There is only one way that Carolina can avoid finishing last.

By sundown Saturday, the Tar Heels will know whether they have any reasonable chance of escaping 15th place in the ACC standings, and dodging another exclamation point to an already ignominious season.

Wake Forest must lose to Notre Dame in Winston-Salem, where the Deacons defeated Duke in double-overtime Tuesday night before UNC’s thrilling win over State. If Wake wins, the only way for Carolina not to wind up in the basement would be to run the regular-season table and beat the Dukies in Durham on their Senior Night.

The way the top-heavy ACC has turned out, what difference does it make? Only an asterisk in a 15-team league, where it is much harder to languish in last place than it was in the old seven- or eight-team conference.

But here’s the deal: the Deacons are currently 5-12, one game ahead of the 4-13 Tar Heels. If Wake loses to the Irish, Danny Manning’s team will be underdogs in its last two games at Carolina and N.C. State and, losing out, would wind up 5-15 going to the ACC tournament.

If UNC won at Syracuse and then avenged the blowout loss at Wake on its Senior Night, even an assumed loss at Duke would result in a 6-14 mark, good for 14th place and the 14th seed in Greensboro against Pitt, Miami or Virginia Tech on opening night Tuesday.

Either way, it will be a strange first day, when Tar Heel fans will upset the norm and turn out to pull for their team to start a run. If healthy and considering so many last-minute losses, it is not unreasonable to think Roy Williams’ club could win two games and advance to the quarterfinals, where Carolina has begun play in all but two of the prior 65 tournaments.

If the Heels get there from last place, they would likely face Duke for the fourth straight year — which might make an abnormal season seem more normal, don’t you think?

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