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The Tar Heels are better since February 4, but so is Duke.
The preseason question about the Blue Devils was not whether they had some of the best young talent in the ACC, if not the country, but how they would do under first-year head coach Jon Scheyer?
The answer is two parts. One, they are finally healthy after a rash of early season injuries. And two, Scheyer has them playing together and at times can look as elite as some of Coach K’s best young teams.
Duke completed its home season at 16-0 by beating plucky N.C. State, which was in it all the way despite a bad game from Terquavion Smith. How the Dukies repelled every rally by the Wolfpack demonstrated a two-headed monster out front in junior Jeremy Roach and 18-year-old Tyrese Proctor, who reclassified and would have been a high school senior this season.
Both those guys run the motion offense and will be a load to handle for R.J. Davis and Caleb Love, who are stronger physically but shorter than the Duke duo and will be fighting through or switching on ball screens all night Saturday in order to stop their dribble drives.
Armando Bacot, the likely ACC Player of the Year, will be matched against two freshmen in Kyle Filipowski, the shoo-in conference rookie of the year, or Dereck Lively, a superb shot blocker and alley-oop dunk meister. Pete Nance gets the other one to start. Leaky Black, as usual, takes turns checking opponents’ best wing scorers, and he will have to handle rugged Mark Mitchell or smooth Dariq Whitehead, freshmen with good strokes.
Where Duke goes into the game ahead is depth, having top-rated recruit and future first-round NBA pick Whitehead coming off the bench along with Nance’s old Northwestern teammate and inside brute Ryan Young. Senior transfer Jacob Grandison rounds out Scheyer’s now-established eight-man rotation, which Carolina has not developed beyond Puff Johnson of late.
The Heels must match State in keeping Duke from getting open on the 3-point line, where the Devils missed 17 of 19 attempts (11 percent) against the Pack. And whereas Duke controlled the boards, State held its turnovers down to 6, a must for UNC to prevent easy, crowd-deflating runouts.
Now 22-8 overall (13-6 in the ACC), Duke’s record away from Cameron Indoor is 6-8, and the craziest version of a Dean Dome will try to help prevent an early deficit for its team, like last year’s 87-67 blowout loss.
As with this season’s first match-up a month ago, both teams retain the rarity of being unranked but are still the fiercest of rivals. Ironically, the one that most successfully loses itself in the game will win. Ironic but true.
Featured image via Associated Press/Jacob Kupferman
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