Winston-Salem Journal, N.C., Lenox Rawlings column: Final week key to bottom teams in ACC.(Column)

Byline: Lenox Rawlings

Feb. 25--Down the stretch they come, playing for first place and fifth place and any place the NCAA will put them. Down the stretch they come, sometimes revived and sometimes reviled and always certain that nobody traveled a harder road. The final week of the ACC regular season means different things to different teams. The camera pans the emotional landscape from exultation to desperation, the last scene capturing Florida State (18-11, 6-9 ACC), Clemson (19-9, 5-9) and Georgia Tech (18-10, 6-8) riding the precarious NCAA fence. All three are leaning the wrong way only 15 days before the selection committee delivers its verdict with less weepy melodrama than certain Florida judges.

Maryland probably in Maryland (21-7, 7-6), once a wavering tournament candidate, solidified …