Is tonight’s game bigger for State or Carolina?

When the Tar Heels visit PNC Arena to take on NC State at 8 PM, the game is almost a must-win for them, especially after losing to Duke last week. Nothing can make up for that gut-punch, not even winning at Cameron on March 5, but losing to the lowly Wolfpack would severely damage Carolina’s chances of holding on to first place and winning the ACC regular season.

The Heels go to third-ranked Virginia Saturday night, and many people already have that one down as an “L” after having lost their two visits to ranked ACC teams, Louisville and Notre Dame, a couple of weeks ago. At the very least, they are trying to finish in the top four and capture a double-bye to Thursday in the ACC Tournament, which will position them to earn a high NCAA seed that could lead back to Raleigh for the first two rounds of the Big Dance.

State has a better club than its 4-10 and 14-13 records indicate, and the Pack will need a serious late-season run to reach the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight year. Their guards are very dangerous with Cat Barber, the ACC’s leading scorer, and sharp-shooting freshman Maverick Rowan. But the game will likely be decided in the paint, where State’s Abu and Anya are bigger and stronger, if not better, than any of Carolina’s three bigs.

State has already lost to Duke twice and Carolina and Wake Forest once each, so a win over the Tar Heels will allow Mark Gottfried to spin things his way during the offseason. He gets injured forward Terry Henderson back in 2017 and has a couple of big-time recruits coming in to bridge the gap this summer.

Of course, the hatred for Carolina runs so deep that a loss will be devastating. State wants so little to do with the light blue that its official profile on 6-5 forward Torin Dorn, Jr., who is sitting out after transferring from UNC-Charlotte, says his father was in the NFL for seven seasons without mentioning, by the way, that he played collegiately for UNC. Don’t expect Dorn’s profile next year to include that his younger brother, 3-star safety Myles Dorn, is a freshman on the Tar Heel football team. It’s a pity they are so petty, which makes tonight’s game bigger than life for them.

The Tar Heels have no choice but to match that emotion, if they want to win.

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