Duke 70, North Carolina 64, 2:51 left in the second half: 31 points. Nolan Smith has played out of his mind, and his energy is infectious out there. If Duke manages to pull off this comeback for real, he’s taking player of the game honors.

Of course, Duke’s defense hasn’t been slacking either. Even with some chippy moments (Exhibit A being Barnes shoving Curry with 6:13 left), the defense has held the Tar Heels to force bad shots and even one shot clock violation. This comeback is as much because of it as well as Smith and Curry.

Duke 62, North Carolina 59, 6:54 left in the second half: Easily the game’s most thrilling stretch there. And it wasn’t possible without someone previously best known as Stephen’s brother.

Curry hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to four, then he drilled a jumper to cut it to two, then on the next Duke possession he pump faked his defender, the defender flies past, and he nonchantely drills another jumper to tie the game. It was seven straight points for the previously unheralded sophomore, and he reveled in his incredible accomplishment.

“Let’s go! I’m not playing!” he screamed with 9:55 left.

By now, North Carolina began to look rattled. Kendell Marshall was fouled, went to the line and bricked his first layup as the arena got as loud as it got all night. On Duke’s next trip down the court, Smith drove and dished to Ryan Kelly, who drilled a three to give Duke its first lead of the night.

By the 8:23-mark, with it was absolutely rocking in here, Nolan hit a runner and was fouled, making the free throw but not before running to the student section and beating his chest at the fans.

Just an amazing comeback by Duke.

North Carolina 45, Duke 47, 11:49 left in the second half: The comeback by Duke would not be possible without a major improvement in the Blue Devil rebounding game. It’s light-years better than it was in the first. Still no offensive production in the paint coming from it, but the rebounders are getting boards that they can dish out to open 3-point shooters.

Open 3-point shooters like… Seth Curry! Curry has 11 so far, including seven in this half alone, and he was responsible for another one of the game’s great plays. With 13:40 left, the sophomore was being guarded tightly, so he stepped back and drilled what looked like a three but is controversely ruled a two.

Smith is also playing out of his mind right now. He’s got 10 in the second, including a brilliant start-and-stop move that led to a layup with 16:15 left and a jumper at 14:14 where he recovered a loose ball to cut the North Carolina lead to four. The momentum was building and building after that play—then Plumlee was called for a charge. Smith could tell that it killed the rally—he grimaces and fake hits the referee.

North Carolina 43, Duke 37, 17:20 left in the second half: Duke’s back in it.

Whatever words or clipboards were thrown around in the locker room at halftime, we will never know, but Duke came out this half with a renewed vigor on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. The Blue Devils forced back-to-back traveling calls on the Tar Heels, and pulled off a 4-point possession on their first trip down the court.

When Smith went down hard at 17:45—falling on the ground and curling up in pain—an intense look came over his face. He hit his first free throw, then missed the second back iron. The ball was tipped, Singler snagged it and tossed it to Curry, who hit that 3-pointer which brought the house down. The fact that it caused Williams to immediately call a timeout didn’t hurt matters.

North Carolina 43, Duke 29, HALFTIME: It’s all about the transition buckets for the Tar Heels, and seemingly all of them are coming off Duke misses.

One good example of the devastating transition offense North Carolina possesses came at the 2:30-mark, when Miles Plumlee missed his second free throw, the ball was tipped, and Barnes snagged it, taking it all the way to the house for a layup despite the foul. The fact that Barnes, a small forward, was able to make it to the basket without much difficulty underscores just how much quicker the Tar Heels looked in the first half.

North Carolina went 17-for-36 in that half (47 percent). Duke shot 33.3 percent. North Carolina is also dominating the boards, grabbing 27 rebounds to the Blue Devils’ 18.

North Carolina 34, Duke 26, 3;22 left in the first half: Mason Plumlee can not be playing any worse for Duke right now. He’s only scored zero points. He’s getting constantly outrebounded by Henson and Zeller, and he only has two boards. He was also completely gassed until Krzyzewski mercifully pulled him at the 4-minute mark. The Tar Heel bigs are running laps around Plumlee, and I’m not sure if there’s anything that can change that. Zeller now has 10 points and seven rebounds, while Henson has 10 points, as well.

