CHAPEL HILL — No. 6 North Carolina defeated Maryland 88-64 on Wednesday night at the Smith Center. A look back at the Tar Heels’ senior night victory: 

CHAPEL HILL — No. 6 North Carolina hosts Maryland tonight at the Smith Center, where the Tar Heels will be celebrating senior night. A victory would enable the Tar Heels to keep pace with Duke atop the ACC standings, and it would set up a regular-season finale in Cameron Indoor Stadium to decide the regular season championship.

But first things first. Some things to watch between the Heels and Terrapins:

CHAPEL HILL — Tyler Zeller has studied the concept of leadership a lot during his four years at North Carolina. He has taken leadership courses in UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has gone to leadership seminars. As it turns out, though, Zeller’s best leadership qualities are ones that just come naturally to him.

That’s the crux of this story I wrote about Zeller, who tonight will play his final home game of his collegiate career. Check out the story, then check back here in a bit for some bonus material.

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina coach Roy Williams remembers with fondness the final time he played a basketball game at home in high school. He remembers his mom walking out on the court to meet him before the game, and he remembers the emotions that came along with the moment.

CHAPEL HILL — Three North Carolina-related things to consider on a gray Monday morning from Chapel Hill …

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — No. 7 North Carolina defeated No. 25 Virginia 54-51 here on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena. A look back at the Tar Heels’ 12th ACC win:

Updated 8:12 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — North Carolina improvised throughout its 54-51 victory against Virginia on Saturday, and at no time did the Tar Heels improvise more than on what turned out to be their most important offensive play of the game.

Leading by one with less than a minute to play, and with the crowd at the John Paul Jones Arena at its loudest, UNC coach Roy Williams called a play in which senior forward Tyler Zeller was supposed to act as a screener. Instead, Zeller caught a pass from Kendall Marshall, faked a shot and drove the lane for a decisive one-handed dunk.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Welcome to John Paul Jones Arena. The student section is already full here, about 40 minutes before tip-off, and it has long been. Anticipation is high here for a meeting between two top-25 teams – No. 7 North Carolina and No. 25 Virginia.

Some pregame thoughts and things to watch:

CHAPEL HILL — Plenty of North Carolina fans disagreed with the notion that Tar Heels supporters should have pulled for Duke last night when the Blue Devils played at Florida State. In fact, I heard from a lot of UNC fans who thought it silly – or worse – to cheer for Duke when I raised the topic yesterday.

Tar Heels senior forward Tyler Zeller, though, didn’t think pulling for Duke was so wrong. At least not last night. He watched with a sense of happiness last night while the Blue Devils went on to a 74-66 victory against the Seminoles in Tallahassee.

Before North Carolina’s 86-74 victory against N.C. State on Tuesday night, Eric Hoots approached Kendall Marshall with a copy of an article from The News & Observer. Hoots is the director of player relations and the video coordinator for the Tar Heels’ basketball program, and he had something he wanted Marshall, the Heels’ sophomore point guard, to see.

It wasn’t an article from The N&O, really, but instead a position-by-position breakdown of the Tar Heels and Wolfpack. At point guard, it listed N.C. State’s Lorenzo Brown with having the edge over Marshall.