WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Hansbrough, Green in no hurry to discuss Cameron successes

By David Reynolds

Feb 11, 2009

Chapel Hill, N.C. — When Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green step onto the Cameron Indoor Stadium floor Wednesday night for the fourth and final time, they’ll have a chance to accomplish a feat no UNC player has accomplished in the Mike Krzyzewski era at Duke.

With a win, Hansbrough and Green would become the first Tar Heels – and the only ACC players other than Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue – to play in four straight road victories against the Blue Devils since Krzyzewski took over the program.

They’ve each had more than their share of memorable moments on the Blue Devils' home floor. Three years ago, a Hansbrough three-pointer as the shot clock expired helped UNC win on Senior Night for J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams, and a Green dunk over Greg Paulus last season already has been memorialized on a UNC T-shirt.

But neither one of them wanted to get ahead of themselves in Tuesday’s news conference and talk about making it a clean sweep in Durham.

“It hasn’t happened yet,” Green said.

“I don’t want to think about it right now because, first of all, I want to win and focus on this game,” Hansbrough said.

North Carolina’s three-game winning streak at Cameron is a major subplot for the latest renewal of the rivalry on Tobacco Road, and the Cameron Crazies just may have a little extra to prevent the Tar Heels from extending their streak to four. After all, Duke didn’t earn its reputation as one of the toughest places to play in college basketball for nothing.

The Blue Devils’ student section wraps around the court and is known for its ostentatious hand-motions, clever chants and creative signs intended to distract opposing players.

“I always come out before the game and shoot just to take 10 minutes and look at the signs they have because they’re a crazy crowd,” Ty Lawson said. “Probably my freshman year it was more intimidating, but now it’s just more fun. You don’t get to see that type of atmosphere anywhere else in college basketball.”

But as tough as Duke’s venue has been, UNC’s starting five is experienced and should be ready for whatever the Cameron Crazies throw at them.

Wayne Ellington said the location of the game shouldn’t affect the outcome.

“We worry about ourselves when we get in there. We don’t let the crowd take us out of anything. We don’t let the atmosphere take us out of anything,” Ellington said. “We just go in there with one mindset and one mindset only, and that’s to win it.”

But as much as the players downplay homecourt advantage, there’s no downplaying the intensity of what several players called “the greatest rivalry in college basketball.” Duke and North Carolina both sit atop the ACC standings at 7-2, and a victory will propel one of them into the driver’s seat in the conference for the rest of the season.

“Whenever we realize Duke’s our next game, I think that’s when practices step up a little bit, players get a little bounce in their step for practice,” Hansbrough said. “Everybody gets that feeling.”