On another note, and I’m curious to see if this is easily seen by those watching at home: The crowd tonight is not nearly as loud as it has been in past years. Not much energy, not nearly as much life as there normally is for this rivalry contest. At the TV-timeout, it was even drowned out by a “Tar Heels” chant, led by, improbably, Rasheed Wallace. Maybe, if Duke gets back in the game, this will change.

North Carolina 27, Duke 19, 7:44 left in the first half: Stupid mistakes and an ineffective offense are killing the Blue Devils right now. It’s silly things, too, like Mason Plumlee having the opportunity to lead fast break with 9:29 left in the half, and then getting called for a double dribble instead that gives the ball back to North Carolina.

There are few bright spots for Duke at this point, but the foul trouble North Carolina may soon be in is one: Twice Dexter Strickland went for a fast break layup, and twice Singler stopped him by drawing a charge. Strickland now sits on the bench with three fouls, and it’s doubtful that he’ll see the court for a while. Duke is in the bonus.

North Carolina 25, Duke 19, 10:57 left in the first half: A warning: Posts are going to be rare—the Internet has completely gone out in Cameron, so it’s tough to get anything up.

Duke was certainly knocked in their backsides at the beginning of the game. The Tar Heels came out on a 7-0 run and dominated the paint in the process. At one point, while they were up 12-7, they had 10 of those points in the paint.

Smith has been one of the only bright spots for Duke, with 10 points, but it’s taking him a ton of shots to do it. He not only uncharacteristically missed a couple of layups at the beginning of the game, but is having a difficult time getting it going from elsewhere in the field.

On the other side of the court, Henson, surprisingly, has been a model of consistency, knocking down shots, grabbing every board that comes his well and generally proving impossible to guard. “Gumby,” who has eight points and five boards, may be a difference-maker tonight.

Fans may be getting restless. Few people could have seen this start from North Carolina.

PREGAME: The official starting lineups for tonight will be…

North Carolina—Harrison Barnes, Tyler Zeller, John Henson, Dexter Strickland, Kendall Marshall

Duke—Kyle Singler, Mason Plumlee, Ryan Kelly, Nolan Smith, Tyler Thornton

PREGAME: A few scattered thoughts while waiting for the game to start:

Dick Vitale is out meeting with the student section now—he crowd surfed, and wore a Crazies hat as well as blue frat sunglasses. Good to see he’s still up to the same stuff.

Just to give you an idea of the type of conditions reporters sitting on press row go through for this game, I’m currently writing this as specks of blue paint fall on my keyboard. Blue paint, it turns out, does not dry immediately. Vitale has it smudged all over his khakis and shirt after his crowd surfing adventure.

The cheer sheet, while being a tradition I generally disagree with, does have some gems this year. A full collection of Roy Williams’ is on the sheet, including the infamous jab to Carolina fans. Dexter Strickland also has a full section including this conversation between him and Williams after running a set play at practice:

Williams: “Dexter, what are you doing?”

Strickland: “Coach, I don’t know what to do.”

Williams: “Well, whose fault is that, mine or yours? This is practice number 53, son!”

PREGAME: Forty minutes ago, the only people in the stadium, save a few employees and security officers, were Nolan Smith and Todd Zafirovski. Smith was shooting, Zafirovski rebounding. It was a quiet scene. It was the calm before the storm.

Now, that crowd has increased to include Dick Vitale, Erin Andrews and the entire graduate student section. Music is blaring. Undergraduate students are finally starting to file in, and the energy in Cameron is growing more and more electric. It’s starting to feel more like game time.

Stick with us all night for analysis, commentary and the stuff you can’t get from ESPN.

But until tip-off, be sure to check out our many posts today, covering every single bit of news to come before this contest.

As in every rivalry in sports, there tends to be some absurdity. We are of the opinion that the absurdity is best shown as topics on fan message boards.

