Feb. 6, 2008

By Lauren Brownlow

The Basics

No. 3/3 Carolina (21-1, 6-1) will face off against No. 2/2 Duke (19-1, 7-0) in the Smith Center on Wednesday night. Carolina is coming off an 84-73 overtime victory at Florida State on Sunday afternoon. The Tar Heels lost point guard Ty Lawson in the opening minutes. The game marks Carolina's third straight win following the loss to Maryland. Duke is coming off an 88-73 win at home last Saturday over Miami. Duke has won nine straight games.

Carolina leads the all-time series with Duke, 127-96. Carolina has a 58-30 record in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have won the last three games in the series and four of the last five. This game marks the first time since March 4, 2001 that the two teams have played each other ranked in the top five. Carolina swept the season series last year for the first time since the 1995-96 season. This meeting will mark the 11th time in the series that both teams have been ranked in the top five and the sixth time that both have been ranked in the top three. The last time the two teams were both in the top three was the 1998 season - No. 1 Carolina beat Duke 97-73 at home on February 5, 1998 and No. 1 Duke beat No. 3 Carolina at Cameron, 77-75.

Game Time: Duke at North Carolina, 9:00 PM.

Last Time: Carolina beat Duke in the Smith Center 86-72 in the final regular-season games for both teams on March 4, 2007. Carolina led 38-29 at halftime after shooting 54.8% from the field and holding Duke to 45.2% shooting. Carolina maintained its comfortable lead for most of the second half until Duke went on a run to close within 50-48 with 12:50 to go. Carolina went on an 18-4 run to seal the game and bring the score to 68-52 with 5:14 left. Carolina shot 50 percent for the game and had 18 assists to 11 turnovers, compared to 11 assists and 15 turnovers for Duke.

Tyler Hansbrough, who had his nose broken by a flagrant foul in the closing seconds, led the way for the Tar Heels with 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting and added 17 rebounds. Reyshawn Terry had 15 points and eight rebounds. Marcus Ginyard had 13 points. Ty Lawson had 12 points, five assists, just one turnover and a steal. Brandan Wright added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting and three blocks. Greg Paulus led Duke with 21 points and four assists. Gerald Henderson added 16 points. DeMarcus Nelson had 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting and Jon Scheyer added 10 points and a team-high two steals.

Injury Report: Ty Lawson sprained his ankle in the opening minutes of the Florida State game on Sunday and is doubtful/questionable for the game. Marcus Ginyard is suffering from turf toe but is likely to play. Bobby Frasor tore his left ACL and is out for the season.

Storylines

Playing Carolina defense: Here's a fact you would never read or hear in the national media - Carolina's field-goal percentage defense (42.2 percent allowed) is sixth-best in the conference, two spots ahead of Duke (42.5 percent allowed). It's not a huge difference, but considering all the knocks that Carolina's defense has taken recently, it does seem significant. Carolina is allowing just 31.8 percent shooting from the three-point line, fourth-best in the conference. Duke is a team that averages 8.95 three-pointers made per game (second in the league) and shoots 38.7 percent from beyond the arc (second in the league). Duke also leads the league in field-goal percentage.

In many ways, Florida State provided Carolina with a bit of a preview for what the Tar Heels will see Wednesday night - a lot of screens to set up a lot of three-point shooters. Getting around screens was something that nearly every Tar Heel (except Marcus Ginyard, for the most part) has struggled to do this season. But the Tar Heel defenders worked tirelessly at Florida State, holding the Seminoles to just 6-of-31 from the three-point line (19.4 percent), which was the lowest percentage that one of Carolina's ACC opponents has shot from three-point land. After holding NC State to 36.9 percent shooting from the floor, Carolina allowed its next three opponents to shoot 45 percent or better from the field and a combined 23-of-59 from the three-point line (39 percent). But in the last two games, Carolina's opponents have shot 53-of-129 from the floor (41 percent) and 13-of-55 (23.6 percent) from beyond the arc.

"I think we're getting better at it. I think we're getting better and better at it as each game goes by, especially on on-ball screens. We're getting through those and we've been working on that and we're getting a lot better at that. So I feel comfortable with that. I feel comfortable in our ability to be able to defend that," Wayne Ellington said.

