When it comes to the ACC, the only thing certain is that Duke and North Carolina are the top two teams in the conference.

But after that, can any team truly call itself the third-best in the ACC?

“I think it’s impossible right now,” said Grant Wahl, a national college basketball writer for Sports Illustrated. “I’ve been trying to figure out who the third-best team in the ACC is for a long time, and it’s as confusing now as it was a month ago. A lot of teams can make a claim to it. I’ve heard BC, I’ve heard Clemson, I’ve even heard Maryland a couple times.”

Yes, the ACC is pretty jumbled right now. So what, you ask? Well, considering the Terps have already played Duke and North Carolina, there’s no reason to say they can’t go on a run during the next few games and patch together a small winning streak of some sort.

The Terps (12-8, 2-3 ACC) are one of seven conference teams to have either two or three league wins. The only other team aside from Duke and North Carolina that doesn’t is Virginia (11-7, 1-4), which visits Comcast Center tonight for a nationally televised contest. But don’t Sharpie in a W on your Terps schedule just yet. Given the state of the ACC this season, games can’t be taken for granted.

“There are a lot of teams that are really close, so a lot of games are going to come down to the wire,” coach Gary Williams said. “Virginia’s a good basketball team. They’re 1-4, but we were 3-6 last year and wound up 10-6. Nothing’s set in stone yet, especially with the closeness of all the games so far. For a 1-4 team, we think they’re really a good basketball team.”

Only the Blue Devils and Tar Heels are ranked, but Williams has argued in the past that the ACC is so deep from top to bottom that teams beat each other up throughout the conference season.

“I think there’s some truth to the fact that every team in the ACC is pretty good,” said Wahl, who also called it a down year in the conference. “There’s no bottom feeder in the ACC that you can just dismiss entirely.

“But more than anything, it’s just mediocrity,” Wahl added.

With so many ACC games left, it’s still a bit early to try and project how many wins it’s going to take to make the NCAA Tournament. But from this point on, it would appear that every home game is a winnable one for the Terps.

And while tournament berths aren’t gained or lost in January, the Terps were faltering before last weekend. Now, at least they have brought some energy back into College Park after playing so well against North Carolina as well as in the first half against Duke.

“We put ourselves in a good position,” freshman Cliff Tucker said.

“After beating Carolina, we really believe that we can beat any team in the country,” senior Bambale Osby said. “That just shot our confidence through the roof. It really helped us a lot.”

Immediately after the Terps beat North Carolina, Williams made a point to his team not to get too high – it was clear there was still a lot to do. A loss to Duke is by no means a letdown, but a loss tonight could be considered one.

“I think we found out some things about ourselves,” Williams said. “Hopefully we’ve gained some confidence. Sometimes you need some success to continue to work hard as the season goes on. Hopefully our players feel that way.”

Virginia isn’t Duke and it isn’t North Carolina, but the Cavaliers are as desperate for a win as they come.

The Terps, though, are desperate in their own way to turn things around for good. They started that mission last weekend and want to continue it tonight. Because, just as everyone else has noticed, the Terps realize they’re right in the middle of the ACC pack.

“The ultimate goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament,” Osby said. “People say they want to win the ACC regular season, the ACC Tournament – that’s all good and fine – but once you get to the [NCAA] Tournament, that’s where everybody wants to get to. We talk about it, we think about it, but we still have [11] more games to go, so we can’t be counting eggs before they hatch. So we’re talking about it, but you still have to just stay focused on what we gotta do here.”

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