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CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ They start playing for keeps on Tuesday night.
No more jetting off to Hawaii and Puerto Rico for sunshine and cupcakes.
The Dartmouths and Woffords and Buffalos that decorated non-conference schedules like holiday tinsel have been packed away.
Tuesday night, in what's sure to be a juiced-up Joel Coliseum, fourth-ranked Wake Forest (11-0) and No. 8 Virginia (10-0), two of the few remaining unbeaten teams in Division I basketball, tip off ACC play at 7.
Also, No. 14 North Carolina (9-2) visits resurgent Georgia Tech (8-3) while 18th-ranked Maryland (9-3) travels to Clemson (9-4), both at 8 p.m.
In the dead of winter, the heat is suddenly on.
As conference play begins, three ACC teams are ranked among the top eight and five are among the top 18 in the latest Associated Press poll. After two seasons in which the tradition-rich league lost a little of its national luster, the ACC looks loaded again.