The Blue Devils face the North Carolina Tar Heels Saturday with first place in the ACC on the line in Cameron Indoor Stadium in the regular season finale.
The Teams
North Carolina Tar Heels
North Carolina enters Saturday as the ACC’s best team with a 16-3 conference record and a 24-6 record overall. The Tar Heels rank eighth in the country with a conference-high 41.0 rebounds per game and North Carolina is the highest scoring offense in the ACC and 26th in the nation, averaging 81.5 points per contest.
Favorite for ACC Player of the year, senior guard RJ Davis leads the Tar Heels in scoring at 21.5 points per game to go along with 3.8 boards. The Tarheels boast 3 other players averaging in double-figures starting with senior forward Armando Bacot who is scoring at a 14 point per game clip averaging a double-double with 10.2 rebounds per game. Transfer forward Harrison Ingram is averaging 12.5 points a game and nearly a double-double with 9.2 boards per game. Cormac Ryan rounds out the the double-figure scoring with 10.8 points per game. Freshman Elliot Cadeau leads the Tarheels in assists at 4.1 per game.
UNC has clinched at least a share of the ACC regular-season championship, the Tar Heels’ 33rd. They have secured a top-2 seed in the ACC Tournament. UNC a wins the regular-season title outright with a victory in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The teams would share the title with a Duke win and seeding for the top two spots in the ACC Tournament would be based on how the Tar Heels and Blue Devils fared against the next highest seed(s) in the ACC standings.
Duke Blue Devils
The Blue Devils enter Saturday with a 24-6 record and a 15-4 conference record. The Blue Devils lead the ACC in scoring margin (+13.6), field goal percentage (.485), 3-point field goal percentage (.380) and assists (15.6 per game).
Kyle Filipowski ranks 10th in scoring (16.5 ppg), seventh in rebounding (8.1 rpg), fifth in blocked shots (1.6 bpg) and fifth in field goal percentage (.507). Filipowski leads the Blue Devilis in both scoring and rebounding. Jeremy Roach (right) has scored 20-plus points four times this season and 12 times during his career, including a team-high 21 points in Monday’s win at NC State. Tyrese Proctor ranks second in ACC in assist/turnover ratio (2.72), and has 24 assists with just eight turnovers in his last five games. In conference play, Mark Mitchell is shooting 60% from the field and 44% from 3-point range, averaging 13.2 points and 6.9 rebounds against ACC opponents.
Thoughts
The story of the first meeting between the Tar Heels and the Blue Devils could easily be dismissed as a story of stats. That story, beginning with Duke’s inability to turn the Tarheels ( they only had 5 for the game ) while Duke turned the ball over 11 times leading to 19 points for UNC, and Duke’s failure to defend without fouling. But beyond the numbers there was another story – the story of a team that was out-toughed, out-hustled and outplayed. UNC was the aggressor, they were quicker to loose balls and when there was an important rebound to be had (even though Duke out rebounded UNC) they grabbed it. UNC also made more free throws (18) than the Blue Devils shot (11). Duke will have to a much better job of defending and with one less guard to go to off the bench its doubly important for Duke’s guards to stay out of foul trouble. In their last meeting the Blue Devils lost Cale Foster to fouling out and both Kyle Filipowski and Jeremy Roach were saddled with 4 each. Duke will also need to improve upon their 26.3% shooting from beyond the arc if they are to tame the Tar Heels and even up the score. In the end stats only take you as far as the effort you put in to attain them, it’s going to come down to heart and hustle.
