Stephen Schramm / Times-News

GREENSBORO – With his Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship hat perched atop his head and the stickers on his commemorative championship shirt still stuck in place on Sunday afternoon, Duke’s Nolan Smith sat in his locker and set a time limit on his state of satisfaction.

He said when Duke, which earned its second-straight ACC Tournament title by beating Georgia Tech 65-61, got its NCAA Tournament assignment later Sunday, the celebrations would stop.

“I’ll throw this shirt and hat in a drawer,” Smith said. “It won’t be my focus anymore.”

By early evening, the Blue Devils found out about their postseason fate.

Duke (29-5) earned the top seed in the South Region. The Blue Devils will play the winner of the NCAA Tournament’s play-in game between Winthrop and Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Friday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Duke earned a No. 1 seed for the 11th time.

“We’re still celebrating (the ACC Tournament title), but this isn’t the peak of our season,” Duke forward Lance Thomas said. “(Today) we have a chance to work for something big. … It’s back to work. There’s one more championship to get.”

The Blue Devils should enter the NCAA Tournament well versed in the pitfalls of the postseason.

The ACC Tournament saw high seeds fall each day. Of the 11 games in Greensboro, five went according to what the seeding would suggest.

Duke proved to be the recipient of the tournament’s upheaval, defeating the Nos. 9, 12 and 7 seeds en route to the title.

“This definitely prepares us,” Smith said. “It gets us in this feeling of winning championships. It’s such a great feeling that everybody wants to have. Going into the next tournament, we know what it takes to win these games.”