Yes, Tar Heels fans, you probably should do it.

Take a deep breath.

Hold your nose, if need be.

And cheer for Duke on Thursday night.

Seventh-ranked North Carolina took a half-game lead in the ACC standings with its victory over NC State on Tuesday night. If it wins its last three games, it will earn at least a share of the regular-season league title.

But if UNC wants the top seed in the ACC tournament, it needs to finish at least one win ahead of the Blue Devils and Seminoles in the final conference standings (because it has already lost to both teams once this season, limiting its tiebreaker opportunities).

One fairly uncomplicated path to the top seed: the Blue Devils win at Florida State on Thursday night, Duke and UNC both win their following two games, and then the Tar Heels top the Blue Devils in the season finale at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 3.

Got it?

Of course, all of that could be turned upside-down and rightside-out if another ACC team (or two) pulls a surprise upset (or two) over the trio. A look at the three contenders’ final regular-season schedules:

• UNC plays at Virginia on Saturday, then vs. Maryland at Duke next week.
• Duke plays at FSU, then vs. Virginia Tech, at Wake Forest and vs. UNC
• After the Seminoles host Duke, they play at Miami, at Virginia and vs. Clemson.

For his part, UNC coach Roy Williams doesn’t want his team complicating things by focusing on the complicated scenarios. All it can do is win, he said earlier this week, and hope that everything else works out.

“I don’t want our guys looking ahead, and then all of a sudden you miss somebody and it comes back to bite you,’’ he said. “ … Between now and the game on Saturday, we’ll talk strictly about the University of Virginia. And that’s the best way for us to go about it. I’m more comfortable that way, and I think our team is more comfortable that way.”