There’s an ACC regular-season title on the line Saturday — it may only be the beginning
Even with everything on the line — a share of the ACC regular-season title, maybe the top seed in the ACC tournament, the usual and coveted bragging rights — Saturday’s second meeting with North Carolina is still a do-over for Duke.
The Blue Devils’ disappointing performance in Chapel Hill remains a sticking point for Jon Scheyer. He has not forgotten.
“This game, you need to be a high-level competitor in this game,” Scheyer said. “Why these games have been so memorable over the years. I don’t feel we lived up to that in the first game.”
So Saturday is a second chance for Duke to prove it can play at the same level as the rival that’s already claimed at least part of its first ACC regular-season title in five years. It also may not be the last.
“We maybe could see them two more times after that,” North Carolina’s Armando Bacot said ahead of his 11th game against Duke. “You never know.”
The second game between these teams always has a sense of conclusion to it. It’s Senior Night for one or the other, with everything that entails; someone always has a chance to sweep the series with a win. The stakes are higher in some years than others — two years ago, Mike Krzyzewski’s final game in Cameron, more than any other — but rarely as high as they are this year.
It’s the first time since 2012 that this game will decide who gets that banner — the actual ACC championship, as always, will be decided in the tournament, although it’s fair to ask whether that should change next season when not every team gets that chance — and only the fourth time since 2001, the last time Duke and North Carolina shared the honors.
Still, in this particular season, it’s hard to shake the sense that these teams are destined to meet again. It’s been an ACC season where anyone can beat anyone, and there’s a long list of explosive teams with mediocre records no one wants to see in the ACC tournament. If you’re a top-four seed, you don’t want to play N.C. State. Or Syracuse. Or Wake Forest. Or Georgia Tech. Or Virginia Tech. Or Miami, the best 14th-placed team in the country.
But for all that, the gap between North Carolina and Duke and the rest of the ACC is a wide one. Not only in the standings, where Duke will finish no fewer than two games and perhaps as many as four ahead of whoever ends up in third place, but analytically as well.
In terms of efficiency, both Duke and North Carolina are among the top 10 in the country, both in the top 25 in both offense and defense. In the ACC, only Clemson (23rd) and Wake Forest (27th) even come close. The rest of the conference, overlooking Louisville for humane reasons, is mired in a muddy mess between 43rd and 127th.
These two are far and away the class of the ACC. And while they’ve both lost games they clearly should have won — both at Georgia Tech — they have set a standard no one else can match. Which is why they’ll tee it up for the regular-season title on Saturday for the first time in 12 years. Which is why they’ll be the top two seeds in the ACC tournament, already set on a collision course. And which is why there’s a better-than-average chance they’ll do it again in a week in Washington, D.C. for an ACC championship.
The stakes are high Saturday, higher than they’ve been — at least in terms of the standings — for a decade. But it may just be an appetizer for what lies ahead.
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This story was originally published March 8, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "There’s an ACC regular-season title on the line Saturday — it may only be the beginning."
