In New York, three of the four soon-to-be-ACC teams – Syracuse, Notre Dame and Louisville – were still alive Friday. Syracuse beat Georgetown in a nice swansong for that rivalry, while Louisville knocked off Notre Dame.

Syracuse and the ‘Ville will square off Saturday night for their final crack at a Big East title.

Virtually ignored in the Big East restructuring? UConn.

The Huskies were forced to sit out the post-season this year by the NCAA so consequentially, they’re home in Storrs, or perhaps some in the stands, and can only watch the final show.

That’s pretty harsh when you think about it.

As John Swofford said the other day, when the New Four join, the competition is likely to be brutal. Let’s just consider who’s involved now. We’ll put it into two tiers:

A. Duke, UNC, Syracuse, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, State and Virginia.

B. Florida State, BC, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson and Virginia Tech.

You could arguably flip Florida State and Virginia or maybe move FSU to the first tier since they’ve been consistently tough lately, this year aside.

Still, everyone is saying “when they arrive..” as if that’s going to be the defining thing for the ACC. But it’s not.

We’re seeing the defining thing this weekend. With Coach K, Roy Williams and Leonard Hamilton the only longterm coaches, the other programs are being reborn before our eyes. Just consider:

• BC – we saw some remarkable ball from the Eagles this week. With Ryan Anderson, Lonnie Jackson, Eddie Odio, Joe Rahon, Patrick Heckmann, Dennis Clifford and most of all Olivier Hanlan, the Eagles have a tremendous young group to build around. Their offense is exciting and explosive and they can catch up in a hurry.
• Virginia – the ‘Hoos have dealt with serious injuries the last several seasons, but there’s no doubting the program has an identity and direction.  Tony Bennett is coaching and recruiting very well indeed.
• NC State – although their core is soon to leave (Richard Howell, Scott Wood are seniors and it would surprise everyone if CJ Leslie returned. Lorenzo Brown might opt to go as well), Mark Gottfried is recruiting well and the future is bright in Raleigh. His freshman class is very solid and the incoming class has some real talent as well. It may take a year or two, but State is heading up.
• Georgia Tech – you might not think that 16-15 is much to brag about, but Georgia Tech is competitive again and that hasn’t been true much in recent years. Brian Gregory is recruiting Georgia well and assembling a talented group.
• Clemson – Brad Brownell is a tremendous coach. His problem, like a lot of guys at Clemson, is recruiting to Clemson. We like his players though. They’re young but talented. When he can wed athleticism to his defense and develop a decent offense, Clemson is going to be very difficult indeed.
• Virginia Tech – jury is still out and it’ll be awhile until there’s enough talent to have a serious opinion.
• Wake Forest – fans are trying to run Jeff Bzdelik out of town – Al Featherston’s account of one harassing Bzdelik on the floor was embarrassing but not a big surprise – but even here, the Deacs have at times played beautiful basketball this season. Not solid. Beautiful. Consider their remarkable first half against Maryland. That really was impressive, and at times elegant. Wake fans won’t want to hear it, but the good stuff is a sign of good coaching. The problem is youth. Well, and patience. In his tournament interview, former Deac coach Dave Odom said that he hoped people would be patient. There’s significant talent on that team. When it matures, look out.

It’ll be interesting to see, for instance, how Syracuse adapts to road trips in the ACC. Jim Boeheim is famous for being a bit of a crank and popping off undiplomatically. That won’t go over well at, say, Clemson or Wake Forest or Virginia Tech, where good manners are appreciated and expected. It might not be enough to push the home team to victory, but Boeheim, Rick Pitino and Jamie Dixon are entering new territory: smaller southern towns, more intimate arenas and a totally different sensibility (Mike Brey already knows the ACC ropes). You can curse each other in New York and have lunch later. If you treat people shabbily in traditional ACC towns, they’ll be waiting to pay you back.

Boeheim seemed to grasp this on one level after he compared Greensboro to New York and found the Gate City lacking. He quickly came back and apologized.

There’s no doubt the New Four can compete at very high levels indeed; what remains to be seen is how quickly they come to understand the conference culture.