You can’t accuse North Carolina of going anything less than full speed. The Tar Heels gave it everything they had in the 87-77 loss.

That it wasn’t enough was testament less to another swing-and-miss in Greensboro -- North Carolina hasn’t won an ACC title here since 1998 -- than to how deep, talented and well coached Miami is.

Miami winning the ACC basketball title is a lot like Wake Forest winning the ACC football title: Two old, experienced teams from unheralded programs that put all the pieces together at the right time.

Shane Larkin is a stud. That regular-season championship was no fluke.

Then again, neither are the Tar Heels.

Roy Williams only got one vote for ACC coach of the year. Jim Larranaga got 75 of the remaining 76. They’ll contest a one-game referendum Sunday when North Carolina faces Miami in the ACC title game.

The case for Larranaga is clear, and the Hurricanes have a chance to add the championship to the regular-season title. But Williams keeps pushing the right buttons, and has ever since the loss to these same Hurricanes that forced his hand on switching to the smaller lineup that was very much out of his coaching character.

He might even have gone against character a little bit once again, letting P.J. Hairston play in Saturday’s 79-76 win over Maryland with eight stitches between the ring and middle fingers of his left hand after Hairston decided during warm-ups he was OK.

Late in the second half, Richard Howell was pedaling slowly on a stationary bike, going nowhere -- a tidy metaphor for N.C. State’s performance Saturday if you’re into that kind of thing.

Unable to stop Durand Scott, unable to muster much energy or emotion for much of the game, the Wolfpack failed to find redemption in the ACC tournament, just another loss that was all too similar to so many losses over the course of a season where N.C. State has consistently failed to meet expectations.

Miami is a very good team with a chance to claim a No. 1 seed with a win over Maryland or North Carolina tomorrow, and the Hurricanes present a long list of matchup problems for N.C. State, but if the Wolfpack was really interested in playing for the ACC title it was predicted to win, they were going to have to play far better than they did in an 81-71 loss.

It was a tough day for Duke's perimeter defenders. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

GREENSBORO—One week ago, Duke turned in a surprising performance. It would have been hard to predict such a dominant showing—a game that was over within the first three minutes—against what was then a hot North Carolina team.

Yesterday, Duke served up another surprise. It would have been hard to predict a worse showing against an NIT-bound Maryland. The Blue Devils made Dez Wells look like an all-American, pressing up on him just so he could beat them with a quick step on his way to the basket and a career-high 30 points.

The perimeter also struggled to keep up with Maryland's passing, as the Terrapins recorded assists on 69.2 percent of their baskets.

So, to state the obvious, Duke's defense—which has not gotten statistically better with Ryan Kelly's return—was awful against the Terrapins. Duke surrendered 1.19 points per possession. To put that into perspective, the Blue Devils gave up 1.15 points per possession in their embarrassing loss at Miami.

ACC Tournament (1pm, WRAL) - Semi-finals! Here's the full ACC Tournament schedule.

Tom Dick & Harriet (9pm, Hallmark) - Steven Weber stars in this romantic comedy about a straight-arrow copywriter who loses his job because he's no longer considered young and hip, and hires a young con artist (Andrew Francis) to pass off his work. And of course, he falls in love with the company's art director (Michelle Harrison).

Blackboard Wars (9pm, OWN) - The faculty member react after one of their students is involved in a shooting. Elsewhere, a motivational speaker talks with the kids about their futures.

Pit Boss (9pm, Animal Planet) - Shorty's kennels are full, which creates a problem when he rescues an abused puppy. Meanwhile, Ron and Sebastian must find a replacement for a video gig after Ashley's new agency signs their scheduled singer.

Saturday Night Live (11:29pm, NBC) - A new show tonight. Er, sorry. Tonight's a repeat of last week's Justin Timberlake episode.

GREENSBORO -- Florida State was tearing a hole through the soft middle of North Carolina’s defense when P.J. Hairston got hot, making the final score a poor indication of how much danger the Tar Heels were in during the first half.

That’s the yin and the yang of North Carolina at this point, the price paid to get the Tar Heels’ best players on the floor. It cost them in last Saturday’s loss to Duke when they couldn’t handle Mason Plumlee. It nearly cost them in Friday’s ACC quarterfinal against the Seminoles, but they escaped and put Florida State away, 83-62.

Maryland, which doesn’t even want to be in the ACC, had to go and screw up the tournament for everyone who does -- although, to be fair, Duke did most of the screwing up Friday night.

A thoroughly dismal defensive performance from the Blue Devils in an 83-74 loss to the Terrapins deprived the expectant crowd of a Saturday semifinal meeting with North Carolina, although the Tar Heels still had work to do against Florida State later Friday night, no gimme either.

Dez Wells had a career day against Duke. Credit: ETHAN HYMAN

GREENSBORO—It took Mike Krzyzewski 93 seconds to realize something wasn’t quite right.

The Duke coach called a quick timeout after two Duke misses and two Maryland baskets in attempt to fix what he saw. But the problems for Duke persisted all 40 minutes, as No. 7 seed Maryland played like a team desperate for an NCAA bid in an 83-74 win.

“They had a sense of urgency today that we didn’t,” Seth Curry said. “Because we knew we had another game to play, I felt like.”

For a No. 1 seed that went 15-3 in the ACC, an unusual amount of questions exist about Miami’s postseason viability and how far the Hurricanes will go in the NCAA tournament. The Hurricanes answered none of them with a 69-58 win over Boston College in Friday’s first quarterfinal.

The late-season loss at Wake Forest had the distinct feel of a first-weekend upset, and while Larranaga later said he thought his team got a little fat and happy with that 13-0 record in the ACC, the lingering bad taste from that game, and an 2-3 finish in the league with losses at Duke and to Georgia Tech -- at home, with a chance to clinch the regular-season title outright -- left the Hurricanes with more to prove this weekend than the usual No. 1 seed.

Duke opens up ACC tournament action with a rubber match against Maryland. Credit: CHUCK LIDDY

Duke vs. Maryland
When: 7 p.m.
Where:Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, N.C.
TV/RadioESPNU, WKIX-102.9 FM
Talking points: Defensive success: how Duke measures it, and how the Blue Devils stack up according to Ken Pomeroy.

Projected starting lineups

N. 7 Maryland (21-11, 8-10 in the ACC)
G Pe’Shon Howard, 3.3 ppg, 3.7 apg
G Nick Faust, 9.0 ppg, 3.6 rpg
G-F Dez Wells, 12.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg
G-F Jake Layman, 5.4 ppg, 3.0 rpg
C Alex Len, 11.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg

No. 2 Duke (27-4, 14-4)

G Quinn Cook, So., 12.5 ppg, 5.3 apg
G Seth Curry, Sr., 17.1 ppg, 2.4 rpg
G Tyler Thornton, Jr., 3.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg
F Ryan Kelly, Sr., 14.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg
F Mason Plumlee, Sr., 17.2 ppg, 10.3 rpg

Player to watch:

Seth Curry, Duke