ESPN Men's Basketball

The 2013-14 season should be a landmark year for ACC basketball. Syracuse, Notre Dame and Pitt will join the league next season. And Louisville will follow a year later in 2014.

The Big Ten has held the “best conference in America” title in recent years. But the ACC could be a juggernaut that overtakes the Chicago-based league next season.

But one of the vital components in the latter scenario involves North Carolina returning to a national perch following last season’s up-and-down campaign. And that possibility is tied to the availability of junior P.J. Hairston (14.6 PPG), the team’s leading scorer in 2012-13.

The details of his arrest earlier this month are still somewhat murky. But this much is clear: police discovered drugs in a rented vehicle occupied by Hairston and two other men, and a gun was found at the scene during the highly publicized stop in Durham, N.C.

On Monday, Roy Williams discussed the situation in a conversation with USA Today. Williams told the publication that he’s awaiting all the facts related to the case. But he also mentioned the he has “some ideas” of a possible punishment for Hairston, who opted to play another year of college basketball after considering the NBA a few months ago.

From Eric Prisbell of USA Today:

"We are doing one thing: We are waiting until all the information comes out," Williams told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. "The good thing is, I don't have to make a decision right now because we're in summer school, fall semester has not started, basketball has not started. We're going to wait and see what happens. I've got some ideas, but right now those ideas are staying in my mind.

"I am waiting until all the facts come in and then I will take care of everything that needs to be taken care of."

Now, I think Williams is right to wait until the facts are revealed. Can’t punish a guy without knowing his true role in the matter.

Midway through June, however, Tar Heels fans still don’t know how the incident will affect one of the most crucial members of a squad that is expected to compete for the ACC crown next year.

So it’s still a waiting game in Chapel Hill.

WTVD Sports Director Mark Armstrong discusses the marijuana possession charge facing North Carolina's leading scorer P.J. Hairston.

North Carolina standout P.J. Hairston, the Tar Heels' leading scorer last season, was arrested on Wednesday night and charged with marijuana possession, according to a report from ABC11 in Durham, N.C.

The Tar Heels sophomore was stopped at a checkpoint in East Durham, per the report, and arrested along with two other men. Hairston was reportedly charged for driving without a license, too.

Read the rest of this story here.

North Carolina coach Roy Williams said during his radio show Monday night that he will be contacting NBA personnel to gather information about the pro prospects of his players, as usual. But at this point, he’s not sure whether any Tar Heels will be leaving early for the NBA.

“We’ll look into it and see,’’ he said. “I don’t feel the sense of urgency right now with it that as I have in years' past. We were an 8-seed [in the NCAA tournament]. We finished third in the league. We had 11 losses. The NBA usually likes to find those guys that come off teams that won 30 games and go to the Final Four. And our guys understand that. That’s not saying anything negative.

“But with P.J. [Hairston] and Reggie [Bullock] and James [McAdoo], those three for example, they’re going to be NBA players; there’s no doubt in my mind. Is it going to be next year? I think that is a big question. And I think each one of those kids can gain a great deal from coming back and improve their game.

“John Henson’s dad said it better than anybody: It’s not how quickly you get to the NBA, it’s how ready you are to play when you get there. And I think all three of those kids, I’ll have discussions with them and I’ll have discussions with the NBA people about them, but I don’t think there’s any cut-and-dried guy that’s going to be leaving for sure.”

None of the Tar Heels’ three leading scorers currently are currently listed in the top 20 of ESPN draft analyst Chad Ford’s draft prospects . McAdoo, a sophomore, was considered a lottery pick last season, but opted to return.

The Tar Heels, which lost in the NCAA Round of 32 to Kansas on Sunday, lose only one scholarship senior, starting shooting guard Dexter Strickland. Williams noted that the Tar Heels posted 106 victories during Strickland’s tenure.

“Dexter had a fine, fine career, and he’s a youngster that has a chance to continue playing basketball,’’ Williams said. “It might have to be one of those routes where he goes to Europe or somewhere like that. But if he works at it and gets lucky and stays lucky, he has a chance.”

This is why Roy Williams made it clear, earlier this month, that North Carolina’s four-guard starting lineup was fine for now, but not forever.

This is why next year’s team -- no matter who stays or goes -- will almost certainly go back to boasting more of a traditional, two-big-guys look.

