ESPN Men's Basketball

Editor's Note: This month, ESPN Insider's college basketball and recruiting experts are teaming up to examine how 15 of the nation's best recruiting classes will fit in with their teams in the 2013-14 season. Today's featured program: North Carolina. Check out the Nation blog each morning for a corresponding post on the key returnee for each of the 15 teams.

A few years ago, I watched this skinny kid from Iowa maneuver around his prep peers with ease during an elite AAU tournament. He didn’t have a college body yet, but he clearly had the tools any college coach would want his point guard to possess.

But Marcus Paige, like any freshman point guard, endured a variety of struggles last season.

Paige was thrust into a nontraditional, four-guard lineup. And the Tar Heels were as inconsistent, at times, as he was.

Like his squad, however, Paige finished strong. His freshman season was a solid one.

He recorded 14 points, four assists and three steals during North Carolina’s second-round victory over Villanova in the NCAA tournament.

He averaged 8.2 PPG, 4.2 APG and 1.4 SPG. He shot 34 percent from the 3-point line and 84 percent from the charity stripe.

Paige has the potential to continue the legacy of star point guards in North Carolina. Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson, Kendall Marshall and others were vital orchestrators for their respective squads.

And Paige is in that position now. He’s the most important returnee on a roster that’s filled with elite athletes.

Projections for North Carolina were uncertain immediately following the 2012-13 season.

James Michael McAdoo, P.J. Hairston and Reggie Bullock all considered turning pro. Hairston and McAdoo remained, while Bullock decided to take his talents to the NBA.

In that moment, the Tar Heels went from a team that might enter next season as a mid-tier ACC squad that would have been forced to rely on incoming freshmen Isaiah Hicks, Kennedy Meeks and Nate Britt to a squad that will enter 2013-14 as a national title contender.

Plus, there’s still the Andrew Wiggins mystery.

The Canadian stud will decide soon. And the Tar Heels are still on his list.

If Wiggins goes to Chapel Hill, then everything will be elevated for the program.

But coach Roy Williams has a solid group without him.

He has a team that features the manpower to do big things next season.

Duke will be stacked and Florida State will be a factor if Wiggins signs with the Seminoles. Plus, Notre Dame, Pitt and Syracuse are coming. The ACC will replace the Big Ten as college basketball’s powerhouse in the near future.

Duke and North Carolina tend to battle each year for the ACC crown. But that pattern will be challenged soon, especially with Louisville arriving in a year.

Yet, the Tar Heels remain relevant.

They’re bigger now with Hicks and Meeks. The young duo is vital. Now, McAdoo can utilize the inside-outside game that wowed NBA scouts when he was a freshman.

He was forced into the paint last season.

Hairston could have a breakout season, now that he’ll probably play a bigger role with Bullock gone.

But even if Wiggins enters the mix, the Tar Heels will need a maestro who can unify and guide the program to its potential.

A healthy Marshall, in my opinion, would have led the Tar Heels to the national championship game in 2012. They just weren’t the same team without him, despite the NBA talent that year’s roster boasted.

The Tar Heels have valuable components again, the kind they’ll need to compete in the super-sized ACC.

But Paige is the guy who must make it all work.

Flashes of potential were expected and accepted when he was just a freshman. Consistency, however, will be a necessity on both ends of the floor in 2013-14.

They need his leadership, too.

The ceiling is high for North Carolina if Paige starts next season the way he finished 2012-13.

Britt will give the Tar Heels some depth at point guard. But this is Paige’s show.

So he has to reduce his turnovers (2.5 TPG). He has to be in charge on the floor and off it. He has to be a threat on offense and defense.

That’s a lot of pressure for any sophomore.

But that’s just Paige’s reality.

North Carolina, per the norm, will be a preseason ACC contender again. To compete for the national title and climb the standings of the new and improved conference, however, the Tar Heels will need their young point guard to grow.

That’s why he’s so significant.

