University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: It's Time
February 9, 2017 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
It's time. Tonight, for the 243rd time, Duke and Carolina take the court in one of sport's greatest rivalries. Much will be made of this game and its partner in Chapel Hill next month. Duke and Carolina are two of the marquee names in college basketball. The game draws interest nationwide and indeed worldwide. But beyond the hype, it's a game on the schedule, an opportunity for growth from each team as the regular season's final sprint begins.
The game against Duke offers an opportunity for the Tar Heels to provide more definition to a team that has looked at times brilliant and at other times listless. Theo Pinson is questionable for the matchup, but should he play, the Tar Heels will have the talented depth to compete for 40 minutes or more. Carolina has the nation's toughest schedule remaining, and a win in Cameron would get that stretch off on the right foot.
Duke, on the other hand, has the chance to assert itself. With Krzyzewski back on the sideline and a healthy team, the Blue Devils could show the college basketball nation that they are the team they thought they would be at the season's outset.
To win tonight, Carolina will need positive contributions throughout the lineup, including from two Tar Heels starting for the first time in Cameron.
Kenny Williams is one of them. The sophomore guard and first-year Tar Heel starter knows what it's like in Cameron Indoor Stadium. He knows that Duke students camp out for a precious ticket, that they become Cameron Crazies, that under Mike Krzyzewski the Blue Devils win 89 percent of the time in that intimidating environment. A year ago, Williams was a freshman who did not appear in his team's 76-72 win, the one that sealed an ACC regular season title. But he knows.
"Last year, knowing what was going to happen, knowing I didn't have a big role, I just tried to soak it all in," he said. "It's such a storied venue. Last year was my chance to take it in and realize what I was doing and where I was (in life). This year will be a lot different, because I'll be actually playing and taking part in the game."
Justin Jackson knows, too. Two years ago, he was a freshman starter on a team that surrendered a 10-point second-half lead and lost in overtime. Jackson himself shot just 1-8 from the field, scoring two points in 17 minutes. "Freshman year, I can't tell you a single thing that happened," he said Tuesday.
As a sophomore, he fared better. Though still not shooting well –no Tar Heel did– Jackson had 13 points and a key dunk down the stretch as the visitors earned the four-point win. Jackson returns to Cameron tonight with two years of experience, ready to play the game between the lines. "They get a little disrespectful every once in a while, but some of that stuff is just kind of funny to me," he said of the home fans. "Maybe it gets into other people's heads, but getting into my head is a little tougher than some words that they might say over there. But hey, they definitely do their job for their program, and they definitely produce a great environment."
For Roy Williams, who will coach Carolina for the 14th time at Cameron Indoor Stadium, tonight's matchup is a matter of taking in the environment early, then going about the business of trying to win a basketball game. "I look at the signs early to see if any of them make me laugh," he said. "Once the game starts, it's not a problem. It's not a problem to focus. It's a problem getting my team to hear what I'm saying, because they're loud."
A Tar Heel fan hopes that Williams' team takes the experience from last year's win and applies it tonight. The Tar Heels out-rebounded Duke 64 to 29 a year ago. They corralled 27 of their own misses while the Blue Devils got 21. On the other end, Carolina pulled in 37 of Duke's misses, to just eight offensive rebounds for the home team. Dominate the glass again, and the visitors will give themselves a great chance once again. But they'll also need to defend the perimeter, where Duke is attempting 22 three-point field goals per game. That will require young Kenny Williams to continue to be a reliable perimeter defender. They'll need Isaiah Hicks to assert himself early on offense and to stay out of foul trouble. They'll need Jackson to hit threes from his customary spot on the wing, and they'll need Joel Berry II to take over when the game requires it. And they'll need contributions off the bench from a talented group.
"You've just got to come and play your game. You can't get outside of your game. You can't do too much," senior forward Kennedy Meeks said. Meeks had 12 points and 14 rebounds in Cameron last year. "You have to definitely share the ball, and I think that's what we did a great job of doing last year. I think if we go in there Thursday and we do the same thing, similar things, we'll be fine."
Roy Williams said Tuesday that while he'd love to win tonight's game, if offered to trade a win tonight for winning the next two, he'd take the two wins. Sure, but that's not been offered. And despite the game coming earlier in the season than it did a year ago, the 2016 win in Cameron helped propel the Tar Heels toward the national championship game. It was the second of what would be a ten-game win streak and it sealed the ACC regular season title.
Tonight, it's Duke and Carolina for the 243rd time. Throw out the record books, sure, but know that Cameron is a tough place to play, the Tar Heels may build an early lead, and the Blue Devils will make their run. And crucially, the Tar Heels will need to be mindful of that, that stretch when the Blue Devils, fueled by the home crowd, will get hot. Last year, they sliced a nine-point lead down to two in the game's final three minutes.
"Basically it's about a game of runs," Berry said. "So if we can just withstand their run of when they hit threes, I think we'll be good. And we just have to remember that basketball is a game of runs, and they'll have their time, and we'll have our time, but we've got to have more of our time than their time."
Tonight, it's time.