Duke has also allowed its ACC opponents to shoot 46.9 percent from the field while Carolina has held league opponents to 45.3 percent shooting. Duke has allowed two of its last three opponents and three of its last five to shoot over 50 percent. Carolina has held all seven league opponents to under 50 percent shooting. The reason that Duke's defensive deficiencies aren't being scrutinized like Carolina's is because Duke is able to force (and score off of) turnovers but Carolina has struggled to do that some in recent games.

The Tar Heels rank second in ACC play in steals (9.3 per game) and third in turnover margin (14.1 turnovers to 17.2 forced, +3.1). Carolina has been a part of five games that it lost, won by five or fewer points or won in overtime. In those games, the Carolina defense has forced just 11.6 turnovers. Not including those five games, Carolina has forced 18.8 turnovers per game in its other 17 games. The Tar Heels have to force Duke into miscues that the Blue Devils have not been making on their own, averaging 12.3 turnovers in ACC play and just 10.7 in their last three games.

Taking care of the ball: Carolina is first in the league in assist-turnover ratio but could be without the point guard responsible for nearly one-third of its assists against Duke. Carolina came into the Florida State game averaging 18.5 assists and 12.7 turnovers in league play; Carolina had just nine assists and 21 turnovers against Florida State. Carolina has played two overtime games in the ACC this season - in both, Carolina's opponents had 23 or more points off turnovers. Carolina allowed Clemson to score 27 points off of 19 Carolina turnovers in its ACC opener and proceeded to hold its next five league opponents to an average of just 10.0 points off of 11.4 Carolina turnovers. Then against Florida State, Carolina allowed 23 points off of 21 Carolina turnovers. The 21 turnovers tied a season-high for the Tar Heels and marked only the second time this season Carolina has had more than 20 turnovers in a game (November 18th against Iona in the second game of the season).

"Florida State was doing a great job defensively. But I think that for us on the offensive end, I think we were just being real careless with the ball at times. It took us awhile to really get aggressive and try to get into the paint and make plays. We were just being careless and casual with the ball like Coach likes to say," Quentin Thomas said.

Danny Green, who had a career-high five turnovers, echoed that sentiment. He knows that Carolina is going to have to be much more purposeful on offense against a Duke team that loves to apply pressure and take teams out of what they want to do. "They (Duke) are probably the best defensive team we've faced all year to this point. They're going to pressure us a lot. We've just got to be strong with the ball, basically. We've got to attack. You can't be casual with it. That's what Coach would tell us. I know he tells me that," Green said.

Duke ranks sixth in the league in steals per game with 8.6 but the Blue Devils are averaging 10.3 steals per game in conference play, including 10.7 steals per game in three conference road games. Duke also leads the league in turnover margin, forcing 19.2 turnovers per game and turning it over just 13.6 times. Duke's opponents turned it over 19.5 times per game in non-conference and have averaged 18.4 turnovers in league play. Duke is actually forcing more turnovers in ACC road games (19.3) than in ACC home games (17.8). However, Duke has averaged 25.8 points off turnovers against ACC opponents at home compared to 24.0 on the road. Duke was averaging 21.8 points off turnovers against non-conference opponents and have averaged 25.0 against ACC opponents. Duke's fastbreak points are up from 11.4 per game in non-conference play to 15.4 in ACC play.

"It's obviously a key thing for us not to have turnovers around a ten-second line that they turn into points. They've done that in their past too. Now, they have 140 points in the last five games - that's pretty impressive," Williams said. "You can never beat a real good team if you give up easy baskets where you can't get back and stop them. You're not going to win that game. If we give up 25 points off turnovers or 30 points off turnovers, that team is usually going to lose."

Rebounding: Carolina won its game against Florida State largely due to the fact that it won the rebounding battle 54-26. In its last two games, Carolina has out-rebounded opponents by an average of +22.0 rebounds (49.0 rebounds to 27.0 rebounds). Carolina leads the league in rebounding margin at +12.0. Duke is seventh at +2.2. Carolina is second in offensive rebounds (16.3 per game) and first in defensive rebounds (28.6 per game). Duke is eighth in offensive rebounds (12.3 per game) and seventh in defensive rebounds (25.0 per game).