The North Carolina academic scandal, which embroiled the school's African and Afro-American Studies department in accusations of fraud motivated by athletic success, has long since moved off the radar. In December, a probe by former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin found that students in the AFAM department of all stripes, athlete or no, benefited from weird advantages in the department, such as "unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures on grade rolls and limited or no class time," as Robbi Pickeral wrote at the time.

"This was not an athletic scandal," former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin told UNC's board of trustees. "It was an academic scandal, which is worse."

That may be so, and is a failure in its own right. But if UNC athletes were frequently enrolled in those classes, the athletic department did its players a disservice disguised as a favor, which is what one former Tar Heels professor -- Mary Willingham, who first blew the whistle on the dozens of UNC athletes being passed through no-show "independent study" courses across a number of years -- keeps loudly saying within ear shot of the media.

The News & Observer of Raleigh was in the building last week when Willingham, who is still a UNC professor, received the Robert Maynard Hutchins Award from The Drake Group, which "is given annually to a university faculty or staff member who defends the institution’s academic integrity in the face of college athletics." The Drake Group's stated mission is to “to defend academic integrity in higher education from the corrosive aspects of commercialized college sports.” During her remarks, Willingham remained as vocal as ever:

“Many athletes told me what they would like to study,” she said. “And listen to what we did. Instead, we directed them to an array of mismatched classes that have a very, very long history of probable (athletic) eligibility. And sadly, it’s still happening."

Willingham, who worked as a learning and reading specialist inside UNC’s academic support program for athletes, talked Thursday about her struggle to combat the system. She spoke of NCAA paperwork that arrived annually that required a signature and promise that she hadn’t seen cheating, or been a part of it.

“I’ve got to tell you that most of the time, I scribbled my initials on it,” Willingham said. “So yeah, I lied. I saw it – I saw cheating. I saw it, I knew about it, I was an accomplice to it, I witnessed it. And I was afraid, and silent, for so long.”

Willingham is still an assistant director in the center for student services and academic counseling, but she no longer works with athletes, many of whom she insisted were not ready to do real academic work when they arrived at North Carolina. Her list of issues runs the gamut -- athletes go to school whether they're academically prepared or not, they take whatever classes they need to get by, professors take it easy on them, and on and on. It's all very typical, really, the kind of thing we quietly assume happens at most big college athletics programs.

Of course, this is not only an insult to the players, and laughable hypocrisy in the face of the larger NCAA amateurism debate, but it's also hugely disrespectful of university faculty, people for whom intellectual respect is kind of, you know, a thing. It's probably not a good idea to make these people feel like toy soldiers. That will surely backfire, as it did at UNC.

Say what you will about how way-too-early Joe Lunardi's annual postseason Bracketology is -- and of course it's early; that's the point! -- it does provide a pretty sizable general snapshot of the also way-too-early expectations of the college basketball landscape as of this way-too-early date.

This is especially true of the top of the bracket. The bubble range is surely more unpredictable, but a look at the top three or four seed lines gives us a pretty decent idea of teams we can expect to be ranked in the top 10 to start the season, barring injuries and recruiting decisions and everything else that can happen in six months.

Myron and I discussed much of this earlier in the week, so why am I bringing it up now? Because after James Michael McAdoo announced his decision to return to North Carolina for his junior season, Joe slotted the Tar Heels in on the No. 3 line in his bracket. Expectations-wise, that strikes me as exactly right.

McAdoo is will receive the lion's share of attention in the offseason -- he is a former potential lottery pick who decided to stay two years longer than anyone expected, after all -- but the fact is his return isn't anywhere near as important as Marcus Smart's. Fact is, McAdoo had kind of a rough year. His counting numbers (14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game) look solid, but he shot just 44.7 percent from the field, turned it over on 18.2 percent of his possessions, grabbed just 8.5 percent of available offensive rebounds, and finished with a 91.3 offensive rating. It was pretty ugly stuff.