So in the spirit of The Awl’s “Listicles Without Commentary,” we are proud to present the 15 strangest, yet most illuminating, topics being discussed today on The Devil’s Den, Inside Carolina and Duke Basketball Report.

1. Battier’s presidential aspirations in doubt?

2. Happy Cast Removal Day

3. Top 10 Reasons for Attending the Univ. of New Jersey at Durham

4. Who is the biggest dbag to play at Carolina?

5. Watching In Myrtle Beach?

6. Just a thought about Kelly..and how he could big tomorrow

7. Does Barnes fold or thrive in cameron indoor

8. Roy and the players look SOO much more relaxed

9. Kyrie, rehab, and the rest of that stuff

10. WRAL: Holden Thorp pwns dook* on twitter

11. Techno Coolness Before the UNC game?

12. Countdown! AHHHHHH!

13. OVer/Under Flops

14. how is giving a kidney to a player not against the NCAA rules?

15. Floor slap

This post had been updated with additional comments from President Brodhead.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in a basketball rivalry.

Just ask Holden Thorp.

After drawing a barrage of Twitter criticism and a gentle rebuke from President Brodhead, UNC’s chancellor has apologized for a tweet insulting Duke.

“Sorry about the tent/Kville tweet. Both U’s have great students. I shouldn’t have gotten carried away by our rivalry in basketball,” Thorp tweeted.

Soon after this blog pointed out Thorp’s tweet, Brodhead jumped in with a classy response, via PR man Mike Schoenfeld.

Schoenfeld wrote in an e-mail to the News & Observer (later sent to us as well):

Brodhead doesn’t tweet but if he did this is what he would say:

Hey Holden, someone hacked your Twitter account to talk trash. May the best team win. From the land of TRUE Blue, Dick.

In an e-mail to The Chronicle, Brodhead said there’s no bad blood between him and Thorp.

“Chancellor Thorp has since apologized—whoever dreamed this was a big deal?—and of course there’s no hard feelings. Go Duke!,” he wrote.

On Twitter, the reactions to Thorp’s diss were more vitriolic.

“@chanthorp You’ve got to be kidding. Hard to believe you’re the Chancellor of a major university. Way to get down in the mud,” wrote devildad12.

And from KvilleTent2:”@chanthorp that is one of the most ignorant things we have ever heard. Shame on you for saying this, especially given your position,”

It may be the biggest day of the season thus far for both the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels, but North Carolina head coach Roy Williams provides us with a bit of comic relief hours before tipoff. WTVD reporter Mark Armstrong gets Williams to reveal in a pre-game press conference that Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith’s high shooting percentages are the key for Duke, and that he can’t stand scary movies, as noted by ESPN blogger Eamonn Brennan.

After Williams calculated that seniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith have taken 666 shots so far this year combined, Armstrong asks the Tar Heels’ coach if the number has any significance. What follows defies expectation:

Armstrong: 666 shots? Is there symbolism there?

Williams: Yeah. If you like Highway 6, route No. 6. 666 shots and they make about 45, 46 percent of ‘em and about 36, 37 percent from 3, that usually means you win.

A: You are playing the Devils.

(giggles)

Williams: That’s right.

(more giggles.)

Williams: What?

A: You are playing the Devils. 666? Sign of the beast?

Williams: OK. (laughter) I thought you were talking about the craps table or something. I didn’t know where you were going with that. These press conferences do tend to deteriorate.

A: So you never got into the Omen movies or the Exorcist?

Williams: No, when I see somebody throwing up on the air, I am not watching the dadgum movie, I can tell you that. Give me John Wayne or Clint Eastwood and something to laugh in. I’m 60-years-old. I don’t want to be scared by a dadgum movie.

This morning I had the chance to speak with Rece Davis—host of ESPN’s College Football Live pregame show and College Gameday basketball road show—about the Capital One Cup (he’s a member of the advisory board), tonight’s Duke-UNC basketball game, and teams who could make a run at the title during March Madness.  The following is a transcript of our conversation:

ESPN's Rece Davis

How did the Capital One Cup come about?