Duke averaged 10.9 second-chance points on 12.1 offensive rebounds in out-of-conference play and the Blue Devils have averaged 13.3 second-chance points in ACC play on 12.7 offensive rebounds. Duke averaged 38.5 rebounds per game out of conference and its opponents averaged 35.7 boards. In league play, the margin has dropped to +0.1 (35.1 rebounds for Duke and 35.0 rebounds for opponents). But Duke has out-rebounded ACC opponents on the road by +3.0 (38.7 rebounds to 35.7 allowed). Duke is allowing fewer offensive rebounds per game (11.3) on the road in league play than at home (13.3).

Carolina used its height advantage over Florida State in out-rebounding the Seminoles by a significant margin. But with Florida State playing smaller, quicker players, Williams had to make decisions as to whether to stick Danny Green in at the four spot or to keep his significant height advantage. It was a delicate balancing act for the whole game. Duke's opponents are averaging 10.6 second-chance points in ACC play; Carolina is averaging 18.1 second-chance points in conference play. "It's always important - taking advantage of our height. The way that we're going to use our height to our advantage is by getting to the offensive rebounds, boxing them out and limiting them to one shot. If we don't do that, then we're not really taking advantage of our height," Green said.

If Lawson is absent on Wednesday, that will likely mean Carolina loses at least 2-3 easy baskets that he could get beating the defense down the floor on his own. Carolina needs to make sure that it crashes the boards as it has been, averaging 17.4 offensive rebounds on 38.4 missed shots in ACC play.

Being tough enough: Carolina entered into this season as a team that was potentially 9-10 players deep and at least 2-3 deep at each position. Now, Carolina has six fully healthy members in its rotation, one that is battling through his injuries (Marcus Ginyard), one that is out for the season (Bobby Frasor) and another who is questionable with a sprained ankle (Ty Lawson). But Carolina has been here before, even this season. Without Ty Lawson (for at least significant portions of three games this season), Carolina shoots 40.3 percent (28.6 from the three-point line), averages 74.3 points, 10.0 assists, 5.0 steals, and 12.0 points off turnovers. On the season, Carolina is shooting 48.3 percent from the field, 36.6 percent from the three-point line, averaged 91.0 points per game, 17.5 assists, 9.3 steals and 19.9 points off turnovers.

Still, this is a Carolina team that has won two games in overtime on the road, is undefeated on the road (9-0) and is 3-1 in games decided by three points or less, 4-1 in games that were decided by that margin or went to overtime. Last year's team was 0-2 in overtime, went 1-3 in games decided by five points or less and had a 6-4 road record. Last season, Carolina likely could not have overcome something as fluke-ish as a player hitting his first three-pointer of the season to send a game to overtime as Florida State's Ryan Reid did on Sunday. This season, Carolina is tough enough to do it without its starting point guard.

"I told them we couldn't do anything about that. I said, `If Wayne had made the free throw, it wouldn't have made any difference. If he had missed the shot, it wouldn't have made any difference. But we can't do anything about that. We can do something about the next five minutes.' I did challenge them, I said, `Let's see how tough we are. You've toughed it out the whole game - let's see if you can tough it out some more here.' I do believe that the mental part of it was the most important part of the game," Williams said. "I couldn't be prouder of my kids. Hopefully, it will mean a great deal to them that they can realize that when things aren't pretty - when we're not flying up and down the court and dunking and high-fiving and waving and all that stuff - that you still can find a way to win. To have a great year, you've got to win some games ugly. You've got to win some games on toughness."

Wednesday's game will come down to whether Carolina can overcome Lawson's potential absence as they have three times this season already (all three on the road). This banged up group of Tar Heels facing the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils is somewhat reminiscent of the 2006 Tar Heels, ranked No. 23 in the country, heading into Cameron Indoor Stadium on Senior Night and knocking off the No. 1 Blue Devils. The very mention of that game to Danny Green caused his eyes to light up. "Yeah, that game right there was big for us. That was a confidence-builder for everybody in my class I know because we were all freshmen at the time. But that right there just shows that this game can go either way. It doesn't matter how much talent you have. They probably had more talent than we had all-around at the time, but we really played smarter and harder that game and it worked out for us," Green said. "It really is going to come down to who wants it more, who's going to play the smartest, who's going to play the hardest and not who has the most talent."

At The Game

Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.

Watching At Home

Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.

A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.