Leading top-seeded Kansas by nine points at halftime, the change that propelled UNC to the NCAA tournament is the thing that ultimately pushed the Tar Heels out in the end. The smaller, faster, higher-scoring offense went cold Sunday, with UNC making just 30.1 percent of its shots for the game (including only 28.6 percent of its 3-pointers). In the second half, in particular, it had no answer for Kansas 7-footer Jeff Withey who, finished with 16 points and 16 rebounds.

The eighth-seeded Tar Heels got out-rebounded by 17, and the tallest player in its starting line-up, 6-9ish James Michael McAdoo, was 5-for-19 from the field in the 70-58 loss in the NCAA Round of 32.

“It was definitely a nightmare in the second half, there's no question about that," Williams said during the post-game news conference. “You know, the change in the lineup, I tried to get the best five basketball players on the court for us. We knew we were giving up some rebounding, but we knew we were adding some things offensively from the perimeter.

“We decided to make that change. Down the stretch we basically decided to stick with it because we thought that was best for our team.”

And until Sunday, it was, what with young centers Desmond Hubert, Joel James and Brice Johnson never really establishing themselves during the season, while 6-5 sophomore wing P.J. Hairston -- finally inserted as the starting ‘4’ on Feb. 13, in place of Hubert -- often looked like the best player on the floor.

In the end, the Tar Heels won nine of their final 13 games with that starting lineup -- making the NCAA tournament, something that had been in doubt before the switch -- and giving this team something to build upon.

“For me, we had an unbelievably young team, and they tried and tried and tried," Williams said. “We've got a chance to be a sensational basketball team again.”

Indeed, the Tar Heels, who finished 25-11 overall, lose only one scholarship senior, starting shooting guard/backup point guard Dexter Strickland. But the status of several underclassmen is still up in the air.

Sophomore McAdoo, junior wing Reggie Bullock and Hairston all told The News & Observer after Sunday’s loss that they hadn’t thought about the NBA yet – comments you would expect them to make in the moments after their season ended so harshly. Traditionally, Williams meets with players in the weeks after the season to discuss their options, and talks to NBA team contacts on their behalves about where each player would possibly be drafted if they left early.

Williams reports back to each player, offers an opinion, and then it’s up to the athlete and his family to make the choice.

None of that threesome are currently listed among ESPN draft analyst Chad Ford’s list of top-20 draft prospects (although McAdoo was considered a lottery pick last year, had he left). And there’s not a whole lot of time to decide.

Although the NBA’s deadline to declare for the draft is April 28, the NCAA’s early-entry withdrawal deadline is April 16. Players also can apply to an NBA undergraduate advisory committee for their feedback before making a decision, but there no longer is any time to “test the waters,” so to speak.

Whatever the decisions of UNC’s top three scorers, the Tar Heels do have another triumvirate of incoming freshmen who could make an immediate impact. Nate Britt, ranked 20th on ESPN’s list of incoming ballhandlers, should be a strong back-up to Marcus Paige at point guard. Meanwhile, Williams will certainly look to Isaiah Hicks and Kennedy Meeks -- rated the No. 8 power forward prospect and No. 4 center, respectively -- to bolster a more traditional, comfortable, big-man-in-the-post approach.

“That [four-guard] line-up has been better for us, so we’ll stick with that right now,’’ Williams said before the ACC tournament. “But Ol’ Roy is not going to be small for the rest of his coaching career, I tell you.”

Sunday showed why: Going small got the Tar Heels to the NCAA tournament. It just couldn’t keep them there.

 
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams picked up his 700th career victory when North Carolina defeated Villanova 78-71 at the Sprint Center on Friday. But after the game, Williams said he was equally as proud of another number.

Twenty-five.

That’s how many wins Williams’ current crop of Tar Heels has achieved during what some would call a transition year. Considering UNC had four players selected in the top 17 of last summer’s NBA draft, the coaching job Williams has done in 2012-13 is one of the more impressive of his career.

Friday’s victory propelled UNC to a third-round NCAA tournament game against either Kansas or Western Kentucky. That hardly seemed like a possibility three months ago, when the Tar Heels were manhandled by a struggling Texas team that a few weeks earlier had lost to Division II Chaminade.

