North Carolina Tar Heels: Cap Season with Win Over Duke
The North Carolina Tar Heels preserved an undefeated season at home with a win over rival Duke.
The North Carolina Tar Heels had already won the regular season ACC title. They had done that when Louisville was nice enough to defeat Notre Dame earlier in the day. They were guaranteed the number one spot in the ACC Tournament. They had nothing really to play for, and yet they came out and defeated Duke 90-83 in a hard fought game with many many lead changes.
Perhaps it came down to revenge. The Tar Heels had lost to the Blue Devils on Duke’s home court in the previous meeting.
Perhaps it came to down to playing at home. The Tar Heels were 15-0 in the Dean Dome coming into this game. They had even beat Notre Dame in Greensboro for another de facto home game. The crowd was at its best Saturday night and included an appearance by Michael Jordan and Larry Fedora.
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Perhaps it came down to denying Grayson Allen. Allen has a reputation of being the most hateable Dookie, although that concern is a little misplaced with the way Luke Kennard is playing right now. After not attracting too much attention, Allen put his forearm through freshman Brandon Marshall’s head on a drive. For Robinson, it was the second time this season his face was called for a foul against an opponent’s forearm. The call could have gotten Allen ejected, but instead he was merely assessed a technical and got to keep the foul on Robinson’s face.
Perhaps it came down to Isaiah Hicks. The senior post man was conspicuously absent from Duke’s win over the Tar Heels due to an injury. In this game he hustled around for twenty-one points and nine rebounds on his Senior Night. If he does that in Cameron, then maybe that game looks different.
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There is no perhaps about whether it came down to Joel Berry. Duke got off to a fast start that the Heels reacted to by having Berry throw in threes during the first half. He would score nineteen of his points in that period and keep the Heels with a small lead at half time. He finished with twenty-eight and some more important baskets.
The Tar Heels won their Senior Night and head into Brooklyn with the number one seed. Somehow they are only number five in the polls despite the strong showing of the conference as a whole. Kennedy Meeks went out on a good game as did Hicks. Nate Britt was one of the guys tasked with slowing down Kennard, which did not matter much with the bank open.
The Heels next game will be Thursday. Their opponent could be either eight seed Syracuse or nine seed Miami.