UNC entered Raleigh’s Entertainment and Sports Arena Sunday a heavy favorite. The 16-2 Heels were on a 13-game winning streak (the nation’s second longest) and ranked #5 in the nation. The Wolfpack, on the other hand, was stumbling and bumbling. With a record of 10-7, the Pack is on the bubble. Not the NCAA bubble, mind you, but the NIT bubble. The Pack most recently squeaked out an OT win at lowly Florida State, shot only 41% from the field this season, and found another player in trouble with the law. (This time…it’s Anthony Grundy). But these are rivals, right?

UNC got off to a great start scoring, yet found itself in early foul trouble. Matt Doherty’s response? The 2-3 zone. While the zone was able to preserve the UNC players for the rest of the game, the seldom used zone made the Heels a bit passive, especially on the offensive end. Luckily the Heels were able to run off several unanswered points to close the first half up by 10.

Just as in the Duke game, Herb Sendek’s answer in the second half was full-court pressure. Once again the press worked like a charm as the Wolfpack was able to expose UNC’s biggest weakness, ballhandling. Several times the Pack was able to pilfer the ball at midcourt and get easy baskets. UNC turned the ball over on 20% of its possessions and scored 0.74 points per possession; its worst performance in an ACC contest.

The Heels did an outstanding job of utilizing interior mismatches and playing outstanding interior defense. One big problem for the Heels was Jason Capel’s foul trouble. With Capel out we saw defense by committee of the lanky Damien Wilkins, and it simply failed.

The only glaring coaching mistake by Matt Doherty today was the incessant substitution pattern. Granted the foul situation dictated some of the subs. While Doherty played 8 players for double minutes, we saw way too much of Boone, Owens, and Peppers. For the Heels to do big damage in March, they will need to stick with their starters for more than 73% of the minutes played. (This is in contrast, however, to Duke who relies too heavily on its starters.)

NCSU grabbed 11 steals, most of which occurred off the dribble. Curry, Owens, Capel, and Forte all need to spend more time working solely on their dribbling skills. Ron Curry too often puts himself in a trap, turns his back upcourt, and closes off his options. The Heels either need to set more high screens with a big man or utilize a 2-guard approach when teams extend their pressure.

Also the Heels were 9-20 from the Free Throw line. Curry was 1-3. For the life of me, I don’t see how someone who spends as much time practicing sports as these guys do can shoot so poorly. Mind you, this is the only shot that Curry could practice while rehabilitating his Achilles’ tear last season. Shooting 9-20 is pathetic, and shows that perhaps this team isn’t as mentally tough as its predecessors.

There is so much that is right about this Carolina team. It has depth. It is very good defensively. It has a good front line as well as a good backcourt. It can score in a variety of ways. It is unfathomable how much better this team is than last year’s team. For UNC to reach its potential this season, it needs to get mean and nasty. We haven’t seen fire in the team’s eyes since the Wake Forest game. Certainly it will come out against Duke. It needs to come out a bit more against the rest of the league.

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Maryland essentially handed the ACC Regular Season Championship to Duke Saturday night. As it stands now, if the Heels and Duke split (and I think they will), UNC will need to both run the table against the rest of the league AND get help from other teams’ defeating Duke. While it is very possible that the Devils will lose at Wake Forest, it is more likely that UNC will lose a road game to either Virginia or Wake. A Duke loss last night would have put the onus on Duke to sweep the Heels. Ultimately it won’t matter so much because the Heels should advance farther into the NCAA Tournament than Duke. Duke is one of the greatest perimeter shooting teams we’ve ever seen and they are outstanding defensively, however their inside game doesn’t even come close to anyone in the top 20. This puts Coach K in a difficult situation because it is likely that Duke will either meet a team that shoots the lights out in March, or will come out stone cold. Duke will smear several teams until then, but mark my word, they will not be able to keep rolling doubles for 9 tournament games straight.

The Heels, on the other hand, know how to score in several ways. Certainly teams will pack in a zone and force UNC to shoot from the perimeter, as Clemson did. That is the wrong strategy,though. The best way to go after the Heels is to put tremendous ball pressure on the perimeter. Give Haywood and Lang their combined 30 points, but force poor ballhandlers to cough it up. Certainly Duke is one of the teams that will be smart enough to use this strategy, especially after made shots. Let’s hope nobody else a) will or b) can.

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Thursday night’s game means a lot in the race for the meaningless regular season ACC Championship. A Carolina win makes Duke come to the Dean Dome in March to even the score while in the meantime going perfect. A Duke win would not only put more pressure on the Heels than they can stand, it also will intimidate teams like Maryland, Virginia, and Wake Forest to lie down like a Bangkok prostitute for Duke. Why doesn’t this logic work both ways? I don’t know. Maybe it is that Duke has the killer instinct that it takes to send out a message with blowouts and that UNC plays tends to play just 10% better than its opponents.

Nevertheless, Thursday night’s game will be fascinating. Some things will be different. For once coach K is the old wise man on the bench. UNC comes in with the much longer winning streak than Duke and with a bench deep with talent. It also stands a good chance to win a double digit game for the first time in years.

Some things, however, just never change. Duke has media darlings at both power forward and point guard. It also has a hot building filled with fans that chant things more creative than “Lang is ugly” (has NCSU looked at Anthony Grundy lately? Don’t they remember that red guy a few years ago?). Both teams are ranked in the top 5. Both teams look like the clear favorites to vie for the ACC title. Both teams look like legit Final Four contenders. Both teams have plenty of McDonald’s All-Americans and future NBA players.

Yes, it’s that time of year. Time for a game which deserves all the advertising bucks. Time for America to see something more exciting than Friends or Survivor. Time for a classic.