“It was terrible,” guard Dexter Strickland said about the loss. “We didn’t have any experience. We didn’t know how to play with each other yet. We didn’t know the level of intensity we needed to play with as a team. We were just trying to find ourselves.”

Strickland paused.

“We’ve come a long way since then,” he said.

Indeed, North Carolina finished third in the ACC with a 12-6 record. During Friday’s first half, the eighth-seeded Tar Heels looked capable of making one of the more unlikely Final Four runs in school history.

Williams’ squad led by 20 points in the first half. The basket must’ve looked like hula-hoop to the Tar Heels, who shot 50 percent before the break.

North Carolina, however, became complacent in the second half and allowed the ninth-seeded Wildcats to take a 45-44 lead.

“We thought we were good enough to win this game,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said.

The Wildcats (20-14) almost did, keeping it close until the waning minutes, when some timely 3-point shooting by Reggie Bullock, P.J. Hairston and Marcus Paige helped North Carolina to victory. The Tar Heels closed out the win by making their last seven field goal attempts.

“There were a few moments, to say the least, when we were really ugly,” Williams said. “I loved the mental toughness of our team in the last eight or nine minutes.”

Williams deserves credit for developing that toughness. Hairston, Bullock and James Michael McAdoo are NBA-caliber players, but certainly not at the level -- at least not yet -- of some of the lottery picks of UNC’s past. This team has needed more molding and grooming and coaching than recent Tar Heel squads.

That’s why, in some ways, win No. 25 (against 10 losses) felt just as fulfilling to Williams as victory No. 700.

“I’m human,” Williams said. “I wanted to get 700. I’d like to get 800, 900, 1,000, 1,500 ... but I know that’s not going to happen.

“My focus was not on that, it really wasn’t. I was trying to get No. 25 and have this team stay and play in another game.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Miami point guard Shane Larkin said he plans to sleep with his piece of the ACC Tournament net for at least two weeks.

The Hurricanes’ frenetic, fantastic, down-to-the-final-minutes championship win over North Carolina on Sunday was worth savoring -- in more ways than one.

Not only did the 87-77 victory secure UM’s first ACC tournament title, another accomplishment on an ever-growing list this season, it quieted any doubts that this team should be one to be reckoned with in the NCAA tournament.

“A lot of people were saying we peaked earlier in the year, when we won 14 in a row, and then we lost three of our last five," said Larkin, named the tournament MVP after his career-high 28-point performance. “A lot of people said ... we weren’t going to have any chance in the NCAA tournament. But we just stayed together as a group; we stayed together and believed in ourselves and got three wins in a row against three very good teams.”

Indeed, this didn’t look like a team that was petering out. Just the opposite, in fact.

Pushed by a much-improved Tar Heels squad that also had plenty of doubters not too long ago, both teams put together a first half that was “as high a level of basketball as I’ve seen all year long,’’ Canes coach Jim Larranaga said. They combined for 15 3-pointers, only eight turnovers, 13 lead changes and six ties. And that was just in the first 20 minutes.

In one blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flurry, UNC sophomore P.J. Hairston (28 points) buried three 3-pointers in a row -- interlaced with 3s from Larkin and teammate Trey McKinney Jones (career-high 20 points). It was a stretch of entertaining one-upsmanship, and although Miami led 44-41 at halftime, you knew -- you hoped -- there would be more.

And there was.

“It was anyone’s ballgame with five minutes to go," said Tar Heels coach Roy Williams, emotional about the loss and about how far his guard-led team has come since it lost to the Hurricanes by 26 points in early February.

Actually, UNC led Sunday 67-64 with 7:44 to go, until Hurricanes big man Julian Gamble scored five points in an 8-0 run. The Tar Heels, as they had all game, tried to shoot back, and point guard Marcus Paige cut it to a 74-71 with 3:37 to go.

But then Larkin drove by Strickland for a layup, and McKinney Jones (career-high 20 points) hit yet another 3 to make it 79-71 with 1:36 left.

It was the Hurricanes' largest lead to that point in the game, and finally the cushion was enough.

“Congratulations to Miami, it will continue to be a phenomenal year for them," said Williams, whose team is now 8-3 since it last lost to Miami. “They won the regular season, and then validated it by winning a conference tournament as well and it’s just a great, great year. ... They’re really a big-time basketball team.”