But even if McAdoo's return might receive outsized attention, he still has plenty of promise, and the same can be said of the rest of the Tar Heels. P.J. Hairston actually did have a pretty great offensive season (rating: 120.3). Point guard Marcus Paige should improve as a sophomore. Forward Joel James is a big body on the block who could benefit from just one go-to low-post move. And Roy Williams has a solid recruiting class -- featuring the No. 8-ranked power forward and five-star prospect Isaiah Hicks -- on deck.

The notion that North Carolina is routinely overrated in the preseason, simply because it's North Carolina, probably has at least some basis in fact; the Tar Heels are almost always expected to be a top-15 team whether or not their circumstances demand. It would be easy to make that case again here. But if McAdoo and Paige in particular make genuine strides in the offseason -- and that's a crucial if -- a No. 3 seed feels eminently doable. Fortunately, we've got a few months to settle the issue.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Standout freshman and future NBA lottery pick Ben McLemore was so mediocre on Sunday that he could hardly get off the Kansas Jayhawks' bench in the second half.

It didn't matter.

With McLemore struggling, Kansas used its other main weapon -- experience -- to advance to the Sweet 16 with a 70-58 victory over the North Carolina Tar Heels. The Jayhawks got a combined 53 points from seniors Travis Releford (22), Jeff Withey (16), Kevin Young (10) and Elijah Johnson (5) in a come-from-behind win before 18,000-plus fans at the Sprint Center.

McLemore entered the game averaging a team-high 16.2 points, but for the second straight game, he seemed spooked by the NCAA tournament's big stage. McLemore scored just two points (both on free throws) in 18 first-half minutes before going scoreless after intermission. McLemore played just six minutes in the second half. He went 0-of-9 from the field overall.

Instead coach Bill Self turned to the same group of seniors that played pivotal roles in last season's march to the NCAA title game, where the Jayhawks lost to Kentucky. The foursome contributed in a number of ways that didn't show up on the scoreboard. Withey had 16 rebounds and five blocks. Releford collected eight boards and three steals. Johnson dished out four assists (and committed just two turnovers) while Young snared nine rebounds.

The other key factor for the Jayhawks was the player who replaced McLemore. Naadir Tharpe, a sophomore backup guard, scored 11 points off the bench and made a trio of clutch 3-pointers during a key second-half run that put the game out of reach for UNC.

The Tar Heels actually jumped out to a 30-21 lead thanks to a horrendous shooting effort from the Jayhawks, who made just 28 percent of their field goals in the opening 20 minutes while committing 12 turnovers. Kansas, though, opened the second half with a 33-10 run and never looked back. Self's squad outscored No. 8-seeded North Carolina 49-28 in the second half.

Tar Heels coach Roy Williams fell to 0-3 against his former schools, with each of the losses coming in the NCAA tournament. KU beat UNC in last year's Elite Eight. Kansas is now 31-5. North Carolina ends its season with a 25-11 record. P.J. Hairston scored 15 points for the Tar Heels, who shot 30 percent overall.

Turning point: A 3-pointer by Johnson forced a 35-35 tie at the 15:26 mark of the second half. Perry Ellis followed with a tip-in and then Releford converted a traditional three-point play that gave KU a 40-35 cushion. At that point Kansas had the momentum and never lost it again.

Key player: Releford. His 22-point effort came on 9-of-13 shooting. He also contributed eight rebounds and three steals. More importantly, he helped set the tone of toughness for the Jayhawks when they were struggling in the first half.

Key stat: Kansas, which made just one shot outside of the paint in Friday's win over Western Kentucky, didn't connect on a jump shot until Releford swished a 3-pointer two minutes into the second half.

Next: Kansas advances to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year. The Jayhawks play No. 4 seed Michigan Friday in Arlington, Texas.

Seth Greenberg goes to the game film to preview the round of 64 matchup between No. 8 seed North Carolina and No. 9 seed Villanova.

Six-year-old Jessica Rekos loved whales. “The Little CEO” of her family also liked organizing projects.

So hopefully, she really would have enjoyed this.

To honor Rekos, one of the beautiful children killed in December’s Newtown, Conn., shooting, Team Jessica Rekos has put together a Tournament Challenge pool to raise money for whale education and conservation.