It was an effort and initiative by Capital One to try to reward the best overall athletic programs at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics, meaning in Division I only, for their cumulative performance on the field. What we do is on both the men’s and women’s side we take 13 sports and they’re divided into groups, the highest group being the one that fans follow most closely—men’s basketball, football, baseball. For the women’s side it’s softball, volleyball, women’s basketball. Those sports based on their finish in national championship races are awarded points, and those are weighted more heavily than some of the other sports. All of them are important, but we wanted for the fans to identify a little bit and be able to easily follow and understand how the standings came about, and in order to do that we gave a little more weight to the sports that are normally the highest spectator sports. But the most important thing about the entire Capital One Cup—the competition’s great, people can keep up with it on our website, they can keep up with the bragging rights, how their school’s doing, how their rivals are doing—but the most important thing is that Capital One is offering $200,000 to both the men’s winner and the women’s winner to fund graduate-level scholarships for student-athletes.

We spend so much time talking about how in a perfect world athletics are an avenue in order for student-athletes to pursue their education or further their education. Capital One is putting its money where those mouths are in order to give student-athletes an opportunity to further their education. At the end of the spring season we’ll announce the winners; the two winners will come to the ESPY [Awards] in Los Angeles in July to pick up their award, and Capital One will give them the money to fund those graduate-level scholarships. I think it’ll be a great and exciting thing for the schools to compete in and the fans to follow along by the various media platforms. They can root for their team and see that it’s not only important, in Duke’s case for instance, to do well in men’s basketball, but lacrosse—also a weighted sport in group two—soccer teams, golf teams, all of those have importance in the standings.

Today is the most important day of the year for a lot of students here at Duke: the Duke-North Carolina game in Cameron. What do you think makes this rivalry so special and what are some of your favorite Duke-Carolina moments?

There are so many great moments. Number one, what I think makes [the rivalry] excellent is proximity and the commitment to excellence. A lot of rivalries measure themselves solely by whether you beat the other guy—that’s important for North Carolina and Duke, but it’s more important for them to strive to win championships. It’s not the be-all, end-all [to win or lose in the regular season], even though it might feel that way sometimes for some of the fans. There’s always something more to strive for, and when this rivalry is at its best is when these two teams are both competing for national championships, and when they both are potentially No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. I can remember [Jay] Bilas talking about when he was an assistant that there was some thought that you didn’t really want to play [UNC] in the Final Four or the national championship…. Not that Duke was afraid to do it, I’m not suggesting that.

Perfect example, North Carolina wins the national championship in basketball a couple of times, Duke comes back and wins it last year. There’s a chance to keep the rivalry going in a circle and to continue to pursue championships. It’s a weird twist of fate if they were to ever wind up meeting in the NCAA Tournament. You might not ever get the opportunity to atone for that; you might never get your shot at redemption. I remember after North Carolina lost [in the tournament in 1991], Jay telling the story that Coach K came in and told the guys, “Just because they lost doesn’t give us permission to lose.” Duke of course went on to win that game in ’91 against UNLV and went on to win the national championship. I think the way that they push one another to excellence, the way that when one wins a championship it spurs the other one onto greatness and just strengthens the resolve to be the best they can be, I think all those things make [the rivalry] great.

UNC comes into tonight’s contest on a bit of a hot streak having won its last five games. What do the Tar Heels need to do to have a chance of winning this game?

I think number one they have to take care of the basketball. I think they need a big game out of [Harrison] Barnes and out of [Kendall] Marshall. Both of those guys are starting to mature and play well, particularly I think Barnes is starting to mature into the type of player that most ranked as a preseason All-American. I think those two guys have to play extraordinarily well in order to give them a chance to beat Duke. They have to find a way to contain Nolan Smith, who I think is the most important player on Duke’s team. As great as Singler is, Nolan does so many things for them on both ends of the floor. I think he’s going to be a huge key tonight. If North Carolina’s going to have a chance to win they have to have a good game from their young guys and they have to find a way to really keep Nolan from controlling the game both offensively and defensively.

