Maryland at North Carolina: 3 things to watch

No. 6 North Carolina hosts Maryland tonight (7 p.m., ESPN) at the Smith Center, where the Tar Heels will be celebrating senior night. A victory would enable the Tar Heels to keep pace with Duke atop the ACC standings, and it would set up a regular-season finale in Cameron Indoor Stadium to decide the regular season championship.

But first things first. Some things to watch between the Heels and Terrapins:

How sharp will UNC be? Roy Williams criticized his team’s execution on both offense and defense after the Tar Heels’ 54-51 victory at Virginia on Saturday. The Cavaliers play a slow-it-down pace and they’re an excellent defense team.

Even so, Williams didn’t like the way his team executed on offense, and he didn’t like the way it defended – even though Virginia scored just 51 points. The Tar Heels are a heavy favorite tonight – the line is around 18.5 points, depending on which service you want to cite – and the final result shouldn’t be in doubt.

But simply winning the game won’t be enough for Williams to be satisfied, and another sloppy effort would cause concern heading into the regular season finale on Saturday at Duke. Given it’s senior night at the Smith Center, UNC shouldn’t lack for motivation or intensity.

But will those things translate into sound execution?

Tyler Zeller. Many UNC fans in attendance tonight will likely be seeing Zeller for the final time in person. Along with four other seniors – Justin Watts, Stewart Cooper, Patrick Crouch and David Dupont – Zeller will play his final home game tonight.

Zeller encountered foul trouble in UNC’s first game against Maryland earlier this month, and he played only 22 minutes. But he made the most of them, and finished with a team-high 22 points. He also added seven rebounds.

Zeller is a lock for first-team All-ACC honors, but he’s also a favorite to win player of the year, too. With a strong performance tonight, Zeller could further distance himself from a field of player of the year candidates that includes Virginia’s Mike Scott and UNC teammates John Henson and Harrison Barnes.

Kendall Marshall’s pursuit of history. Marshall enters tonight with 281 assists this season, and he needs three assists to tie Ed Cota’s single-season record of 284, which Cota set during the 1999-00 season.

It’s a near certainty that Marshall will set a school record tonight. He has had at least four assists in every game this season and, in fact, his season-low in assists is four – which he had in that 90-57 loss at Florida State on Jan. 14.

The question isn’t if Marshall sets a school record tonight, but when he will set it. No one would be surprised to see it happen in the first five or 10 minutes of the game.

-- Andrew Carter