I know it's a bad idea in general to be caught looking ahead, especially with Maryland at College Park coming up, but this isn't really Duke-specific looking ahead. I was, however, thinking after last night's game, "Man, I don't want to have to play those guys again this year," but of course there's always the Tournament.

I absolutely hate ACC expansion (that VT's even IN the conference, actually), but mostly for the wanton destruction of the home-and-home schedules that made comparisons of schedules so much more valid and fair. And for what it did to the ACC Tournament. I still haven't even fully figured out the structure of it yet, hate the 4 day length, hate the fact that the majority of the teams would have to play 4 straight days and win four straight games to win it (but the alternative of shutting some teams out of participation altogether is unthinkable to me).

BUT, this year, I have to say it ought to be absolutely brutal, and maybe immensely entertaining for being that. Right now there are SEVEN teams out of twelve with 3 losses in conference - in essense a 7 team tie for last place. And those seven teams have losing records. One team is at .500. Only four teams have winning records, right? (and we know who the top two are; BC I suspect will drift down into the pack eventually). And I think almost all the victories by teams not Duke and UNC have been at home (thank you, Maryland for the anomoly; let's hope the law of averages bites you back on Sunday night). So what happens when you put all these teams in a tournament on a neutral site?

It could be a gloriously brutal week. Add to the formula all the TV talking heads probably confidently predicting by that point that only 3 or 4 teams (i.e. only one or two not named Duke or UNC) are likely to get NCAA bids unless something dramatic happens, and it could become a bloodbath.

The first round games could be savage. The fifth place team could be very good. The last place team wouldn't be all that bad. Right now the two would in fact have almost identical records. Every one of these teams could think themselves NCAA-worthy, but would have to win a couple more games at least to prove it, and they will all try to. The top couple of teams would most certainly not have an easy opener at all the next day. One could easily be Duke and VT again, with the Allen kid in the paint for them this time, and a great deal to prove. I would not want to have to play two more games in two days after another one of those.

So I'm not trying to get ahead of myself only a quarter of the way through the regular season. But it could be a great tournament over-all when it comes (although I still hate the expanded format). OK, back to pre-Maryland thoughts as we should be.