ACC Tournament 2013 Schedule: Power Ranking Biggest Tourney Threats for Duke

Duke will head into the 2013 ACC Tournament as the team to beat, having showcased just how dominant they truly are with Ryan Kelly back in the mix.

The Blue Devils are without doubt the top ACC side (if not the best team in the country) with Kelly in their midst—having not been beaten with a healthy complement of players—but that's not to suggest that they cannot be beaten in the 2013 ACC Tournament.

In fact, several teams will seriously fancy their chances at taking down the No. 2 team in the country; here's the teams most likely to do that in the ACC.

3. Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia finished the season an astounding 18-1 at home and 21-10 overall this year, yet for some reason aren't being given the same credence as other teams.

The Cavaliers definitely have the talent on hand to challenge the top teams here—as they showed with wins against North Carolina, Duke and N.C. State during the year—but it's the schedule that will likely prevent them from truly dominating in the ACC Tournament.

By my predictions, Virginia is going to be staring down a quarterfinal matchup with North Carolina State, and then a semifinal against Miami, if it wins that. It's simply too hard to see Virginia winning both of those games, and unless it does, it can't really be considered a threat for Duke here.

Expect the Cavaliers to be a tough team to break down, but don't expect to see them faceoff against the Blue Devils in the 2013 ACC Tournament.

2. North Carolina State

The Wolfpack definitely should be higher than they are heading into the ACC Tournament this year—for they should at least have had a bye wrapped up. Yet, with inconsistency from C.J. Leslie—much like the game before—North Carolina State ended up putting itself in the position of needing four wins to take the conference title away from Duke this year.

Having said that, as far as strength goes, this is a team that can definitely challenge in those four games and truly explode on offense. If Leslie gets firing, they'll definitely be able to take down Virginia and then most likely Miami, should they face the Hurricanes in the semifinals.

The loss might have seemed like a bad move (which it was), but it's turned out to be a small blessing for the Wolfpack here in that they won't have to play Duke until the final (should they make it that far) on March 17. And absolutely anything can happen in the final.

Duke is a strong team, but if N.C. State get hot, even the Blues Devils' defense will struggle to contain its various scoring threats.

Definitely a team to watch out for here.

1. North Carolina

All the statistics from this year and from recent history suggest that the Blue Devils will continue their winning streak over the North Carolina Tar Heels.

They won both games this year and haven't lost to North Carolina in the ACC Tournament in over 10 years. Which, given their recent dominance and performance in the final game of the year, will no doubt appear likely to take place again in the tournament this time around.

Having said all of that, the same belief that will fuel Duke towards continuing its dominance will also no doubt fuel UNC towards defeating the favorites.

It will relish the underdog tag that will come for the team this time—as Duke is the hottest of favorites to win the tournament—and with some momentum, could well end up finishing the Blue Devils chances at going "undefeated" (with a healthy squad) in 2013.

P.J. Hairston and Marcus Paige have been great for the Tar Heels of late, and if they find their groove here, will definitely make UNC a tough semifinal opponent.

Like there was ever going to be another way.

Check out the full tournament schedule via TheACC.com.

Which teams do you think are most likely of knocking off Duke?

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