ACC Commissioner John Swofford has sent a letter to the Division I men's basketball committee requesting that conference strength be added to the list of criteria considered when the NCAA tournament field is selected.

Coaches say they plan to remind the media more often next season about the conference's strength.

This hasn't been a great time for the ACC. After getting just four teams into the NCAA tournament, they've seen just one advance to the second weekend -- North Carolina. Clemson and Duke, who were hoping for success in the dance, were upset by lower seeded teams. Miami had a decent stay, but is gone as well.

So, while everyone pines over a downer of a season, you can still see some ACC stars shine. Yes, the McDonald's All America Game is on ESPN tonight and there are eight recruits from the conference among the 24 players participating.

North Carolina has three of them: Tyler Zeller, Ed Davis and Larry Drew II. Drew already made the Carolina faithful proud by winning the Three Point Shootout last night (by the way, current Heel Wayne Ellington did that in '06).

Wake Forest (Al Farouq Aminu), Duke (Elliot Williams), Florida State (Chris Singleton), Georgia Tech (Iman Shumpert) and Virginia (Sylven Landesberg) each have one recruit in. Drew and Shumpert will be on the West squad; the others will all be on the East.

Since 1978, only one NCAA tournament champion did not have at least one McDonald's All American -- Maryland in 2002.

With the ACC regular season over and done, it's time to go back and give a few awards for the season.

Player of the Year: Tyler Hansbrough, North Carolina. Only Antawn Jamison, Tim Duncan and Horace Grant have led the ACC in both scoring and rebounding in the same season over the past 25 years. All three of those guys went on to win the Player of the Year in the ACC (two won the national award).

Coach of the Year: Dino Gaudio, Wake Forest. Va Tech's Seth Greenberg or Miami's Frank Haith may win it (and they would deserve it). But Gaudio came into such a tough situation with a team that hadn't been very good lately. Sure, the magic of the win over Duke was dampered a bit with the ensuing four game losing skid, but this was a big year for

All-ACC Team: Hansbrough, Tyrese Rice (BC), DeMarcus Nelson (Duke), Sean Singletary (UVa) and Greivis Vasquez (UMd). Either this was a great year for guards or a poor year for big men. Either way, Rice and Singletary have been the lone reasons to pay attention to either of their teams. Vasquez, a sophomore, has really stepped into his leadership role at Maryland. Nelson fills the customary senior swingman spot on this team. Just like Vasquez, Nelson's leadership has meant more to Duke than his abilities ... and that is saying quite a bit!

I think Wake Forest's hopes for an NCAA tournament bid are all but over. The Demon Deacons have had one heck of a surprising season, but losses to UNC and Maryland have pretty much knocked them out of the at-large bid. Still, what they've done this year has been nothing short of amazing and they have one heck of a future coming.

LOCKS: North Carolina, Duke. UNC is back on the #1 seed line ... and the Tennessee loss at Vanderbilt puts them back in the Charlotte region. Duke looks like a #2 seed right now, but has a great shot at joining or dethroning the Heels on that top line.

LOOKING GOOD: Clemson. They are the third best team in the ACC. They have the 20 wins and they've done so with a variety of guys dealing with injuries. Unless they collapse in the next two weeks, they are pretty solid.

GOOD SIDE OF THE BUBBLE: Miami, Maryland. The Canes had a horrible first half at Clemson, but stormed back to make it respectable. The loss hurts, but they can close out the rest of the season against bottom feeders and hit that 9-7 ACC record. Maryland has eight conference wins already but really needs a big-time showing against Clemson on Sunday night. Still, they have work to do. The Terps have a poor RPI ranking and are just 1-5 against North Carolina, Duke, Miami and Virginia Tech (they haven't played Clemson, yet).

Ding-dong, Duke has lost. The loss certainly doesn't wipe away the Blue Devils' shot at winning the ACC title ... but it does add a little more drama to the conference than there has been of late. Here is the latest ACC Power Poll:

1-Duke: Duke's undefeated ACC season is over, but they still own a one game lead over the Tar Heels ... their only real threat. The Devils travel to tough Miami before stepping out and hosting St John's.

2-North Carolina: The Heels got to stretch out with a 39-point beating of Va Tech. Feels much better than barely winning games, eh? Also, the Duke loss puts UNC back in the race for the ACC title.

3-Clemson: The Tigers are rolling in February with their only loss being the heartbreaker to Carolina.

4-Maryland: In the last month, the Terps have only lost to Duke. Twice.

Everyone in ACC country knows that Winston-Salem is a tough place to visit. Winning at Wake ain't easy, no matter how good they are.

Duke found that out tonight, losing to the Demon Deacons, 86-73. Wake Forest (who is 14-1 at home) dominated this game in not the way you would think. Instead of riding big man Chas McFarland ... they used their guards to attack the basket. Since Duke has no one back there to challenge shots, Wake either got easy baskets or fouled.

Freshman James Johnson was a beast. Dude went for 24 points and 16 boards while Jeff Teague led all scorers with 26 points.

For all those people who say that Duke gets all the calls: Greg Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson, Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Lance Thomas (aka, the entire Blue Devils starting lineup) fouled out. Wake Forest shot 38 free throws, making 27 of them.

Duke, who is one of the better long range shooting teams, shot just 8-of-28 from behind the arc (28%). They also made just 13 of 25 from the line. Ugh. All that lends to the common belief of why Duke cannot win a national championship: they can't defend the paint and they are screwed if their shots don't fall.

Back in the 2002-2003 season, the ACC and FoxSportsNet went into a partnership that gave FSN exclusive rights to Sunday night games for the conference. I will say it took some getting used to, but I think it has turned out to be quite a success. Coaches do hate the late Sunday start times, but the ACC believes that every game must be televised and wants to stay in front of everyone's eyes (seriously, how many Tar Heels games have you seen this season?).

This year, there have also been some great games. This past Sunday's Clemson-UNC game was the third overtime game they've had on Sunday Night Hoops ... and the second involving the Tar Heels and Tigers. There have been big shots (Wayne Ellington, Ishmael Smith, Jason Rich) and big-time performances. Rivalries renewed (Duke-Maryland) and history made (Clemson going 0-53 in Chapel Hill).

The other reason I like it is that it isn't ESPN. Now, this isn't a normal bashing of ESPN, but the Worldwide Leader already shows a ton of ACC games. Those of us in ACC country are used to the Raycom/Jefferson Pilot/Lincoln Financial feeds for games. This is a different network (that uses ACC guys Tim Brando and Mike Gminski) and a different look.