Raycom/LF/ESPN coverage: The game will be available on Raycom/LF locally and ESPN nationally. The ESPN coverage will be blacked out locally but will mark the return of Dick Vitale to the broadcasting booth alongside Mike Patrick. Tim Brando and Billy Packer will handle the Raycom/LF broadcast.

Names To Know

Tyler Hansbrough: Most of America will be watching Hansbrough for one reason - how will he react to what happened at the end of the game last year? Will it give him extra motivation? The answer to that question, according to Williams, is that it's impossible to give any more than Tyler Hansbrough does every other game anyway. "That old saying, `There's only so much blood you can squeeze out of that turnip.' How can you get any more? There's only 100 percent. He's going to play 100 percent if we're playing Duke. I thought he played 100 percent against Florida State on Sunday," Williams said. "We all have our feelings about what happened and have our opinions. But I don't think it's going to drive Tyler Hansbrough to do one thing differently than he would if it hadn't happened. ... I'm one of those guys, I said, `I don't want you at 110 percent because it's impossible.' He's going to give us 100 percent. If we win or if they win - one of us will win, I'm pretty good at some of these things - we play again this weekend and he's going to give 100 percent that next game. That's just his way."

After the Maryland loss, Hansbrough shot 17-of-29 in Carolina's next two games (58.6 percent). But he started the Florida State game shooting 0-for-4 from the field, marking the only time he was held without a field goal in a half of basketball this season since the second half of Carolina's season-opener against Davidson. He also failed to get at least one offensive rebound in a half for only the third time this season (the previous halves were in the second half of blowout Carolina wins). Hansbrough followed that up by shooting 5-of-10 from the field (9-of-9 from the foul line) and scoring 19 points and grabbing 14 rebounds in the second half and overtime.

Hansbrough was the focus of a lot of Florida State physicality on both ends and the Seminoles' defense was focused on slowing him down, particularly with Lawson out. Despite that, Hansbrough willed this team to victory by scoring 8 points and grabbing five rebounds (three offensive) in overtime. The 21 rebounds, believe it or not, were a career high and marked Hansbrough's highest rebounding total since grabbing 17 against Duke at the end of last season.

"I keep saying, `toughness' - I think toughness shows up. One time a shot goes up and Coach Holladay says, `Somebody needs to get this tough rebound.' The ball was tipped up and all of a sudden those two big hands got a hold of the basketball and we knew it was his," Williams said. "He has 22 points, 21 rebounds but in the five-minute overtime, which is crunchtime as much as it can possibly be, in those five minutes, he had eight points and seven rebounds. He was just phenomenal during that time period. They (Florida State) did a really nice job of taking care and making it a little more difficult for him to get the ball where he wanted it. He had been used to playing with Ty so much more than Quentin. We just didn't get to ball to him where we needed to and he didn't get it where he needed to."

Danny Green: Danny Green finished the first half of the Florida State game 1-of-5 from the field and 1-of-3 from beyond the arc, extending his shooting slump from the three-point line to 6 out of his last 26 (23.1%) and his shooting slump overall to having made just 12-of-39 shots from the field (30.8 percent), 11-of-34 in the last four games. He also had three turnovers in the first half, bringing his total turnovers in the last three halves of basketball to seven - that after he had just 35 turnovers in Carolina's first 20 games. Roy Williams thought his sparkplug off the bench was not playing well, and he told him so. He followed that up in the second half and overtime with a 6-of-10 shooting performance (3-of-6 from the three-point line) to finish with 19 points, his most in the last eight games. He also had one of the most clutch moments of the overtime period when he converted a three-point play.

"I've said this before, there are a lot of personal, private things that go on with every kid that you don't know what's driving them, bothering them, or anything. Danny, as we all know very well, has had some of those things. If that's a part of it, who knows? But I was very, very pleased with the way that he bounced back and played in the second half and the overtime because in the first half, he stunk it up and I told him at halftime. But in the second half and the overtime, he played very, very well," Williams said.

Green has had to deal with all kinds of issues since he came to Carolina and especially lately. He has become much more well-known nationally for everything from his great play off the bench to his family to his pre-game dancing. But the great thing about the affable Green is the way that he takes it all in stride. Carolina will need the newly-confident leader version of Green on Wednesday, especially as the Tar Heels will likely be quite short-handed. "It was probably mainly mental. I'm playing more comfortably and playing with confidence. Coach just kept telling me to stay aggressive and attack, so I just kept doing that. I started playing with more confidence and things started falling for me and started going my way," Green said. "It does a lot for me. It's going to make me a better player - make me more confident in my game and be able to take big shots without thinking about it."

