Boston College has beaten just one of the Big East's four NCAA locks, Connecticut -- and then lost to those same Huskies 91-54 to close the regular season. Seton Hall has beaten two NCAA teams from the Big East, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh, but will that be enough to overcome its 7-9 start?

It's possible, but not likely, that Boston College and Seton Hall will get into the NCAA Tournament regardless of their showing in the Big East tournament. If it comes down to winning a game this week, Seton Hall has the better draw. The Pirates play Miami (11-16), a team they defeated 76-53 on Jan. 18 at home, on Wednesday.

Louis Orr says his team needs to forget about the stakes and just play.

"In reality, you win as many games as you can, and you stick with the formula that got you in the position to have a chance. Why change now?" he says. "You played loose, played defense and executed before -- that's what you have to do now."

On Thursday, Boston College gets the winner of Wednesday's Notre Dame-St. John's game. Earlier this season the Irish (22-8) won 101-96 at Boston College. The Eagles swept the Red Storm (15-12) this season, but if their NCAA hopes come down to a must-win game against St. John's at Madison Square Garden, they're no lock.

Boston College coach Al Skinner takes a different approach than Orr.

"If this team doesn't play with a sense of urgency," Skinner said, "we're not a good team."

Around the East