UNC, Duke face off once again Saturday night

This Saturday night, it’s chapter two in the 2010 edition of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry.

The Tar Heels are on their first win streak of 2010, with wins against Wake Forest and Miami. The Blue Devils have a No. 4 national ranking and at least a share of the regular-season conference title locked up despite a stinging loss at Maryland on Wednesday night.

And it’s senior night in Durham.

The last time North Carolina was so heavily an underdog to the Blue Devils, it was 2006 and senior night in Durham — and a youthful team led by Tyler Hansbrough trumped the ACC player of the year, J.J. Redick.

Any real comparisons to 2006 have long since stopped for this year’s North Carolina team (16-14, 5-10 ACC), but the parallel remains, especially with Duke’s Jon Scheyer competing for ACC player of the year honors.

Throw in the young and suddenly revitalized UNC squad led by a resurgent Marcus Ginyard, with 35 rebounds in the past three games, and things start to hint at interesting.

“I introduced him last night after the game to the freshmen,” UNC coach Roy Williams said after UNC’s 69-62 win against Miami on Tuesday. “I said, ‘That’s the Marcus we’ve known in the past.’”

Be that as it may, the Tar Heels face a tall task at Duke in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday. The Blue Devils (25-5, 12-3 ACC) are the class of the conference.

They have a point guard and leader in Scheyer. They have a bevy of electric scorers led by Nolan Smith (17.5 points per game) and Kyle Singler (17 points per game).

And perhaps most importantly, they bolstered their biggest weakness of a year ago by leading the ACC in rebound margin at +6.

Seven-foot-one Brian Zoubek gives Duke the rebounding that wasn’t there a year ago, and the Blue Devils continue to shoot well from beyond the arc with a .390 percentage from three-point range.

Shooting remains Duke’s Achilles’ heel. When the Blue Devils connect behind the arc, they are tough to beat. But when the outside shots don’t fall, Duke gets a little more beatable, as N.C. State, Georgia Tech, and Maryland know.

And the Tar Heels will remember that they had a solid shot at winning when the two teams last met in Chapel Hill.

When asked if he was ready to return to Cameron Indoor Stadium, the redshirt senior Ginyard responded:

“No question about it. Been looking forward to it all year.”



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.