You and the GameDay crew have talked recently about the lack of a great team in the college game this season. Out of all the teams you’ve seen, which ones have the tools to make a deep run in March, and who do you think might surprise some people?

Part of the nature of not having a “great” team or an overwhelming team is that there are a lot of teams that can make a deep run. If you ask me right now, obviously if you’re voting in a poll for No. 1 you have to respect the zero in the loss column for Ohio State. But if you told me right now just to vote for the team that’s playing the best and potentially the best team, I would vote for Texas. They’ve got tremendous athleticism; I think that their chemistry is lightyears ahead of what it was last season. The emergence of Jordan Hamilton, now Tristan Thompson has played very well for them…. They’re a stifling defensive team. Digger [Phelps] did a great breakdown last week about how they have five guys playing the ball on virtually every pass. They’re reacting beautifully, they’re anticipating beautifully, and they’re just smothering their opponents defensively. They’re very good in transition and they’re a very good team in their halfcourt offense as well. That’s not to say that I think they’re unbeatable by any stretch of the imagination.

I think that Texas, Kansas, Ohio State and Duke are the teams that I look at right now as being the most likely to make it to the Final Four and win a national championship. I still think that there is the potential for a team like Kentucky. They’re not very deep, but they’re talented and I think they could surprise some people in March as their freshmen continue to mature. Despite the fact that they lead the Big East, I don’t think that there are great expectations for Pittsburgh simply because of their tournament history. Because of that, I think that people might undervalue Pittsburgh a little bit. I think that they play with great chemistry; they guard, they stick to their philosophy. I think they certainly could make a run and surprise people. And if experience counts for anything, Notre Dame has a bunch of seniors starting, so I think Mike Brey’s done a tremendous job with his team after losing [Luke] Harangody and Tory Jackson. I think that they could surprise some people as well. There are a number of Big East teams that are capable of making a run to the Sweet Sixteen and beyond.

Does Digger Phelps always check to make sure that the ties he buys will match with the set of possible highlighter colors?

I think he thinks that it has become his trademark. It used to be the carnation, then it was the white hair, and now it’s the tie and highlighter. Now it’s also the dance fever that you can see on YouTube. Please watch carefully—it can cause permanent retinal damage if you view it too closely. Sort of like the sun, you take a peek and then you look away.

Holden Thorp is a long-time Tar Heel, so perhaps it’s no surprise that he’s getting in on the rivalry ahead of tonight’s UNC-Duke basketball game.

While participating in a discussion on the economy with big names like Tim Geithner, the UNC chancellor managed to toss an insult down Tobacco Road.

“Our students are talking about the future and asking smart questions instead of wasting time sitting in a tent,” Thorp tweeted. And yes, the account is real.

Thorp should have done some fact-checking before mouthing off. Tenting ended this weekend, which means there aren’t any Dukies chilling in tents today.

His tweet has already provoked some harsh reactions on Twitter.

From @ramlog: @chanthorp wow what class you show as the leader of the largest public university in the state. Bet all those fb players asked a ton of ?’s

We’ve requested comment from Thorp, and we’ll let you know if he gets back to us.

Til then, why not let Thorp know what you think? Send him a message @chanthorp.

Nolan Smith, Kyle Singler and crew aren’t the only ones taking on Tar Heels tonight—Gerald Henderson will face Tyler Hansbrough tonight in Indiana.

The interesting timing of the game wasn’t lost on Henderson as he talked to Dave Glenn on his afternoon radio show yesterday. And despite the fact that Henderson did not know the location of the game today (seriously, G?), he had plenty of thoughts on the Duke-North Carolina rivalry—even if his boss, Michael Jordan, hasn’t had much to say about it this week.

“He’s not talked much about the game,” Henderson said. “I’m not sure if he’s too confident in his team tomorrow, the way they’re team has been going.”

Henderson revealed that the main topic still brought up to him by strangers has to do with a Duke-North Carolina incident: his infamous elbow to Hansbrough’s nose. It was a shot that offered itself to easy speculation: Tar Heel fans will most likely never believe it to be accidental. Duke fans, likewise, will always be it was unintentional.