As the horn sounded and a multi-colored blizzard of confetti poured out of the rafters, Miami guard Durand Scott leapt into Gamble's arms, then embraced big man Reggie Johnson. It was an emotional moment for three seniors who had seen Tobacco Road teams dominate the ACC -- until Florida State won the tournament last season.

And until now.

“My first meeting at George Mason in 1997, I asked our players, ‘Who are the best programs in the country, and who should be our role model?’ and they mentioned Duke and Carolina," said Larranaga, who took the Patriots to the Final Four in 2006. “And when I got to Miami, I asked, ‘Who are the best teams and programs in the league?’ and they said Duke and North Carolina. So what we’ve tried to do is use them as a shining example of what can be done.”

And Saturday’s net-cutting was another step.

McKinney Jones said he would likely give his sliver of the twine to his mom. Larranaga said his would be on display in his office. Scott said he would add his cutting to an ever-growing collection of memorabilia.

Meanwhile, expect Larkin to leave some room under his pillow for another piece of net. That’s the goal entering the NCAA tournament.

“This was a big weekend for us,’’ Larkin said. “This gives us a lot of momentum going forward.”

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- By the time you read this, Sunday’s ACC tournament championship game will be an afterthought, a fond March asterisk as you debate seeding and Cinderellas and start the post-Selection Show process of filling out a bracket.

And that’s a shame, because, wow, that was entertaining.

In the end, the top-seeded Miami Hurricanes enjoyed the confetti treatment and its first ACC tournament title, but it took 15 lead changes, 10 ties, and a gritty, sharpshooting effort against a vastly improved North Carolina Tar Heels team to prevail 87-77 at Greensboro Coliseum.

A quick look at the contest:

Turning point: UNC, which lost twice to Miami during the regular season before it switched to its current four-guard starting lineup, was leading 67-64 with about seven minutes left. That’s when Miami put together an 8-0 run, led by five points from forward Julian Gamble, to take a 72-67 lead.

UNC’s Dexter Strickland stopped the breakaway, briefly, with two free throws, but in a game that went back and forth for the first 36 minutes, it was enough of a cushion to build upon. And the final score does not show just how competitive this game was.

Players of the game: Miami point guard Shane Larkin finished with 28 points on 8-for-15 shooting, with seven assists and five rebounds. Teammate Trey McKinney Jones added 20 points. UNC sophomore P.J. Hairston also scored 28 points, including six 3-pointers, in front of his hometown crowd.

Numbers to know: The teams combined for 25 3-pointers. Miami shot 50.8 percent for the game, and UNC shot 45 percent.

What’s next: The Hurricanes earn the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament; the Tar Heels will get an at-large seed. Where will they go? Who will they play? The bracket will be revealed at 6 p.m. ET Sunday.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- In a way, Miami is responsible for the team North Carolina has become.

That’s why, in a way, it’s fitting that the two teams will play for the ACC tournament title Sunday.

Feb. 9, the then-eighth-ranked Hurricanes trounced the Tar Heels so handily (by 26 points) that UNC coach Roy Williams knew something had to change. After meeting with his coaches in the BankUnited Center locker room, he opted to go to a four-guard starting lineup.

The result: An 8-2 record for the Tar Heels since the switch, and a faster, more confident, better scoring UNC team than the one Miami faced during its two-game regular-season sweep.

“The smaller lineup has helped us,’’ Williams said Saturday after his team beat Maryland in the semifinals. “We’re a better basketball team. Is it a world-beater, is it the newest thing that ever happened, the best thing that ever happened? No. ... But [going small] was the best thing for this team.

“Whether it presents any different problems for [the Hurricanes], we’ll have to wait and see what happens [Sunday].”

The Tar Heels are confident, though, pointing out how far they’ve come not just from that last game at Miami, but from their 0-2 ACC start. Who would have imagined back then that they’d be competing for the league’s tournament championship?

“We’ve had some ups and downs this year, and we went through a period where we struggled, and a lot of people kind of doubted us,’’ UNC point guard Marcus Paige said. “But the great thing about that is we stuck together as a team and we finally started getting things clicking.

“So to get a chance to play Miami [Sunday], who has beaten us pretty badly, and have a chance to cut down the nets and ... to win an ACC tournament championship -- it would just be awesome to see the season come full circle like that.”