Wayne Ellington: Even though the sophomore sharp-shooter still ranks fifth in the ACC in scoring (16.2 points per game) and seventh in field-goal percentage (46.6 percent), he has been somewhat quiet in the last few games offensively. After starting out ACC play with a 36-point outing at Clemson and hitting 5-of-8 three-pointers, Ellington hit just 4-of-17 three-pointers (23.5 percent) in Carolina's next four league games. He has hit 3-of-8 three-pointers in Carolina's last two games and shot 9-of-19 from the field, adding nine rebounds and seven assists.

Ellington has had just three single-digit scoring games this season; two of those have come in Carolina's last five games. After emerging as a consistent scorer for Carolina, teams are much more intent on making life difficult for Ellington. "Teams are starting to face-guard me a lot more, especially after the first ACC game when I had a pretty good scoring night. Other teams are intent on not letting me catch the ball and get as many good looks as I was used to getting before that. Teams are just starting to face-guard me and not let me catch it in positions that I'm able to score in," Ellington said. "It's important to not force anything because it's easy to get out of rhythm and get individual when teams are playing you like that. But it's important to just stay in the flow of things and set screens for your teammates and create opportunities for your teammates to score."

Ellington has attempted ten or fewer shots from the field just seven times this season, including each of the last two games and three of the last five games. It is a good sign that he is not trying to force the issue offensively as he might have in the past, particularly since Ellington still has to play defense and is playing for over 30 minutes a game most nights. He has not performed as well as he usually does against Duke over his career, shooting just 3-of-13 and 0-of-4 from behind the arc in two games against Duke last season, averaging just 16.5 minutes in those games. But without Lawson's penetration, Carolina will need Ellington to be able to assert himself more on the offensive end.

Quentin Thomas: Even if Ty Lawson is able to play, he will likely be limited by his ankle sprain. That means that the senior point guard and crowd favorite Quentin Thomas will be asked to lead Carolina to victory for the second game in a row. Against Florida State, Thomas had a career-high nine points in a career-high 36 minutes, adding five rebounds, six assists, a block and just two turnovers. He shot 3-of-5 from the field and 3-of-4 from the foul line, including some crucial free throws in overtime.

Some of Thomas' most memorable performances have come on the road or outside the Smith Center, no doubt led by the Florida State game. But Thomas has said before that one of his highlights in his career was his performance in the victory at Duke in 2006 - six points on 3-of-3 shooting, two rebounds, three assists and one turnover in 11 minutes. Almost all of Thomas' baskets and assists were incredibly timely. In the next game that season in the ACC Tournament against Virginia in 2006, Thomas played 24 minutes (his previous career high before Sunday) when Bobby Frasor got into foul trouble and scored three points, grabbed four rebounds, dished out six assists, named two steals and turned it over just twice.

Despite that fun away from Chapel Hill, there's nothing like hearing those chants of "Q" rain down from the rafters of the Smith Center when Thomas dishes out a particularly impressive assist. In the last three seasons, Thomas has dished out 96 assists in the Smith Center in 32 home games, or 3.0 per game, and turned it over only 35 times. Following a rough outing against Clemson, Thomas has dished out 16 assists to just three turnovers in the last seven games. In his last four home games, he eight assists, no turnovers, a steal, and has scored nine points on 3-of-6 shooting (1-of-3 from behind the arc). "I think I'm a lot more controlled. Coming back from that Clemson game, I was hurt for a little bit and I was real eager to do a lot and at times, too much. At Clemson, I made a mistake and then I wanted to do it two times, three times better the next play to disregard that mistake. It just kept building. So after the game, I just told myself, `Things are going to happen that won't go your way, but just build on it and work on it.' I just tried to fight through adversity," Thomas said.

That's something he has done throughout his career. Despite what some would have you believe, Thomas is not slow by any means. But compared to Lawson, a lot of collegiate guards would seem slow - or at least, slower. It's important for Carolina fans to remember two things about Thomas: 1. He has been coached by Roy Williams for three seasons and has run his offense in practice and in games in each of those seasons, 2. Thomas has grown quite a bit as a player since the freshman that started his first game against Santa Clara. His teammates have all the confidence in the world in him.