The winner of the bracket contest receives an all-expense-paid trip to next year’s North Carolina-Duke game in Durham. And the knowledge that they contributed to the memory of a smiling child who loved to set the table, choose the Friday night movie and read about orcas, which she became fascinated with after watching “Free Willy” and observing whales at Cape Cod.

“She loved whales,” said pool organizer Jason McCallum, a Newtown native, “and this is a wonderful way to remember her.”

Instructions for entering a bracket can be found here. There is no limit to the number of entries you can make, but they must be in by Thursday.

The grand prize is a trip for two to see the greatest rivalry in college basketball, UNC-Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the weekend of March 7-9, 2014. Airfare, two nights hotel and a rental car are also included.

"We want Jessica and the things she loved," McCallum said, "to never be forgotten."

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Less than 10 feet from the bucket and falling backward in Saturday's first half, Duke guard Seth Curry swirled through an unmakeable-looking basket that, he insisted with a grin, "I knew was going in the whole time."

It was that kind of game for Curry, who made his first seven shots and set the tone for the third-ranked Blue Devils' 69-53 blowout over rival North Carolina.

It was that kind of game for Duke (27-4, 14-4 ACC), which might have finished second in the ACC regular-season standings -- but is looking more and more like the top team in the nation again, thanks to the return of forward Ryan Kelly, the inside play of senior Mason Plumlee and the dynamic scoring of Curry.

"We're re-energized,'' said Curry, who finished 8-for-13 with two assists and three rebounds. "We're having fun with our whole team back out there. … And when we're on our A-game, we feel like we're one of the best teams in the country."

The Devils have systematically been returning to their A-game now that Kelly's back, after missing 13 games because of an injured foot. The senior -- who had averaged 27 points in the two games since his return last weekend -- was only 2-for-4 with eight points this time around. But the team, and his teammates, are looking more and more comfortable with the 6-foot-10 defense-stretcher back in the starting five.

For Robbi Pickeral's full column, click here.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski often has said he doesn’t believe in revenge games. But after losing at Miami by 27 points in January, and getting beaten at Virginia on Thursday night, is there much doubt there will be some extra, er, motivation for the Blue Devils when they host the Hurricanes on Saturday? In the meantime, here's an attempt at this week’s ACC power rankings:

1. Miami: The now-No.-5 Hurricanes bounced back from their first ACC loss of the season (by 15 points at Wake Forest) by beating up on Virginia Tech. Since then, they’ve been able to focus on the game everyone’s been talking about: Saturday’s rematch with Duke: "It's going to be a blast," guard Trey McKinney Jones said, according to The Associated Press. "We beat them here this year, and we beat them there last year, so they're going to be gunning for our heads."

2. Duke: Plus, the No. 3 Blue Devils should be especially fired up after shooting worse than 40 percent and never leading during the 73-68 loss at Virginia on Thursday. Forward Ryan Kelly, sidelined since January with a foot injury, returned to practice this week, but isn’t expected back until after Saturday’s game.

3. Virginia: Nothing like beating the No. 3 team in the nation to bolster your NCAA tournament hopes. Joe Harris scored a career-high 36 points and teammate Akil Mitchell added a double-double Thursday night as the Cavs toppled the Blue Devils and remained tied for third place in the ACC standings.

4. North Carolina: The Tar Heels are now 4-1 since they went to a four-guard starting lineup, and as their momentum grows, so does their NCAA tournament résumé. UNC secured another 20-win season with Thursday night’s victory at Clemson, and junior Reggie Bullock has averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds the past two games.

5. NC State: The Wolfpack bounced back from their loss at UNC by blasting Boston College, securing back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since Herb Sendek was coach. Next up: a trip to Georgia Tech, with an eye on trying to work back into the top four of the conference standings. State now stands in fifth place, a game behind the Cavs and Tar Heels.

6. Maryland: The Terps are 1-6 on the road in conference play after losing at Georgia Tech, with their only ACC road win coming at last-place Virginia Tech. They still travel to Wake Forest and Virginia, and play UNC at home, during the regular season, but Maryland’s at-large NCAA tournament bid hopes are diminishing.

