WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

ACC to be decided on Senior Night in Chapel Hill

By Sam Rosenthal

Mar 8, 2009

When No. 7 Duke ventures to Chapel Hill to play No. 2 North Carolina, some major "either-ors" will come into play at the Smith Center.

Either UNC (26-3, 12-3 ACC) will win its third outright ACC regular-season title in five years, or Duke (25-5, 11-4) will earn a share of first place. The sold-out game is at 4 p.m. Sunday on WRAL.

Either Carolina will either enter the ACC Tournament as the No. 1 seed, or Duke will force the seeding process to a tiebreaker. The No. 1 seed plays Friday at noon, and the No. 2 seed plays Friday at 7 p.m.

Either Carolina will sweep the season series against Duke, or each rival will suffer a defeat on its home floor. (UNC beat Duke, 101-87, in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Feb. 11.) A Carolina sweep gives the Tar Heels strong claim to one of the four No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, but a split puts the Blue Devils in much better position to contend for one of the top NCAA seeds.

Either the left big toe Tar Heel guard Ty Lawson injured in practice Friday will limit him or keep him out of the game, or Lawson will play at close to 100 percent.  Lawson scored 25 points, and 21 in the second half, in the game in Cameron.

Either Duke – which leads the ACC in turnover margin but turned the ball over 15 times against Carolina the first time – will continue its recent success at protecting the ball, or Carolina’s high-pressure style will again disrupt the Blue Devils’ offense. Duke is 8-0 in ACC games where it turns the ball over 10 or fewer times, and 3-4 in games where the Blue Devils commit 11 or more turnovers.

“I think there’s a sense of urgency in just us knowing how valuable possessions are in a game when you look back (at it),” Duke junior forward Gerald Henderson said. “If you’re taking care of the ball and getting good shots every time or just getting a shot every time, you’re going to heighten your chances of winning.”

And either the Tar Heels’ senior class – which includes Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Bobby Frasor and Mike Copeland – will win its final game in the Dean Smith Center … or the Blue Devils will spoil their Senior Night the way the UNC ruined the same occasion when they defeated J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams’ Duke team on Senior Night in Durham three years ago.

On Friday, Hansbrough called that 83-76 win on March 4, 2006, his favorite game as a Tar Heel. Hansbrough, Green, Frasor, and currently sidelined Marcus Ginyard all played prominent roles in that game as freshmen.

“When you think about that, nobody in this room gave those kids much of a chance that night," UNC coach Roy Williams said about the media’s treatment of that game. “So that magnitude of the win, that particular day, was bigger than it would’ve been at some other time.”

Hansbrough’s three-pointer with 3:15 remaining and the shot clock winding down, which gave UNC an 11-point lead, stands as the lasting image from that contest, as well as one of the most memorable of his illustrious career. Hansbrough will have his No. 50 retired by UNC and has a chance to pass Redick this season as the ACC's all-time leading scorer.

And just as Hansbrough remembers downing Redick on the latter’s Senior Night, this year’s Blue Devils will surely not mind reciprocating the experience for Hansbrough … even though Williams said that has little to do with it.

“I don’t think kids think in terms of upsetting someone or playing great because it’s someone else,” he said. “I think our players will be thinking a little bit: ‘This is our last game in the Smith Center.’ I think Duke’s players will be thinking: ‘This is our chance to get a share of the conference championship.’ I think those thoughts are much more dominant than Senior Night.”