"It's going to be an adjustment for Q, mainly. He's not used to those minutes. But I'm pretty sure he'll be fine playing 35 minutes if he had a chance. It's just him stepping up and carrying the team, leading the offense - he'll be fine. He's going to be more comfortable out there," Green said. "Last game, you saw he stepped up. He played a lot better. He was more comfortable out there. He had his career high. I'm proud of him and I know he's going to be able to do the job if Ty is not available to play."

Gerald Henderson: The 6-4 sophomore Gerald Henderson ended last season with double-figure scoring efforts in two of Duke's last three games and he has picked up this season right where he left off. He ranks 17th in the ACC and second on Duke in scoring (13.5 points per game) and ranks fifth in the league in field-goal percentage at 48.6 percent. Henderson is shooting 54.3 percent in conference play and 60.7 percent in ACC road games. He also averages 5.7 rebounds on the road in league play compared to 4.5 rebounds at home.

Last year's incident notwithstanding, Henderson played some of his best basketball last year against Carolina. Two of his top-three scoring efforts came against the Tar Heels and two of his seven double-figure scoring games. He shot 45.1 percent from the floor last season but 51.9 percent in two games against Carolina (14-of-27), averaging 15.0 points per game in those two contests (he averaged 6.8 points the rest of the season). His six rebounds last season against Carolina in the final regular-season game was a season high. He has 12 rebounds in the last two games against NC State and Miami (6.0 per game) and pulled down seven offensive rebounds in those two games. He shot just 1-of-10 from the floor in Duke's last outing against Miami but made 6-of-10 free throws and pulled down six rebounds.

DeMarcus Nelson: The 6-4 senior guard and captain is leading the highly-potent Blue Devils in scoring, rebounding, field-goal percentage and steals. He ranks ninth in the ACC in scoring (15.3 points per game), 18th in rebounding (5.9 per game), third in field-goal percentage (50.7 percent) and tenth in steals (1.65 per game). But Nelson has really come on strong in ACC play. He has six 20-point games this season; four have come in league games. Out of conference, he averaged 13.7 points per game and he has averaged 18.1 points per game in conference. He has also shot 54.2 percent from the field in league play and shot 48.8 percent out-of-conference. He also averaged just 5.2 trips to the free-throw line out-of-conference games compared to 6.7 in league play. His steals are up from 1.3 before conference to 2.3 per game in conference. In Duke's last game against Miami, Nelson had 21 points on 6-of-12 shooting (9-of-14 from the foul line) and added six rebounds, four assists, two steals, a block and no turnovers in 32 minutes.

However, Nelson has played differently on the road in league play than he has at home. In four league games at Cameron, he is shooting a scorching 61.7% from the field (42.9% from beyond the arc) and is averaging 7.3 free-throw attempts per game, totaling up to 20.8 points in just 33.8 minutes per game. But in three ACC road games, Nelson is averaging 14.7 points in 35.0 minutes and shooting 44.4 % from the field (16.7% from the three-point line) and 6.0 free-throw attempts per game. He is also averaging 3.3 fouls on the road compared to 1.3 fouls at home. However, his rebounds are up from 4.5 at home to 5.7 on the road.

A now-healthy Nelson gives the Blue Devils a weapon that they are using very well. He is a player that can defend a wide variety of positions on the defensive end and on offense, when Duke spreads the floor, he is more than capable of taking his defender straight to the rim. Considering a hobbled Marcus Ginyard might draw his assignment, it will be important for the Carolina help defense to be aware of Nelson.

Kyle Singler: The 6-8 freshman forward is one of Duke's classic all-energy guys already, doing what he can around the basket to grab rebounds and play defense as Duke's tallest player (tied with 6-8 Lance Thomas) to see significant playing time. Singler ranks 13th in the ACC and third on Duke in scoring (13.3 points per game) and 19th in the ACC and second on Duke in rebounding (5.7 per game).

In out-of-conference play, he averaged 2.8 three-point attempts and 5.8 two-point attempts, shooting 59.2 percent from two-point range and 51.8 percent overall. In ACC play, he is averaging 5.6 three-point attempts to 5.1 two-point attempts, shooting 58.3 percent from two-point range and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc (averaging 1.9 made three-pointers per game in league play). Singler has made 5-of-12 three-pointers (41.7 percent) in the last two games after shooting 21-of-63 (33.3 percent) in his first 18 games. His steals are up from 0.7 per game out of conference to 1.3 in conference, including 1.7 steals per game on the road. He is also averaging a block per game in league play coming off of a three-block performance against Miami (tying his career high).