A few things to watch in the championship game at Greensboro Coliseum:

MIAMI’S STARTING BACKCOURT

Hurricanes point guard Shane Larkin (a first-team All-ACC selection) and shooting guard Durand Scott (the ACC Defensive Player of the Year) combined for 55 points in their semifinal victory over NC State on Saturday.

UNC’s Paige and starting shooting guard Dexter Strickland -- who combined for 23 points against Maryland -- are going to have their hands full, even with the help of wing Reggie Bullock, the team’s best defender.

“We try to be the best backcourt every night, and I feed off his energy and he feeds off me,’’ Larkin said. “We play well with each other, and I know if he’s driving he’s going to have his head up and if I’m open he’s going to find me and hopefully he thinks the same of me. We challenge each other in practice; most of the time we are going against each other and we try to make each other better in practice. I’m just grateful that he’s on my team."

UNC’s ‘BIG’ MEN

Tar Heels forward James Michael McAdoo turned in his worst scoring game of the season the last time these two teams matched up, with six points on 3-for-12 shooting in 26 minutes. UNC’s leading scorer has been more aggressive of late, but he has battled foul trouble his last two games, something the 6-foot-9 sophomore will have to be wary of against Miami’s bevy of big guys.

Meanwhile, 6-foot-5 P.J. Hairston, inserted to create the smaller starting lineup after the last Miami loss, will have to play big even with his left hand still bandaged after needing eight stitches between his fingers on Friday night. Miami’s starting backcourt stands 6-11 (Kenny Kadji) and 6-10 (Julian Gamble), with a 6-10 wide body (Reggie Johnson) coming off the bench.

THE INCENTIVES

Both teams are NCAA tournament locks, but a victory would mark the Hurricanes' first ACC tournament title -- and make a better case to the NCAA selection committee that they should be a No. 1 seed.

“We’re a hungry team and we want more and more,’’ Larkin said. “We’re not satisfied with winning the regular season, we want the ACC and eventually we’re going to make the national championship game. We’re hungry and not going to settle for less. Hopefully we can get out there and get it done.”

The Tar Heels are looking for their 18th ACC tournament title, to strengthen their NCAA seeding and to prove they are ready to make a run as the postseason continues.

“Everyone had their doubts,’’ Hairston said. “... But once we started clicking together and playing as a team and just playing North Carolina basketball, that’s when everything came together and we started playing with different intensity and a sense of urgency.”

 
GREENSBORO, N.C. – P.J. Hairston's hand hurt after North Carolina’s 79-76 ACC tournament semifinal victory over Maryland on Saturday. But the Tar Heels sophomore, who needed eight stitches Friday to close a bloody laceration between two fingers, said he would have hurt more if he didn’t play.

And so, frankly, might have his team.

The wing-turned-power forward wasn’t the Tar Heels’ highest scorer; both Reggie Bullock and Dexter Strickland finished two points ahead of him, with 15 apiece. And Hairston didn’t make the most noteworthy plays down the stretch, when the Terps cut a double-figures lead back to within upset distance. Those moments came from forward James Michael McAdoo, who converted two clutch free throws; point guard Marcus Paige, who scored a couple of key buckets; and Terrapins guard Logan Aronhalt, who opted to throw up long, desperation 3 that found nothing but air with time left on the clock.

Still, Hairston’s ability to start despite a heavily bandaged left hand -- and finish with 13 points and four rebounds -- allowed the Tar Heels (24-9) to stick with their four-guard starting lineup.

And to continue competing the way they’ve grown most comfortable.

“I think it was huge just for him to be able to be out there,’’ McAdoo, who finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, said of Hairston. “We didn’t know if he was going to be able to contribute, but just to have him out there on the floor gave our team a lot of confidence … because having him there is what we’ve grown used to.”

And been successful with. The Tar Heels now are 8-2 since coach Roy Williams opted to insert the 6-foot-5 Hairston for 6-11 Desmond Hubert, and no one really wanted to mess with that faster, more confident, better-shooting mojo, if possible.

“I wanted to help my team, and I wanted to make sure we won and advanced,’’ Hairston said.

There was some doubt, though, about how much help he could be after he left Friday’s win over Florida State with about four minutes left, blood dripping all over the court. Hairston sustained the cut between the middle and ring fingers on his non-shooting hand when a Seminole was trying to make a steal, and he didn’t immediately know the extent of his injury.

