A little earlier, I posted about how Maryland tied for eighth-best in college basketball this decade --- at least according to the convoluted scoring system I developed for the exercise.

Three ACC schools --- the ones that collected national championships, unsurprisingly --- ranked in the top 10.

But since this is ACC country, it seemed only fair to see how the rest of the conference did as well.

As a reminder, here is the imperfect scoring system I came up with. Going through a bunch of schools without a Final Four showed just how imperfect it was. The fact Virginia Tech's bubble-bursting back-to-back seasons nets the same as two bottom-of-the-league seasons for Virginia over the last couple years is a troubling quirk that should probably be accounted for.

25 points: National champ
15 points: Runner-up
10 points: Final Four
7 points: Regional runner-up
4 points: Regional semifinalist
2 points: Round of 32 appearance
1 point: NCAA appearance
-1 point: NCAA miss
-3 points: Head coaching ouster

So here's the 12-team rundown, with North Carolina-Duke-Maryland bringing up the head of the field with their combined four titles and eight Final Four appearances in the last decade.

78: North Carolina (2 titles, 2 semifinal, 1 regional final, 3 second rounds, 2 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)

62: Duke (1 title, 1 semifinal, 6 regional semifinals, 1 second round, 1 first round)

44: Maryland (1 title, 1 semifinal, 1 regional semifinal, 4 second rounds, 3 missed tournaments)

11: Boston College (1 regional semifinal, 4 second rounds, 2 first rounds, 3 missed tournaments)

10: Georgia Tech (1 runner-up, 1 second round, 2 first rounds, 6 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)

8: Wake Forest (1 regional semifinal, 3 second rounds, 2 first rounds, 4 missed tounaments)

6: N.C. State (1 regional semifinal, 3 second rounds, 1 first round, 5 missed tournaments)

-3: Miami (1 regional semifinal, 1 second round, 1 first round, 7 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)

-9: Clemson (2 first rounds, 8 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)

-10: Virginia Tech (1 second round, 9 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)

-11: Florida State (1 first round, 9 missed tournaments, 1 ouster)
-11: Virginia (1 second round, 1 first round, 8 missed tournaments, 2 ousters)

The reservations aside, the programs are probably each within a spot of where they should be for the full 10 years --- aside from Georgia Tech, which is kept afloat with that 2004 title game appearance.

Maybe N.C. State was better than Wake Forest. Maybe Virginia Tech was better than Clemson --- and Florida State better than both. Maybe Virginia ... nix that, maybe not.

But the top holds up pretty well. North Carolina, Duke, Maryland. It was a pretty good decade for the ACC --- and those three schools in particular.

--- Patrick Stevens

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