Dean Smith won three of his last four games at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but the one he lost may have represented the greatest coaching job of his 36-year career that would end after that season.

His Tar Heels had won at Cameron in a 1994 thriller over first-place and 2nd-ranked Duke behind 20 points from Donald Williams, who was coming off missing nine games with an injury. They won the memorable double-overtime game there in 1995, when Mike Krzyzewski was at home with his back injury. And they won a nasty game in 1996 that saw Jeff McInnis ejected, the Crazies hurl tasteless cheers at UNC’s coaching staff and players, and coaches chirping at each for most of the Sunday afternoon.

The 1997 ACC schedule began with Carolina losing its first three conference games for the first time in Smith’s career. They almost lost a fourth straight to N.C. State in Chapel Hill and, after a mild upset of second-ranked and overrated Clemson, went to Durham with a 3-4 conference record. The Blue Devils were 4-3 but on the way to their first regular season championship in three years

The Tar Heels had six players in double figures, shot 51 percent and made 7 of their 13 three-pointers. But they committed 25 turnovers (with freshman Ed Cota making a season-high 8) and Duke stayed in the game by draining 11 from behind the arc. The game came down to the last possession, when Duke ran Trajan Langdon off three screens before getting him open at the top of the key, The Alaskan Assassin buried his seventh trey of the night and Duke held on to win 80-73.

“Duke knew it was in a game tonight,” Smith said coyly afterward.

In the other locker room, Krzyzewski told the Blue Devils that they beat a great team. “They won’t lose many games for the rest of the season,” Coach K said of the then 19th-ranked Tar Heels.

He was right. In fact, Carolina did not lose again until the Final Four in Indianapolis after running the table in the ACC and winning 16 consecutive games that included Smith’s 876th and 877th career victories to pass Adolph Rupp as the Division I coach with the most wins. (He won two more in the East Regional at Syracuse.) Strangely, Carolina lost the first and last games of that season to Arizona in the Hall of Fame Tip-off Classic in Springfield and the national semifinals at the RCA Dome in Indy.

On the way, the Tar Heels avenged the defeat at Duke by beating the Blue Devils in the regular season finale at the Smith Center and then dethroned two-time ACC champion Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament semifinals before whipping N.C. State for Smith’s 13th and final ACC title. They rejoiced after the second-round NCAA win over Colorado and star guard Chauncey Billups to break Rupp’s record. Dozens of former UNC players found their way into Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem and greeted Smith as he emerged from the victorious locker room on the way to the press conference. Smith was near tears from the gathering, saying he had given out the relatively few NCAA tickets UNC was allotted and had no idea how all of his players and their families got into the game.

None of them knew but few were surprised when Smith announced his retirement the following October just before the 1997-98 season began. He left another top-ranked team to assistant Bill Guthridge, who guided them to a second straight Final Four in San Antonio before losing to Utah. But the 1997 season made it possible from how Smith handled the disastrous start to ACC play.

He kept the team positive, building confidence in young stars Cota, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, watched more tape than he had in years to try to get good outside shots for Shammond Williams and baseline looks for 7-foot center Serge Zwikker. His patience and persistence in practice turned the Tar Heels into one of his most efficient teams on offense, shooting 50 percent or better in 9 of their 16 straight wins down the stretch.

They got off to another hot start against Arizona in the Final Four before cooling off and suffering the same shooting woes they had in that building in the 1991 Final Four, in the 1995 Final Four in the Seattle Kingdome and the Alamodome in ’98. Smith was a TV analyst for CBS in San Antonio and winced as the Tar Heels missed 20 of 23 three-pointers in the loss to Utah.

Like Roy Williams, whose Tar Heels have won 5 times in 11 trips to Cameron, Smith was always comfortable playing at Duke since notching his first victory there in 1965. His career record at the Indoor Stadium was 18-18, and he was 10-7 in Durham after Krzyzewski took over.

The rivalry has ebbed and flowed depending on who (simple as it sounds) had the better players at the time. Smith won 8 of his last 9 games against Duke, the Blue Devils won 12 of the next 16, and Williams went 7-5 against the Dukies through the Hansborough years. Lately, the rivalry has swung back with Duke winning 8 of the last 11 meetings.

Who will win Wednesday night? The team with the better players. Or the team that plays the best.