“When it happened, I didn’t know it happened,’’ Hairston said. “I was running back … and I wiped my face, and I happened to look at my hand, and I was dripping blood all over the floor. I’m like, ‘OK,’ and when I got to the bench, no one knew where the blood was coming from. But as soon as we wiped the blood off, I saw that it was split straight down the middle of my hand [between the fingers]. It was weird.”

And a little bit scary.

“Last night I thought I was going to die,’’ he said. “I was in the training room with my mom holding my hand. They told me, ‘OK, we’re going to clean it out and stitch on it,’ … and as soon as the alcohol and soap hit my hand I screamed for my life.”

Thus, Williams didn’t know if he was going to be able to play Hairston until just before the game, when the player was able to dribble, catch and pass without any problem. But even then, he told Hairston his playing time would be dependent on how effective he could be.

So the scorer hit his first 3-point try just 73 seconds into the game.

And he played 36 minutes.

“He was one tough sucker today,’’ Williams said. “I think the hand bothered him a little bit … he was 3-for-10, he had some good looks, but at the same time, I think what he helped us do out on the court was extremely important."

And will continue to be important Sunday, when the third-seeded Tar Heels face top seed Miami in the tournament championship game.

UNC lost to the Hurricanes twice during the regular season -- the second time, in mid-February, leading to Williams’ decision to make the switch to go smaller with his opening five. Since that move, the Tar Heels have become more cohesive than the crew that started ACC play 0-2.

And they say they were even more inspired Saturday, watching Hairston play well despite the stitches and cushioned bandage and post-game soreness.

“Right now it hurts pretty bad,” he said, “but I’ll be fine. On the court, when my adrenaline gets going, it feels like a regular hand.”

 
GREENSBORO, N.C. –- With Friday's night 83-62 ACC quarterfinal victory over Florida State, North Carolina appeared to heal the wounds of last weekend’s blowout loss to Duke -- shooting sharp, sharing the ball, aggressively running the court.

Until someone got hurt.

Sophomore P.J. Hairston, the catalyst for the four-guard starting lineup that now has gone 7-2 since it was instituted, sustained a blood-dripping cut to his left hand late in the blowout. It’s unknown whether he’ll be able to play in Saturday’s semifinal matchup against Maryland.

“We’re extremely concerned right now,” coach Roy Williams said after the game. “His hand is torn up. … We have no idea, I have no idea, won’t have any idea [if he’s going to play]. I’ve told you everything I know. It doesn’t look good.”

The wing-turned-power-forward left the game -- blood dripping on the Greensboro Coliseum court -- with 4:14 remaining, after he sustained a cut between the middle and ring fingers on his left (non-shooting) hand. The Greensboro native, who left the game (briefly) earlier in the half with a stinger to his left shoulder, was not available for comment after the game. But the school said he needed eight stitches between those fingers.

Williams said the injury occurred when an FSU player was trying to steal the ball.

“He [Hairston] had the ball and said the guy slammed into the ball and he felt like the ball jammed between his fingers right there,” Williams said.

The injury could hurt the Tar Heels in more ways than one.

If Hairston can’t play for a stretch, UNC would certainly miss the aggressive scorer who recorded 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting during Friday's victory (and who helped UNC shoot 10-for-22 from 3-point land as a team, after its awful 1-for-14 effort against the Blue Devils last weekend).

But the team would also miss the spacing and speed that this four-guard lineup provides. Since the switch, point guard Marcus Paige (career-high 10 assists Friday) and shooting guard Dexter Strickland (10 points) have had clearer lanes to the basket, forward James Michael McAdoo (12 points in a foul-plagued 14 minutes) has enjoyed more room down low and junior wing Reggie Bullock (17 points, nine rebounds) has been racking up more stats in more categories.

Williams said after the game he hasn’t had a chance to think about what he might do if Hairston can’t play. But he likely would return to a more traditional two-post approach.

“We could play Marcus at power forward, possibly,’’ he said, kidding about the possibility of moving his starting ballhandler to the 4-spot, “but the conventional wisdom would say you have to go big because you can’t teach Reggie the out-of-bounds plays from the 4-spot between now and tomorrow at 3:00. It’s already so ridiculous that it’s midnight and we have to be back at 3. The 9 o’clock game started at 9:40 again.”

