The first time around, the Blue Devils stole a victory in the waning minutes—grabbing their first second-half lead with just 2:39 to play.
Now the Tar Heels have a chance to exact revenge, seeking their first win in five tries against their arch-rivals in a game loaded with postseason implications.
In this year’s second installment of the Tobacco Road rivalry, No. 8 North Carolina will make the short trip to Durham for a 6:30 tip-off versus No. 17 Duke Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium. A win for the Tar Heels would give them the ACC regular-season crown and the top seed in next week’s conference tournament—not to mention a significant resume boost as they aim for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. For the other shade of blue, a victory would grant the Blue Devils a double-bye in the conference tournament, giving the short-handed squad a precious extra day of rest before postseason play begins.
“That would be great, but I don’t talk to my team about a double-bye. These guys are not thinking about the ACC tournament. They’re thinking about playing Carolina,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said Thursday. “They’re not thinking about the standings, and I don’t want them to think about it. I just want them to play and it’s the next game. [Having the double-bye] would be better. One of the main reasons it would be better is because it would mean we won on Saturday.”
In the team’s first meeting—a 74-73 Duke victory at the Dean E. Smith Center Feb. 17—North Carolina (24-6, 13-4 in the ACC) controlled play for most of the game but sputtered at the end and hit just one field goal in the last 4:30. Duke (22-8, 11-6) seemingly had no answer on the inside for Tar Heel forward Brice Johnson, who accumulated a double-double before the first-half buzzer sounded and finished with 29 points and 19 rebounds.
But as crunch time approached, the Tar Heels eschewed throwing the ball down low to Johnson in favor of long jump-shots. The 6-foot-10 senior scored just two points in the final 12 minutes, thanks in large part to the defensive efforts of Blue Devil center Marshall Plumlee—who played the final 10:51 with four fouls for a team that had already lost Matt Jones to a left ankle sprain during the game.
Johnson enjoyed particular success on the offensive glass—where he snatched seven of his 19 boards—and Duke will have to focus on keeping him in check while keeping eyes on the likes of Marcus Paige, Justin Johnson and Isaiah Hicks.
“Carolina is too good to try to take one person away. You don’t go in saying we have to stop this guy because they’re one of the best teams in the country and they have multiple people,” Krzyzewski said. “Brice has been a remarkable player and put up great numbers against us in that game. One of the main things is just trying to keep him off the boards. He’s such a quick and aggressive jumper and he’s a great second jumper. He plays above the rim and when the ball is up there, it’s not fair. He has first dibs at it.”
Since that game, the Blue Devils have gone 2-2, continuing the up-and-down pattern of their season. After spraining his left ankle against the Tar Heels—and surviving a smaller scare with his right ankle during Tuesday’s win against Wake Forest—Matt Jones will be ready to go Saturday and Derryck Thornton seems fully recovered from a shoulder injury suffered Feb. 20 at Louisville.
For a team short on depth and experience, the physical rigors of ACC play have certainly taken their toll. Krzyzewski said his team looked particularly tired after last Sunday's road loss at Pittsburgh, and the energy was not much higher at times during Tuesday's eight-point victory against a Demon Deacon squad that finished the regular season 2-16 in ACC play.
The Blue Devils’ shooting, especially, has suffered due to the cumulative fatigue of a long season. Duke has not topped 40 percent from 3-point range as a team since Feb. 8 against Louisville, and freshman swingman Brandon Ingram—the team’s second-leading scorer at 16.9 points per game— has shot less than 40 percent from the field in each of his last five games.
“Right after the game we played in Chapel Hill, I just woke up sore and I know I needed to get back in the training room and keep working at it,” Ingram said. “Of course, [with] the physical play a lot of guys are more stronger and I had to adjust to that being at the four position. But not only that but on defense guarding bigger guys.”
But with three full days off and the added motivation of playing North Carolina, energy should not be a problem for the Blue Devils come Saturday night. The game will be the last in Cameron for Plumlee, whose family has been a part of eight straight Duke teams thanks to his brothers, Miles and Mason. Saturday will also be the Tobacco Road swan song for Paige—who scored just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting in last month's meeting—as he tries to improve on his 1-6 record against the Blue Devils.
“I expect a high-level game. We know we went down to Chapel Hill and it was a good game for us there,” Ingram said. “We expect a sense of urgency from them with all the fan talk and everything else so when they go back and look at film, we expect them to attack our weaknesses.”
Sameer Pandhare contributed reporting.
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