7. Florida State: The Seminoles remain the worst rebounding team in the league (31.3 per game) but could get a boost when 6-foot-8 Terrance Shannon -- who suffered a neck injury on Jan. 19 but has been cleared to play -- returns. FSU beat Wake Forest earlier this week, but has still lost four of its past six games.

8. Wake Forest: After scoring 23 points en route to a court-storming win over then-No. 2 Miami, Demon Deacon C.J. Harris made only one field goal, and finished with nine points, in a loss at Florida State. So continue Wake Forest’s road woes. As some consolation, two of its final three games are at home.

9. Georgia Tech: Yellow Jackets coach Brian Gregory called his team’s win over Maryland earlier this week the most consistent 40 minutes of basketball it has played this season. Freshman forward Robert Carter Jr. posted his fourth double-double; and at 15-12 with three games left, Tech is guaranteed at least a .500 regular-season finish.

10. Clemson: Even with double-doubles from big men Milton Jennings and Devin Booker, the Tigers couldn’t outmatch the Tar Heels’ smaller starting lineup. Thursday’s defeat marked Clemson’s third consecutive loss and sixth in its last seven games, as the Tigers continue to struggle to score.

11. Boston College: It was a tough week on Tobacco Road for the Eagles, who followed a 21-point loss at Duke with an 18-point loss at NC State. Ryan Anderson averaged 17.5 points in the two defeats.

12. Virginia Tech: The Hokies snapped a nine-game losing streak by besting FSU, only to lose at Miami. The Canes held senior guard/nation's-leading-scorer Erick Green to 16 points, only the second time during the conference season that he’s failed to score at least 22.

With roughly two weeks left in the regular season, the race is on for a top-four seed (and first-day bye) in the ACC tournament. In the meantime, here are this week's rankings based on myriad factors, including how teams have performed lately and the foes they've faced:

1. Miami. Clemson and Virginia both tested the Canes, but a late 3-pointer from Kenny Kadji at the Tigers and Reggie Johnson's tiebreaking layup versus the Cavs kept Miami undefeated in league play. The 13-0 record marks the hottest league start since Duke went 16-0 en route to the conference title in 1998-99.

2. Duke. The Devils bounced back from a close loss at Maryland with a blowout win at Virginia Tech as Mason Plumlee followed a four-point, three-rebound performance with a double-double Thursday night. Coach Mike Krzyzewski is now third on the career list for victories at one school (877), behind Dean Smith and Jim Boeheim.

3. NC State. The Wolfpack got a big boost by inserting 6-foot-8 T.J. Warren into the starting lineup this week. Not only did he turn in a 31-point, 13-rebound performance against FSU, but the team grabbed a season-best 45 boards. The Pack have won three straight, and it will be interesting to see whether they stay big against the Tar Heels this weekend.

4. North Carolina. Coach Roy Williams continues to start a smaller lineup with sophomore P.J. Hairston at the 4, and the Tar Heels continue to look faster and more aggressive with another scorer on the floor. Forward James Michael McAdoo's double-double at Georgia Tech, after he scored in single digits for three straight games, is a good sign, too.

5. Virginia. The Cavs are in the midst of a tough stretch. They lost at both UNC and No. 2 Miami in the past week, play a Georgia Tech team this weekend that beat them earlier this month, and then face another test in No. 6 Duke coming up next week. Junior Joe Harris, though, continues to be on a tear, averaging 22.4 points over his past five games.

6. Maryland. Another (way) up and (way) down week for the Terps, who upset the then-second-ranked Blue Devils at home, only to lose on the road to a focused Boston College team that had won just three previous ACC games. After posting an impressive 19-point, nine-rebound game against Mason Plumlee, Maryland big man Alex Len managed only four points against the Eagles.

7. Florida State. For all his last-second shots this season, Seminoles point guard Michael Snaer hadn’t managed 20 points against an ACC foe this year, until this week. He followed a 21-point game in a win against Boston College with 20 during a loss at NC State. Next up: a trip to Virginia Tech.

