DUKE OF FLATBUSH

Retiring Coach K leads slightly weaker ACC gang to Brooklyn

The Atlantic Coast Conference returns to Barclays Center this week, not quite the college basketball powerhouse it has historically been.

The ACC Tournament starts today, with just two teams ranked in the latest AP Top 25. Seventh-ranked Duke is the top seed heading into the most tradition-rich of the conference tournaments.

The Blue Devils (26-5) will look to give Mike Krzyzewski his 16th championship in the retiring coach’s final conference tournament and bolster their case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Meanwhile, the rest of the ACC’s top teams are just trying to make sure they don’t end up on the wrong side of the bubble.

“The marathon is now over,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said this past weekend, after the Hurricanes ended the regular season by beating Syracuse. “Now the sprints begin.”

The championship game is Saturday night, the day before Selection Sunday.

The last time an ACC Tournament started with two or fewer ranked teams was 2013.

Since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, the ACC has never had fewer than three teams in the bracket. The last time the ACC placed only three teams in the tournament was 2000.

The ACC was only a nine-school conference then. Since the conference expanded in 2004, the ACC has never had fewer than four teams receive bids. And since expanding to 15 in 201314, six is the fewest bids the ACC has received.

But this season, everything is going to have to break perfectly in Brooklyn and around the country for the ACC to get more than four schools in the 68-team field.

Behind Duke, second-seeded Notre Dame (22-9) enters the ACC Tournament looking safe for an at-large bid after a surprising regular season in which it won 15 conference games for the first time.

“I’ve never been more excited about taking a team into the postseason,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said.

Third-seeded North Carolina (23-8) is coming off its biggest victory of an otherwise inconsistent season, knocking off Duke in Krzyzewski’s last home game to slip back into the rankings this week at No. 25. The Tar Heels have won 10 of 12 and finally appear to be a good bet to make the NCAA field.

“We all knew the potential of this team and how good we are,” Tar Heels guard R.J. Davis said. “I think we can build off this win and go far.”

Fourth-seeded Miami (22-9) needed a late rally at Syracuse on Saturday to close the regular season with two straight victories.

“We’re trying to use this momentum we created the last two games and take into the ACC Tournament,” Miami’s Jordan Miller said.

The top four don’t begin play until Thursday’s quarterfinals.