Duke, Not Lawson, Ankled Heels' Hopes

All day Wednesday, the question most asked on Tobacco Road was whether Ty Lawson would be able to play Wednesday night when third-ranked North Carolina faced No. 2 Duke at the Dean Smith Center. By the end of the night, the question seemed inconsequential. His presence may have changed the final score, but the outcome would likely have been the same.

Lawson, UNC's star point guard, suffered an ankle sprain Sunday against Florida State, the collision instantly putting his status for the Duke game in doubt. When Lawson couldn't even come out of the tunnel before the game without grimacing, it was clear he wouldn't be able to go.

“If he had doubts," Carolina coach Roy Williams said after the game, "I wasn't going to play him,”

Once dreams of Lawson pulling a Willis Reed disappeared, Lawson's impact on the game ended. Carolina certainly could have used him.

“Certainly," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski observed, "you want the quickest point guard in the country in there,”

But Duke's 89-78 win over the Tar Heels had nothing to do with who didn't play. Lawson's absence wasn't the cause Carolina's disappointing play. It was all about the Blue Devils use their strengths to both exploit UNC's weaknesses and negate its literal and figurative power -- strong post play.

Duke played big time small-ball, winning with perimeter pressure that's both pestering and sweltering and a drive-and-dish offense that has largely rendered post play obsolete. Defensively, as it has all season save for one bad night at Madison Square Garden against Pittsburgh, it covered for its lack of size by intensely denying post entry. The Blue Devils only have two healthy players taller than 6-foot-6 -- only one of whom is a post player -- but being undersized isn't an issue if the ball doesn't get inside.

“We're a very unconventional team,” Krzyzewski said. “We're not a really strong physical team. You have to hope you won't get killed by someone's strength.”

If anyone's strength could do such a thing, one would expect it would come from UNC's brutish post man Tyler Hansbrough, the national player of the year frontrunner. Hansbrough certainly made his mark with 28 points and 18 rebounds, but it wasn't because Duke didn't do its job defensively.

“He's going to get his,” Duke junior Greg Paulus said, pointing toward Hansbrough's resourceful ability to get points as a result of scrambling for loose balls and getting offensive rebounds.

But Hansbrough had to work hard for his. He had 16 points in the first half, but only his last two field goals of the half came from Hansbrough receiving a feed in the post.

“We wanted to limit his touches,” said Duke freshman Kyle Singler, who may have graduated from first-year player status after scoring 14 points and pulling down 10 rebounds in 37 minutes, many of which were spent guarding Hansbrough. Duke cut Hansbrough off so well that Coach K dared give Jon Scheyer, a generously listed 6-5, 180 pound guard, the assignment of guarding the 6-9, 250 pound Hansbrough on one possession.

Hansbrough didn't get the ball that trip down the floor.

With Hansbrough's touches were limited, the Tar Heels had few answers. Senior Quentin Thomas, who started in Lawson's stead, struggled with Duke's pressure and had six turnovers. The Blue Devils dogged Wayne Ellington into a dreadful 3-of-14 shooting performance, and Danny Green's 1-of-10 performance was even worse.

But it was on offense that the Devils truly shined. Six players scored in double figures. Paulus, in the midst of a breakout season, shot 6-of-8 on 3-pointers and scored 18 points. While UNC went 3-for-17 from behind the arc, Duke shot 13-of-29, including 8-of-16 in the first half. Most importantly, they penetrated at will against UNC's defense, which left shooters wide open on those 3-point attempts.

“We're doing it collectively,” Paulus said. “We know we need each other to get shots.”

Carolina's defensive problems aren't strategic. The Tar Heels are simply short of good defenders. On a handful of occasions, Scheyer left Ellington standing in concrete on his way to the rim, and no one has ever confused Scheyer with a speedster like Lawson. Henderson and DeMarcus Nelson had no problem beating their defenders. With Marcus Ginyard battling turf toe (a term, considering the current context, that is begging to be expanded) and reserve guard Bobby Frasor out for the season with a torn ACL, Carolina doesn't have one player that could be considered a good man-to-man perimeter defender. And it's not just the little guys, there are interior problems too.

Carolina's had no problem offensively this year. UNC is second nationally in scoring, it has handily outscored most of its opponents. But on a night when simply scoring points was insufficient—Duke is third in scoring--the Heels came up short. Scoring 78 points against a great defensive team rings hollow when a team loses by 11. “They got any shot they wanted,” Williams said. “I don't know when our defense dictated what shot they would take.”

Foul Mood for Henderson? More Like Awkward

Almost lost in the shuffle of the game was Gerald Henderson's first trip to the Dean Dome since he broke Tyler Hansbrough's nose with a flagrant elbow last March. Henderson was booed all night, but the Smith Center was more uncomfortable than hostile.

“There wasn't anything malicious,” Coach K said. “I didn't see anything inappropriate. It's Duke-North Carolina. You're not going to see that.” Clearly, Krzyzewski doesn't remember the signs the Cameron Crazies had in J.R. Reid's “honor” in the '80s, placards that said “J.R. Can't Read.”

But aside from boos and corny signs in the student section with Henderson's picture and a list of his supposed crimes, things were rather tame.

Dean Dome Loses Laundry

This season, banners were taken down instead of raised at the Dean Smith Center. After years of hoisting mementos of seemingly every accomplishment in the program's history, there are now single banners for NIT finishes and NCAA Sweet 16 appearances rather than individual tributes to each season. After all, trips to the second round of the Big Dance don't matter to an elite program.

That move is almost representative of what's happened to this season for Carolina and Duke. With the other ten schools in the ACC clearly a step below UNC and Duke—as is every other team in the country other than Kansas, Memphis and UCLA—Carolina and Duke's seasons have been reduced to their head-to-head matchups in the regular season and, potentially, in the finals of the ACC Tournament. All that matters is the winning the top seed in the East Regional in Charlotte which, coupled with first and second round games in Raleigh, would afford one of these teams the chance to earn a trip to the Final Four without boarding a plane. The winner of Duke and UNC's two-to-three game series will almost surely receive that prize.

Just as important—the runner-up could be stuck in the West Regional, which would open the possibility of making a transcontinental jaunt just to face UCLA in Phoenix in a regional final.

The 20-1 Blue Devils, undefeated in the ACC, would get the spot in Charlotte if the Selection Committee met today. Even worse for North Carolina is that each of the other elite teams this season play similarly suffocating defense as Duke. Coming into Wednesday's game, Memphis, Kansas, Duke and UCLA are all in the top ten in defensive efficiency, according to stats guru Ken Pomery. Carolina? 30th.

Without a favorable top seed, the Tar Heels seem poised return from the NCAA Tournament with no need for a new banner.

The Duke-Carolina rivalry is always intense, but it's bigger this year than bragging rights or just the ACC championship. Round 1 of the rest of the season decisively went to Duke. Carolina has plenty of work to do in preparation for Round 2. Or, for that matter, Saturday against Clemson, another team that applies great pressure to ball handlers.

“I've got to get my team to the point of doing the little things it takes to beat a great team,” Williams said.

Working one big thing--defense--won't hurt, either. UNC needs only to outscore most teams left on its schedule, but it must do more. If it doesn't, it's time to check fares to Phoenix.