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Florida State wasn't on the national radar when the Atlantic Coast Conference tipped off its season. Traditional powers Maryland, North Carolina and Duke got most of the attention.

Quietly, the Seminoles claimed a share of the regular season title.

"A lot of times, I don't even think (the players) knew they were in first place," FSU coach Sue Semrau said.

Maybe the players didn't know, but after a breakthrough season Florida State enters the ACC tournament that starts Thursday in Greensboro, as a confident No. 2 seed.

"We want to be a top-10 program. We don't look around (and) compare ourselves to other programs," Semrau said.

"We really try to be the best that we can be. ... We don't feel like we've crashed anyone's party. It feels like we've continued to grow to a place where we want to be, and now want to sustain."

Generating some staying power is the next step for a 12th-ranked Florida State team that was picked in the preseason to finish fifth. The Seminoles surprised nearly everybody by finishing 24-6, sharing the regular-season title with Maryland and becoming the first team outside of the league's perennial "Big Three" to claim a two seed since Clemson did it in 2001.

"They've always been ... a potential sleeper, but they've never quite lived up to that," Duke guard Abby Waner said. "Well, this year, they most definitely did. They're not a sleeper."

Whomever emerges from the crowded field will have run a gauntlet, because the ACC boasts four of the nation's top 12 teams: Joining Florida State are No. 4 and top-seeded Maryland, No. 8 and third-seeded Duke and No. 11 and fourth-seeded North Carolina - which has won the last four league titles and hasn't lost an ACC tournament game at the Greensboro Coliseum since the 2004 championship game.

"I think anybody could win it, really," Tar Heels coach Sylvia Hatchell said. "I know we say that a lot, but the parity this year, it may be the greatest I've seen it in many, many years. You look, one through seven or eight, any of those teams could win it all."

That the Seminoles are in the mix speaks to the work Semrau has done since she took over in 1998. Her teams didn't win an ACC tournament game until 2000 and didn't finish at .500 in league play until her fourth season.

Now, to reach the league title game Florida State will have to win multiple conference tournament games for the first time in school history.

"When I got here and we were 0-11 in the ACC (the year before) and didn't win a game in the ACC tournament, it was definitely, 'Take care of the regular season first,'" Semrau said. "It's really step by step, and now that we've been able to conquer different things, I think that is something that is an exciting venture for us."

Keeping it going in Greensboro will be a challenge.

The Blue Devils (24-4) and Tar Heels (25-5), who both played Florida State only once, lost tight games to the Seminoles in Tallahassee. Semrau's team also knocked off the Terrapins at home, giving Maryland one of its two league losses.

Now Brenda Frese's top-seeded team is aiming for its first ACC championship since 1989. Until now, the Terps' best chance came last year before their senior-laden team was upset by Duke in the semifinals.

Two key returnees have Maryland (25-4) clicking again entering the postseason: Kristi Toliver, the hero of the Terps' 2006 national title run, and Marissa Coleman.

"I'm really proud of how far this team has come this season," Frese said. "Obviously, the question mark was going to be how we were going to fill the void of losing ... the five seniors that graduated last year.

"In order for us to secure the No. 1 seed, the amount of work they had to put in, it's just a credit to our two seniors."

But the biggest star of the four-day tournament might be the late Kay Yow, who inspired nearly everyone involved with women's basketball.

Yow, North Carolina State's Hall of Fame coach who died in January after a two-decade fight with breast cancer, will be honored with a video tribute.

A banner commemorating Yow's last huge victory - the Wolfpack's upset of then-No. 1 Duke two years ago after she returned from cancer treatments - was erected outside the arena.