With 25 seconds left in the first overtime, a team with a terrible record is down by eight to its archrival, a top-ranked team. It miraculously closes the gap to three, and with about a second left, a guy named Capel throws up a prayer from at least 30 feet out.
Swish.
The ball goes right through the net, sending the game--which the top-ranked team would eventually win 102-100--into double overtime.
No, that's not a psychic prediction of tonight's matchup at 9 p.m. in the Dean Smith Center between the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils (18-1, 6-1 in the ACC) and the North Carolina Tar Heels (6-11, 2-5), but rather a loose recount of a similar game in Cameron Indoor Stadium Feb. 2, 1995.
In that game, North Carolina came to Durham with a 16-1 record ranked No. 2 in the country to play the then 10-9 Blue Devils, who had yet to win a conference game in seven tries. The guy named Capel was, of course, none other than Duke's Jeff Capel, older brother of current Tar Heel Jason Capel.
So, if history has anything to say about tonight's matchup, the biggest rivalry in the country, which seems to have lost its gargantuan appeal, is not the open-and-shut deal it looks like on paper.
"We expect them to come out there and play hard," Jason Williams said. "A lot of people say, Ohow do you feel about playing against a team whose record is 6-11?' That does not really matter to us. They're not going to be 6-11 when we play against them, I can tell you that. They're going to play like a team who's undefeated and they're going to defend their home. They always have a sense of pride."
North Carolina only recently recovered this pride after beating Clemson 87-69 in Littlejohn Coliseum Sunday. Before the victory over the Tigers, the Tar Heels had dropped a program- record six consecutive contests.
The slump sent North Carolina to a dismal 2-5 record in the ACC, and a mere 4-6 record in the Smith Center.
"It was a confidence boost. It felt good to win," Tar Heel senior Jason Capel said of his team's recent win. "Just feeling that feeling again. We're confident with the way our backcourt played. That's been a problem for a lot of the season-turning the ball over. If they play the way they played [Sunday] we have a chance to beat anybody."
Duke's pride has only been damaged once-with a loss to unranked Florida State. Since then, the Blue Devils have been on a mission, averaging 90.4 points per game, shooting over 50 percent from the floor and winning by an average of 18.5 points.
The defending national champions were not playing slouches either; during this stretch they got revenge on two top-10 teams-Maryland and Virginia-and took out another ranked opponent, Wake Forest.
"We just have to defend them," UNC senior Kris Lang said. "It's a very tough thing to do because they spread the court, and they have great players who can drive and dish or shoot the three. Carlos Boozer's a threat on the inside. Hopefully, our defense can keep them from hitting threes. That's where they really live is on the three-point line. You just have to hope they don't hit from out there."
Carolina may need a lot of luck coupled with its defense to beat Duke tonight. As Duke goes for its fourth straight win in Chapel Hill for the first time since the days of Vic Bubas, it finds itself outmatching the Tar Heels at every position. The backcourt of Adam Boone and Melvin Scott pales in comparison to the one of the nation's best-Williams and Chris Duhon.
In the frontcourt, Will Johnson has been mediocre at best, but Lang and Capel, the Tar Heels' two seniors, pose mild threats. All year, Lang has been forced out of his natural position of power forward to play at the five slot, and despite scoring almost 15 points a game, he should have his hands full against a bigger Carlos Boozer. Meanwhile, with Johnson a non-factor, Mike Dunleavy and Dahntay Jones should be able to dominate Capel.
This year, the Blue Devils really have no one to key in on except Capel and Lang, so the two can only have limited success. For North Carolina to win, one of its young players needs to have a breakout game and its veterans need to catch fire.
Of course, that is only how it looks on paper, and as history has taught time and time again, it does not matter when these two tradition-rich programs play.
"It's Duke-North Carolina-how can it be any better?" Jason Williams said.
Kevin Lloyd contributed to this story.
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