No matter the hour, the timing isn’t good to lose Hairston, who has posted four games with 20 or more points since he was inserted into the starting lineup. It could be a similar situation to last March, when now-NBA-rookie John Henson injured his wrist in the league quarterfinals.

“Last year James Michael stepped up for John and played great in the ACC tournament,’’ Williams said. “So if we can’t have P.J., we’ve got to have somebody step up and play great.”

Or things could start hurting, again.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- North Carolina has bounced back before this season -- the latest example being a smaller-lineup spurred six-victory streak after its February 13 loss at Duke.

The question now, after losing to the then-third ranked Blue Devils by 16 points last weekend: Can the Tar Heels (22-9) bounce back again, beginning with Friday night’s ACC tournament quarterfinal matchup against Florida State?

“I think we were playing pretty well [before the latest Duke loss],” UNC coach Roy Williams said during his radio show earlier this week. “And I don’t think you can let one game crush you and lead to another one and another one. That does happen with some teams that struggle quite a bit -- but we had been playing pretty well, so hopefully we’ll handle it that way.”

The Tar Heels believe their lackluster performance against the Blue Devils (when Duke got off to a double-figures lead, and UNC never got on track) was just a blip. They point to their four-guard-lineup-spurred speed, aggression and scoring prior to that loss, and believe they can get it all back.

“We know who we are,’’ sophomore P.J. Hairston said earlier this week. “We know what we did wrong. We know where it went wrong, and we know how to fix it, because we’ve fixed it before. And it’s something that can be fixed, and we can turn it around.”

A few things to watch when the third-seeded Tar Heels face the sixth-seeded Seminoles at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET:

MICHAEL SNAER

You can’t write anything about the Seminoles without first mentioning Snaer, the senior guard who hit four game-winning shots during the ACC regular season (and has buried six over the past two seasons).

He’s averaging 14.4 PPG. And although he didn’t need a game winner to beat Clemson during Thursday’s ACC first-round game, “Mr. Clutch” did convert four free throws in the final 23 seconds to seal the victory.

The Seminoles (18-14) have won four of their past five games.

UNC’s 3-POINT SHOOTING

The Tar Heels made only 1 of their 14 3-point attempts against the Blue Devils, as starting wing Reggie Bullock went 0-for-4 from long distance, Hairston went 1-for-6 and reserve Leslie McDonald was 0-for-3. The team had converted roughly 42 percents of its 3s during its six-game winning streak.

UNC needs to take smarter shots -- and make them.

ETC...

Seminoles forward Okaro White scored a career-high 24 points against Clemson in Thursday’s victory. … UNC swept FSU in the season series this year, winning 77-72 and 79-58. … The Tar Heels are 11-7 all time as the third seed in this tournament. … FSU entered the tourney as the ACC leader in both free throw shooting percentage and blocked shots.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The last time North Carolina got blown out, Feb. 9 at Miami, coach Roy Williams made a line-up change that resulted in a smaller, faster, more aggressive team that finally seemed to jell en route go going 6-1 – until Saturday’s 69-53 lopsided loss to then-No. 3 Duke.

But barring something odd happening during practice over the next few days, there will be no line-up change this time around, Williams said. The third-seeded Tar Heels will play either Clemson or Florida State in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament on Friday.

“We’re going to stay with P.J. [Hairston] as the 4-man, there’s no question,’’ Williams said Monday. “But during the course of games, we might play big guys more. It’s getting too much credit, because our players are the ones that did it – but that line-up has been better for us, so we’ll stick with that right now. But Ol’ Roy is not going to be small for the rest of his coaching career, I tell you.”

Williams is most comfortable having a couple of true post players in his starting five, but with none of his young big guys (Desmond Hubert, Joel James, Brice Johnson) consistently asserting themselves this season, he opted last month to put his best offensive players on the floor from the get-go – meaning the 6-foot-5 Hairston instead of the 6-9 Hubert.

The result had been more points and cohesion -- until Saturday, when the Tar Heels shot just 23 percent in the first half, made only one 3-pointer for the game and lost their composure early, when the taller Blue Devils opened the game with a 14-0 run.

“We just need to learn from our mistakes,’’ said Hairston, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds in the loss. “Because we know what we can do, we know we can play with poise, we’ve overcome adversity a lot with this line-up before. Nobody believed it would work, and we’ve proved everyone wrong.”

