UNC-Duke likely to be for the ACC title

As has been the case more than a time or two before, it seems likely that North Carolina and Duke will meet on Saturday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium to decide the ACC’s regular-season championship. For it to happen, UNC will need to defeat Maryland at the Smith Center on Wednesday night, and Duke would need to defeat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on Tuesday night.

Assuming those two things happen, and it’s likely they will, then the end of this regular season would mirror the end of last season, when the final game between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils also decided the regular season champion. UNC won that game, at the Smith Center, but Duke defeated UNC in a rematch in the ACC tournament.

A victory against Maryland, by the way, would guarantee that UNC enters the ACC tournament with no worse than the No. 2 seed. The top seed in the tournament plays a week from Friday at noon, against either the No. 8 or No. 9 seed. The No. 2 seed plays at 7 p.m., against either the No. 7 or No. 10 seed.

Either way, the regular season appears to be headed toward a predictable – yet exciting – ending.

-- Andrew Carter