8. Clemson. Another week, another home heartbreaker for the Tigers, who lost to Miami on Kadji’s 3 after losing to NC State on a Scott Wood 3 on Feb. 10. At least they won a close one in the middle at Georgia Tech. Devin Booker posted his fifth double-double of the season in Clemson’s latest loss.

9. Georgia Tech. Freshman Robert Carter Jr. hit two free throws in the final 10 seconds to beat Wake Forest before Georgia Tech lost by double figures to the Tar Heels. The Yellow Jackets were an ouch-worthy 4-for-11 from the free throw line in their latest game and remain the worst foul-shooting team in the league (63.2 percent).

10. Boston College. And to build on the above note about the importance of free throws: The Eagles hit 16 straight down the stretch to protect the lead in their win over Maryland. Freshman Olivier Hanlan scored a career-high 26 points in that game, and BC has won two of its past three.

11. Wake Forest. A three-point loss at Boston College followed by a one-point loss to Georgia Tech? The bottom tier of the ACC likes to make things interesting, at least. The Deacs are second in the league in steals, sandwiched between UNC and Duke, and C.J. Harris continues to lead the team with 14.8 points per game.

12. Virginia Tech. Erick Green is still really good, adding a 22-point game against Duke to his nation-leading scoring average. His team still is struggling, though, losing nine in a row -- including two in overtime and Thursday's loss to the Blue Devils.

There you are, James Michael McAdoo.

After quiet week-and-a-half stretch that saw the North Carolina sophomore average just 8 points on 11-for-32 shooting over three games, the forward returned to his double-double ways at Georgia Tech, finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds in the Tar Heels’ 70-58 win.

A quick closer look at Tuesday night's game at McCamish Pavilion:

Turning point: The Tar Heels were leading 41-37 in the second half when they finally broke away, using an 18-4 run. Junior Reggie Bullock -- scoreless to that point in the game -- jump-started the breakaway with a 3-pointer, and also added a couple of transition buckets; McAdoo added four points. The Yellow Jackets, who have been prone to go scoreless in spurts, did it again, this time for a roughly 7-minute lull during that stretch. By the time Robert Carter scored to end the drought with 7:26 left, UNC had an 18-point lead.

Players(s) of the game: McAdoo added four steals and two assists to his tally; reserve wing Leslie McDonald added 15 points, and sophomore P.J. Hairston -- starting his third straight game in UNC’s revamped, smaller lineup -- added 10 points and five rebounds.

Marcus Georges-Hunt and Chris Bolden had 12 points apiece for Georgia Tech; and Daniel Miller added 12 rebounds.

What it means for UNC: After losing six of their previous seven to Georgia Tech in Atlanta, it had to feel good for the program to come away with a win in new McCamish Pavilion. But more importantly, the victory kept the Tar Heels tied for third place at 8-5 (with NC State and Virginia) in the ACC standings, an important slot considering only the top four teams earn a Thursday bye in the league tournament.

What it means for Georgia Tech: Another learning experience for a rebuilding team. The Yellow Jackets’ previous three ACC losses had come by a combined eight points, so this one had to sting. Tech committed 19 turnovers and made only 4 of 11 free throws, but it did outrebound the Tar Heels 41-36.

Next up: The Tar Heels host NC State on Saturday. Georgia Tech plays at Virginia on Sunday.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – North Carolina hasn’t yet made the NCAA tournament field. Virginia hasn’t missed the cut.

But with less than a month left in the regular season, it’s going to be interesting to see how, or if, the Tar Heels' 93-81 victory over the Cavs on Saturday has an effect.

UNC entered the game projected as a No. 11 seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology after back-to-back losses to top-10 Miami and Duke; Virginia, which plays the Hurricanes and Blue Devils in the coming weeks, was a No. 12.

A quick look back at the game, played at the Smith Center:

Turning point: Virginia -- which began the game making six of its first seven 3-pointers -- led by as many as 10 points, although the Cavs needed a 30-plus foot 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer from point guard Jontel Evans to re-knot the score 40-40.

