By Joedy McCreary
February 13, 2010
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- The tradition-rich basketball programs along Tobacco Road are used to playing for first place this time of year.
For a change, two of them are playing to avoid last.
A scheduling quirk -- and North Carolina's miserable season -- have conspired to create an unusual scenario this weekend.
First, the Atlantic Coast Conference's top teams meet Saturday when No. 8 Duke hosts Maryland. A few hours later, and 8 miles down the road, the Tar Heels play host to North Carolina State with the loser having the ACC's cellar all to itself.
"It's been crazy the way it is -- Carolina's normally that top team that we normally play against," Blue Devils guard Nolan Smith said Friday. "Now, for it to be Maryland, regardless, it's a big game. Carolina, you know, their struggles this year, I can't real ly explain it."
It's an important weekend at both termini of the storied stretch of U.S. Route 15-501 that connects North Carolina and Duke -- for drastically different reasons.
Duke (20-4, 8-2) hopes to mark Mike Krzyzewski's 1,000th game at the school -- and the Hall of Fame coach's 63rd birthday -- by beating the Terrapins, the only other team with fewer than three ACC losses and the last school not named North Carolina to win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski will become the eighth Division I coach to reach four figures at one school. And to celebrate Coach K's milestones, the Blue Devils have invited more than 100 former players and coaches, from Art Heyman to J.J. Redick, back to Cameron, where they have won 15 straight.
"I don't think it's really pressure," center Brian Zoubek said. "It's added incentive, added motivation -- not that we needed any more, but it's there just the same. ... You could pick any number of reasons why we're motivated."
But while Duke has kept itself near the top of the conference, things couldn't have gone more wrong at two other corners of the state's Triangle.
N.C. State (14-11, 2-8) has lost five consecutive ACC games -- the only win of any kind during that span came against Division I newcomer North Carolina Central -- with the least-productive offense (69.4 ppg) and worst team in rebounding margin in the league.
Yet for all their shortcomings, the Wolfpack at least has done one thing North Carolina hasn't: beat Duke.
Without question, the high point of N.C. State's season was that everything-went-right 88-74 romp against the Blue Devils 3 weeks ago that gave the Wolfpack a fleeting glimpse of optimism.
"Just a few games ago ... we win three games, we're tied for first place," coach Sidney Lowe said. "That's how tight it was."
Earlier this week, Duke gave the Tar Heels a 10-point loss -- their seventh defeat in eight games. North Carolina's only win in that stretch came 2 weeks ago at N.C. State. The loser in Saturday's rematch will be alone in the ACC's basement as the only team with two league wins.
"Both teams are going through some similar things, with youth and trying to develop, trying to progress," Lowe said. "But it's still N.C. State and Carolina."
Things went from bad to worse for the Tar Heels (13-11, 2-7) when it was learned that top rebounder and No. 2 scorer Ed Davis will miss at least six weeks after breaking his left wrist in the Duke game.
That leaves three injured post players -- Tyler Zeller (foot), Travis Wear (ankle) and now Davis -- missing time for a struggling team that ranks last in the ACC in scoring defense (73.5 ppg) and turnover margin (minus-1.6).
All this at a proud program that has won five NCAA tournaments and nearly 2,000 games but appears helpless as its national title defense spins hopelessly out of control during its centennial season.
Eric Montross, J.R. Reid and other former players were scheduled to take part in a reunion game Friday night at the Smith Center. The obvious bad news: Those big men of the past won't be any help on Saturday.
"You've got to continue to fight. If you just give in, then there's no hope, you know?" senior forward Deon Thompson said after the Duke loss. "We've just got to continue to come back and continue to work. Giving up is the easy way out."