“‘Did you do it on purpose?’ Everyone wants to know that [laughs],” Henderson said. “Hopefully nothing [like that] goes down tomorrow…. It kind of just epitomizes the rivalry. That particular game got to that…. Stuff like that is going to happen.”

Henderson also commented in the interview on the major differences in intensity between the professional and collegiate games. When at school, Henderson and Hansbrough would spend all year thinking about playing against each other. Now, they’re playing in just another midweek game.

“I’m going to Indiana to play a Wednesday night game against the Pacers and [Duke is] going to play the most intense game in college basketball. All the effort and practice time and scouting they put into that one game, it’s almost like a championship game. Tomorrow, we’re playing a game that we haven’t even scouted yet.”

Are you a freshman and stumped when asked about Duke’s history with North Carolina? While the full history is far to vast for a simple blog post, below is a recap of Duke’s last four games with the Tar Heels.

March 6, 2010: No. 4 Duke 82, UNC 50. Duke shot 51 percent in the first half en route to their most one-sided home win in the rivalry’s history. The loss was UNC’s lowest point total during Roy Williams’ tenure and their worst defeat in seven years. The Blue Devils led by 30 points before halftime behind Kyle Singler’s 19 first-half points.

February 10, 2010: No. 7 Duke 64, UNC 54. In the lowest-scoring game in the series since 2002, the Blue Devils managed to pull out a road win on the night that Tyler Hansbrough’s No. 50 was retired at the Dean Smith Center. The Tar Heels blocked ten shots as Duke shot just 32 percent from the floor, but perimeter shooting saved the Blue Devils as Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler combined for 43 points and all nine of Duke’s made three-pointers.

March 8, 2009: No. 2 UNC 79, No. 7 Duke 71. Ty Lawson nearly posted a triple-double as the Carolina faithful celebrated Tyler Hansbrough’s Senior Day. Hansbrough added 17 points of his own as the Tar Heels swept the series with the Blue Devils for just the second time in the previous 13 seasons.

February 11, 2009: No. 3 UNC 101, No. 5 Duke 87. North Carolina took down the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor for the fourth time in as many years, as the Tar Heels rallied behind Ty Lawson’s 21 second-half points. Duke hung with their opponents for the first 30 minutes, but ultimately allowed triple digits in Cameron for the first time in nine years in the loss.

Over the next two days, the Chronicle Sports Blog will do a comprehensive, position-by-position breakdown of the crown jewel of college basketball’s regular season: North Carolina at Duke. Today we’ll take a look at the frontcourt, and be sure to check back tomorrow for a closer look at each team’s bench.

Small Forwards

Playing the three for the Tar Heels is a player that all Dukies should recognize. He once had benches painted with his name and number on Duke’s campus as the Blue Devil faithful hoped the top high school player in the Class of 2010 would take his talents to North Durham. He didn’t, and Harrison Barnes was named a Preseason All-American wearing baby blue. Much has been made of Barnes’ struggles so far this season: his 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game have been underwhelming for a player that was relied upon from day one to carry a heavy load. His shooting touch has disappeared for long stretches, and he’s shown a tendency to settle for mid-range jumpers rather than attacking the rim. But don’t sleep on North Carolina’s No. 40. The incredible talent that made him a No. 1 recruit is still there, and he’s shown off his potential over the last three games, averaging 23 points and 7 rebounds against three quality ACC opponents. He could present a significant matchup problem for the Blue Devils, since Duke doesn’t have a player with his combination of size (6-foot-8) and athleticism.

The man for Duke here is perhaps the team’s most unsung hero: while Kyrie Irving’s injury and Nolan Smith’s ascent to stardom have dominated the headlines, Kyle Singler has quietly been a versatile force for the Blue Devils. He rarely turns the ball over, shoots 45% from the field and nearly 80% from the line, and is a leading candidate for the nation’s least heralded 18-point-per-game scorer. Look for Singler to be his same old reliable self on Wednesday night.