Then the Tar Heels opened the second half with an 8-0 run, and despite the fact that Virginia’s Joe Harris scored 11 points in a row for his team at one point, the Cavs never took the lead again.

UNC shot 55.2 percent in the second half and made seven of 11 3-pointers after the break.

Player(s) of the game: UNC wing P.J. Hairston, making his second straight start, scored a career-high 29 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Harris also had a career-high 27 points for the Cavs.

Number to know: UNC’s 40 points in the first half and 93 points for the game were the most Virginia has given up all season.

Etc: Former Tar Heels players/current NBA players Tyler Zeller, John Henson, Kendall Marshall and Tyler Hansbrough were among those at the game. Zeller, last season’s ACC Player of the Year, had his No. 44 jersey honored at halftime. … UNC freshman big man Joel James missed his second straight game because of a concussion.

Next up: Virginia plays at No. 3 Miami on Tuesday; UNC plays at Georgia Tech the same day.

Joe Lunardi discusses the NCAA Tournament odds for North Carolina and Kentucky.

Andy Katz discusses the state of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry and the keys to Wednesday night’s game.

Big game tonight.

I know, I know: North Carolina isn't very good this season. Duke is. The venue is Cameron Indoor. From everything we've seen of North Carolina this year, the historic and almost always entertaining Duke-UNC rivalry game doesn't look like it's going to be very entertaining at all. If I had to take a guess, I'd guess the Tar Heels are going to get rolled.

Which means what follows may be the best bit of Tobacco Road rivalry action we'll see this season, or at least this week: On Tuesday night, the Duke managers defeated the North Carolina managers on a last-second corner 3 buzzer-beater. And yes, via Duke Blue Planet, there's video, multiple angles and all:



And the court storm! Wait -- why are so many people at the Duke-UNC managers game?

According to the information on this truncated copy of the video, the crunch-time hero was manager Graham Vehovec. That's an excellent way to walk off a game, manager-related or no. Plus, I wouldn't make fun. In my collegiate experience, most managers were at least former high school players, all of which were completely and utterly obsessed with basketball. Somehow I doubt your local rec league is better run than that.

And besides, maybe it's an omen? The way this season is going, it will probably end in four -- actually, you know what? Better not.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- A quick look at Miami’s 87-61 win over North Carolina on Saturday.

Overview: Any lingering doubters out there about the Hurricanes? Didn’t think so.

Miami ran its record to 10-0 in the ACC, dominating the Tar Heels in a game that was one in name only. Bigger, older and tougher, Miami ran roughshod over North Carolina at home, drilling the Heels on offense and frustrating them on defense.

In uproariously topsy-turvy and unpredictable season, Miami may be one of the nation's few reliable teams.

Turning point: Tipoff. Seriously. Kenny Kadji hit a 3-pointer, setting the tone for what was to come. The Hurricanes led 13-2 early and never looked back.

Key player: Shane Larkin. The Miami guard is the prototype for the new model point guard, a guy who can score (18 points) and create (nine assists). He is equal parts nimble and smart, a deft ball handler but a savvy distributor as well and the engine for a pretty well-oiled Hurricanes machine.

Key stat: The Hurricanes owned the box score but really made the difference beyond the arc. Miami, which had a season high of 11 3-pointers coming into the game, swished 10 in the first half and finished with 15.

Miscellaneous: Midway through the first half, the BankUnited Center crowd stood up collectively and whipped out camera phones. Why? LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were in the house. Yes, the Hurricanes have officially arrived. James didn’t want to talk. “Nah, it’s my day off," he told ESPN.com. This was Miami’s first win at home against North Carolina since Jan. 4, 2003.

Next game: From the "you’ve got be kidding me" annals of scheduling cruelty, the Tar Heels head to Duke on Wednesday for the first of its two annual tap dances with the Blue Devils. Miami has something of a rivalry game too, but not quite like UNC. The Hurricanes are next at Florida State on Wednesday.