CHAPEL HILL — Kendall Marshall began to feel it at times during the second half of North Carolina’s 88-70 victory at Duke on Saturday night. The fatigue might not have shown, given that Marshall finished with 20 points and 10 assists, but there were moments when he felt the weight of all those minutes slowing him down.

“But then again,” Marshall said earlier this week, “when it comes to this time of the season, it’s about heart [and] not so much fatigue.”

CHAPEL HILL — Tyler Zeller earlier today became the 13th player in North Carolina history to win ACC Player of the Year honors. How does Zeller compare to the others?

Here’s a look at Zeller and the Tar Heels’ other 13 recipients of ACC Player of the Year: 

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina forward Tyler Zeller earlier today became the 13th player in school history to be named ACC Player of the Year. He’ll enter the ACC tournament averaging 16.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game for the No. 4 Tar Heels.

Zeller leads UNC in field goal percentage (.549), is second in scoring, rebounding, free throw percentage (.803) and blocks (44). In ACC play, he averaged 18.5 points and 9.7 rebounds per game. Overall, he has finished 11 games with double-digit performances in points and rebounds, and Zeller’s 11 double-doubles are second-most in the ACC behind UNC junior forward John Henson.

And oh, yes: Zeller was also recently named the academic all-American of the year for men’s basketball by the College Sports Information Directors of America. UNC earlier today released a statement with Zeller’s reaction to being named ACC Player of the Year.

Here’s what he said:

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina placed three players on the first-team All-ACC team, which was announced earlier today. Tyler Zeller was a unanimous choice for the first team, and teammates John Henson and Harrison Barnes joined Zeller.

It represented only the second time in ACC history that a team had three first-team all-ACC players. The only other time it happened came in 2002, when Duke had three first-teamers.

As rare as it is for a team to place three players on the first team, it’s even rarer that one team have four of the top six vote getters for the all-ACC teams. But there sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall was – with the most voting points of any player on the all-ACC second team. 

The ACC announced on Monday its annual men’s basketball all-conference, all-defensive and all-freshmen teams. The honors are as follows, with voting point totals in parentheses:

CHAPEL HILL — And after everything, North Carolina will enter the postseason just how people expected it would: As the ACC regular-season champion, and with a good chance to earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

No, the Tar Heels weren’t as dominant as prognosticators predicted them to be during the preseason. There was that 10-point loss against UNLV that knocked off some of UNC’s luster early on, and then, after a one-point loss at Kentucky in early December, a 33-point defeat at Florida State on Jan. 14 that called into question UNC’s ability to compete for a national championship.

But after UNC went into Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night and dismantled No. 4 Duke in an 88-70 victory, the Tar Heels’ bandwagon is beginning to fill back up. Before the Heels head to Atlanta as the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament later this week, a look back at a few things we learned about them in the regular season:

DURHAM — No. 6 North Carolina defeated No. 4 Duke 88-70 on Saturday night in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The victory gives the Tar Heels their 19th outright ACC regular-season championship, and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming ACC tournament.

A look back at the Heels’ dominant victory:

CHAPEL HILL — Welcome to game day. No. 6 North Carolina tonight travels to No. 4 Duke for a regular season finale that will decide the ACC regular season champion. The Tar Heels and Blue Devils have met six times before to decide the regular season league championship. UNC is 4-2 in those games.

Before looking at some things to watch, be sure to check out the array of content we have posted online. For your reading pleasure …

-Jack Daly’s story putting into perspective what is at stake on senior night tonight in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
-My story about how the Tar Heels recovered from that devastating loss against Duke last month.
-A story with some memories of the rivalry from Dick Vitale, who will be calling his 41st UNC-Duke game tonight.
-Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer looks at five memorable rallies in the series.
-And who has the edge tonight? A breakdown that’s not likely to provide Kendall Marshall with added motivation.

Now onto the three keys for UNC:

It’s no secret that North Carolina and Duke are vastly different offensive teams. The Tar Heels want to work the ball inside, where they feel they have an advantage with post players Tyler Zeller and John Henson.

The Blue Devils, meanwhile, want to shoot a lot of 3-pointers – a team strength given they have many quality shooters. The difference between the Heels and Devils manifested itself in a large way during Duke’s 85-84 victory against UNC at the Smith Center on Feb. 8.

During that game, Duke attempted 36 3-pointers, and made 14 of them. UNC, meanwhile, was just 1-for-6 from beyond the 3-point line. So the Blue Devils outscored the Tar Heels 42-3 on 3-pointers – an enormous differential that was the primary reason Duke remained alive in a game that UNC mostly dominated for 38 minutes.

UNC coach Roy Williams earlier today described the challenges of defending Duke’s perimeter offense. Williams charted each of Duke’s 36 3-point attempts during the first meeting between the teams. Here are his comments in full:

CHAPEL HILL — There have been games this season, several of them, in fact, when Kendall Marshall has accumulated four assists rather quickly. He needed just four on Wednesday night to set a new single-season record for assists at North Carolina, but Marshall, the sophomore point guard, had to wait.

He went into halftime with three assists, and then set up Harrison Barnes on a jump shot a couple of minutes into the second half. When the shot went through, Marshall had his 285th assist of the season, which set a new school record. Ed Cota set the previous record with 284 assists during the 1999-00 season.