Power Forwards

It’s almost unbelievable to see any player listed at 6-foot-10 and just 210 pounds, but those are the given measurements on North Carolina’s primary power forward John Henson. Another very highly regarded recruit who hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations in Chapel Hill, Henson isn’t a massive offensive contributor at 11.1 points per game. Putting him on the line is always an option, as he shoots just 40% from the charity stripe. Still, don’t ignore Henson’s contributions in other facets of the game. He’s a good rebounder—his 8.5 boards per game rank fifth in the ACC—and his three blocks per game lead the conference. Like Barnes, he’s started to come into his own of late, averaging 15 points and 11 rebounds over the past three games, and he’s the sort of mobile big man who could give the Blue Devils fits inside.

Ryan Kelly will likely start at the four for Duke to make for a matchup of lanky power forwards, and his shooting range (42% from beyond the arc) could help keep Henson away from the paint, preventing him from blocking too many shots in help situations. Henson has a clear rebounding advantage over Kelly, though, and Mike Krzyzewski could turn to Miles Plumlee’s superior rebounding skills if Kelly can’t keep Henson off the glass.

Centers

The Tar Heels’ biggest offensive threat is their center, Tyler Zeller. He leads the team in scoring at 14.1 points per game, converting at a solid 52% clip from the floor and doing a great job getting to the line (where he shoots a solid 76%). He’s not a bad rebounder either, especially on the offensive glass, and at 7 feet tall he’s always a threat to block shots. He takes care of the ball as well; he’s turned the ball over just 27 times in nearly 600 minutes of play. But he’s no great shakes on defense.

Zeller’s counterpart Mason Plumlee has been a mystery wrapped in an enigma for much of Duke’s season. He possesses rare athleticism, but his play this season has called his basketball IQ into question. He makes nearly 58% of his shots from the floor, but hits an abysmal 39% of his free throws. He’s been a good rebounder (8.8 per game, 4th in the ACC) and shot blocker (1.8 per game, 6th in the ACC), though, and he has the talent to put up big numbers against any opponent.

Head coach Mike Krzyzewski and several players talked to the media Monday afternoon about the North Carolina game. Krzyzewski was in “coach mode” during the press conference—as intense and as focused as he has been with the media in some time.

On what the loss of Irving means to this game:

“We’re getting better. Individually, collectively, we’re starting to see it…. This team has played a shortened season. Our goal is to be very good in March, as good as this team can be. And a game like Wednesday’s helps you with that. Both programs are lucky to play in a game like this. I think both programs have won big because they have an opportunity to play in a game like this.”

On Thornton playing in his first UNC game:

“It’s a great opportunity for him to grow. College basketball is younger. If [Irving] hadn’t gotten hurt, it would have been his first Carolina game, now a different one gets that opportunity.”

“There’s more familiarity in today’s college game, too, because of AAU, high school…. They have a healthy respect for each other. I’m sure they’re pretty good friends. There’s more of that interaction in college basketball today than ever. It must be a pretty good lead-up there, to have two freshman point guards in the ACC doing so many.”

“He will start Wednesday night.”

On North Carolina:

“I think their offense the last three games has been unbelievable. It’s like they’re running a clinic out there. Everybody is involved, their timing is good and they’re shooting well. They’re playing really well, they’re not just a team with high talent, they’re playing at a really high level.”

On Harrison Barnes:

“Harrison has some maturity, and he’ll also put the work in. He knows he’s good and he’ll prepare to be good. When he has the talent and preparation, he’ll be a good player.”

[On losing Barnes to UNC] “I’ve had triumphs, disappointments and whatever. I always get to the next thing right away. I would never let a loss of any kind influence how I did the next thing I did in a negative manner. That’s not allowed. You get commitments and you get kids who say no. That’s going to happen to any coach. You don’t spend any time thinking about what you don’t have, you spend all your time thinking about what you do have.”

On whether he gets more hyped up for Duke-North Carolina:

“I just want to beat everybody.”