North Carolina junior wing Reggie Bullock and sophomore forward James Michael McAdoo were named to the All-ACC second team on Monday. Sophomore P.J. Hairston earned honorable mention honors, and Tar Heels point guard Marcus Paige was named to the All-Freshman team.

These awards are voted on by the Atlantic Coast Conference Sports Media Association; individual awards will be announced later this week.

The full list:

FIRST-TEAM ALL-ACC

• Mason Plumlee, Duke (73 first-place votes)
• Erick Green, Virginia Tech (72)
• Shane Larkin, Miami (72)
• Joe Harris, Virginia (67)
• Richard Howell, NC State (46)

SECOND TEAM ALL-ACC

• Seth Curry, Duke
• Kenny Kadji, Miami
• Lorenzo Brown, NC State
• Reggie Bullock, UNC
• James Michael McAdoo, UNC

THIRD TEAM ALL-ACC

• Michael Snaer, Florida State
• C.J. Leslie, NC State
• Ryan Anderson, Boston College
• Quinn Cook, Duke
• Devin Booker, Clemson
• Akil Mitchell, Virginia

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-ACC

• Durand Scott, Miami
• P.J. Hairston, UNC
• C.J. Harris, Wake Forest
• Travis McKie, Wake Forest
• Ryan Kelly, Duke
• Olivier Hanlan, Boston College
• Alex Len, Maryland

ALL-ACC FRESHMAN TEAM

• Olivier Hanlan, Boston College
• Rasheed Sulaimon, Duke
• T.J. Warren, NC State
• Marcus Paige, UNC
• Devin Thomas, Wake Forest

ALL-ACC DEFENSIVE TEAM

• Shane Larkin, Miami
• Daniel Miller, Georgia Tech
• Alex Len, Maryland
• Durand Scott, Miami
• Jontel Evans, Virginia

 
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Seth Curry scored 20 points. Mason Plumlee had 23.

It was a memorable Senior Night at the Dean Smith Center -- for Duke.

The third-ranked Blue Devils decimated their in-state rivals 69-53 Saturday, snapping the Tar Heels’ smaller-lineup-led six-game winning streak while winning their third straight since the return of their other starting senior, Ryan Kelly. It marked the regular-season finale for both teams.

A quick look at the blowout:

Turning point: Ummm … tipoff? Duke, paced first by Curry, got off to a 14-0 run before UNC scored (on a James Michael McAdoo free throw). McAdoo scored five consecutive points before the Blue Devils took off again. Curry was 7-for-7 with 15 points before he recorded his first miss and had 18 points by halftime.

With his team leading 42-24 at the break, it was Plumlee’s turn to take off, scoring the Devils’ first 10 points of that half.

How lopsided was the disparity? With about nine minutes left, Curry and Plumlee had combined to outscore UNC’s entire team 41-36.

The Tar Heels tried to rally, putting together a 13-2 run that included their first 3-pointer of the game (from P.J. Hairston), with 5:01 left. But that only cut Duke’s lead to 63-49, and Blue Devils guard Quinn Cook quickly re-padded his team’s cushion with back-to-back buckets.

Player(s) of the game: Curry reached the 2,000-career-points mark in the first half, and finished 8-for-13. Plumlee was 10-for-15 and had 13 rebounds.

McAdoo led the Tar Heels with 15 points.

Number(s) to know: Hairston, Reggie Bullock and Marcus Paige were a combined 0-for-11 for UNC in the first half, when the Tar Heels shot 27.3 percent and Duke shot 69.2.

Etc.: Kelly, averaging 27 points in two games since his return from a foot injury, was plagued by foul trouble in the first half and finished with eight points. … As per Senior Game tradition at UNC, senior walk-on Frank Tanner started. He played 41 seconds before usual starter Paige checked back in. UNC trailed 7-0 by then. … Saturday marked the first time a Roy Williams-coached UNC team has lost on Senior Night.

Up next: Duke will be the No. 2 seed in next week’s ACC tournament. The Blue Devils will have a first-round bye Thursday and play the winner of Thursday’s No. 7-No. 10 game on Friday at 7 p.m. in Greensboro. North Carolina will be the No. 3 seed, also have a first-round bye and will play the winner of Thursday's No. 6-No. 11 (Florida State-Clemson) game at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Friday in Greensboro.