The freshman has shot 53.5% from the floor and 39.1% from beyond the arc, averaging 2.3 made three-pointers per game in four ACC home games. He also averaged 15.8 points in those home games. In three ACC road games, Singler has shot 34.4 percent from the field, 25 percent from the three-point line (4-of-16) and averaged 11.0 points per game. However, the 6-8 Singler will likely be checked by a Carolina big man that is not as used to going to the three-point line and chasing around a player that is showing an increased propensity to shoot - and make - three-pointers.

Greg Paulus: The 6-1 junior point guard has improved his game dramatically this season, cutting back his turnovers from 3.1 per game last season to 1.6 per game this season (he ranks fourth in the ACC in assist-turnover ratio, 2.19). He also ranks ninth in assists with 3.5 per game and tenth in the league in three-pointers made with 2.1 per game. The only game that Paulus has had more than three turnovers was against Pittsburgh - he had five turnovers in the overtime loss.

After shooting 46.8 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc, Paulus began ACC play in his first four games by shooting 31 percent from the field (9-of-29) and 23.8 percent from beyond the arc (5-of-21). He averaged 9.3 points, 1.8 steals, 2.8 assists and one turnover. In the last three ACC games, he seems to have come out of his brief slump, making 13-of-29 shots from the field (44.8%), 11-of-21 three-pointers (52.4%) and averaging 16.7 points, 3.7 assists, 1.3 turnovers and 2.7 steals.

Last season against Carolina, Paulus averaged 18.0 points despite shooting 12-of-31 from the floor (4-of-12 from the three-point line). He fouled out of both meetings against Carolina, two of his four foul-out games last season. He has not fouled out this season and has had four fouls in just three games all season. Quentin Thomas has experience guarding the Paulus. But he appears to be gaining confidence with each game this season, something he didn't always visibly have in past seasons. Duke is playing well and Paulus is playing well, turning it over just three times in three ACC road games.

Quotables

"The first time they came in at Texas Tech, Wanda made some brownies and I took the brownies over to his hotel room and the next night he came into the game and he said, `Where's Wanda?' I pointed and he said, `Where the blank is my ice cream?'" -Roy Williams on Bob Knight

"I'm the guy that had a guy come down through the stands for a contest on campus at Kansas and the crowd is going crazy .I'm supposed to judge who's the best. Jacque Vaughn looks over at me and he comes over and he says, `Do you know who it is?' I said, `I have no clue.' Then he says, `He's a guy on a TV show. His name is Kramer.' I didn't know who the crap he was. I said, `He must be good or they wouldn't be going crazy.' He said, `Yeah, that's who you should vote for.' I've led this sheltered life." -Roy Williams on his lack of knowledge of pop culture

"I saw him this morning - he walked into the trainer's room on crutches. And I think it's awfully difficult to go from crutches one day to playing against Duke the next day. But now, you're talking about Dennis the Menace, too. He may have skipped rope all of the way down here and just got the crutches just because he knew I may have been standing there." -Roy Williams on Ty Lawson

"You're talking to a guy that after the injury, he (Ty Lawson) said, `That guy just threw me down.' I said, `But there's nothing we can do about that now. Let's see if you're hurt.' `But he just threw me down!' But again, Ty says it's a high ankle sprain. You know why he knew it was a high ankle sprain? Because it hurt higher up." -Roy Williams

"Somebody yelled at me and said, `Hey, over in Durham, they think you're trying to trick them.' I said, `Yeah, I held him out for the last 41 minutes of the game Sunday to trick somebody,' that kind of thing." -Roy Williams on suggestions that he is lying about Ty Lawson's injury status

"A lot of guys are good at taking charges because of their acting, of course. A lot of times, they're not even in the right position. It's just because they're acting. But I like to have the position. I'm not really a flopper. I don't like to flop. I just think it's stupid and it makes you look silly sometimes. ... If I get hit, I'm going to go down. I'm not going to flop and look silly out there. Some guys don't even get body contact, they just fall." -Danny Green on the art of taking charges

Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.