Welcome, everyone. It's the day after Austin Rivers and Duke mounted a classic comeback to beat North Carolina on the Tar Heels' home court.

We have with us Blue Devils beat writer Jack Daly and columnist Luke DeCock, who both covered last night's game at the Smith Center.

Get your questions, comments and family-friendly rants ready. (Yes, we all know Seth Curry traveled before hitting that 3.) We're about to get started.

If anyone wants to talk also about Florida State's flop at Boston College or N.C. State's game tonight at Georgia Tech, Jack and Luke are ready to discuss those as well.

We're about to get started, but here are some links to some of this morning's coverage.

Duke at the buzzer: http://bit.ly/AlyYw6
Duke controls its destiny: http://bit.ly/xs3wb3
Tudor's Take: http://bit.ly/xXoygJ

After a good night’s sleep, I think I’ve processed the final 2:38 from last night’s game and am ready to answer questions.

One thought that stays with me from last night's game: When Duke is on from outside, the Blue Devils can beat anyone (Michigan State, Kansas, etc.). And when Duke isn't, it gets ugly (Villanova, 2009 NCAAt; Arizona, 2011 NCAAt). When Duke won the national title in 2010, Duke had a little more balance to its game.

In a situation like that, with less than 10 seconds, you're always going to switch on all screens. So Zeller and Bullock switched on the ball screen, and Zeller ended up on Rivers.

Right. What Zeller needed to do was contest the shot a bit more

Really, Zeller was in a decent position to defend a regulation 3-pointer, and as a big man it's in his DNA to stop the drive. I just don't think he ever expected Rivers to shoot from there. He was waiting to defend a drive that never happened.

I think he was worried about Rivers getting by him.

Think he was just worried about the drive. And Duke was planning to go to the lane and look for a foul.

But your point is well taken -- he needs to have his hands up.

Roy had his timeouts at the end. And I thought he used them well in the end game. His team just didn't make free throws.

We get on Roy about not using his timeouts, with good reason sometimes, but the idea is you have them at the end in a one- or two-possession game. And he did.

One last thought on timeouts: Just looking back at my notes, Roy used timeouts at 3:50 (79-70), 2:34 (82-72) and 1:59 (82-75).

I don't think there's any doubt UNC relaxed in the late going. The entire building did. The only question was whether the Tar Heels would cover or not (line was 6). But when Duke scores on seven straight possessions to close out the game, and UNC goes 4-9 on FTs, it can come back and bite you quick.

I think UNC assumed the game was won.

Good question. That's been the issue for this Duke team -- consistency from one game to the next.

It'll be interesting to see how Duke does defensively on Stoglin this time around. He's capable of doing to Duke what Duke did to UNC last night.

If Duke can handle Maryland on Saturday without a lapse, maybe Wednesday's game is a bit of a turning point in their season.

I still think they can get a No. 1. Ultimately, losing to Duke isn't going to kill their RPI.

Both teams have the resume to be a No. 1 seed if they finish well. Wouldn't be surprised if the ACC champ was a 1, second place a 2 and FSU a 3. Duke has the kind of profile the committee loves when it comes to seeding.

One thing is guaranteed at this point: They'll both be in Greensboro again. Which is awesome for hoops in this state.

Uhhh. I think you've got the wrong chat.

Coach K said after the game he thinks UNC is still the best team in the league.

Now, from our NEUTRAL perspective, there's no question Duke relies extremely heavily on the 3-pointer, as I noted earlier. It killed the 2009 and 2011 teams in the NCAA tournament.

One last point on Duke: To me, the key for Duke is getting Mason Plumlee to generate his own points inside the way he did against Maryland -- and the way UNC does with Zeller and to a lesser extent Henson. I agree UNC is better equipped for a long NCAA tournament run.

As for the Seminoles, they're in last place in the Ivy League (0-2).

Losing to BC is somewhat inexplicable.

And they lost to a team that wouldn't be among the top six in the Ivy League last night, judged on talent alone.

Steve Donahue isn't just the ACC coach of the year. He should be the national coach of the year. He's winning games with UNC's JV team.

They're still in good shape to win the conference, but as last night's loss indicates, they can't be trusted to win every game they're supposed to.

Don't know about beating the Bobcats, but many of these guys will be doing that soon. Barnes, Zeller, Henson, Marshall, Rivers for sure. Plumlee, Curry, Bullock, McAdoo, Hairston all have a shot. Just off the top of my head.

Let me move Mason Plumlee into the "for sure" group.

With development, Quinn Cook could join that group, too.

My take on this, as I've written a couple times now, is that this Duke team doesn't have the classic Duke DNA -- in-your-face man-to-man defense, help in the lane, denying the entry pass. There aren't many natural defenders on this team. But it has more scoring options -- Plumlee, Kelly, Rivers, Curry, Dawkins, etc. -- than just about any Duke team I can remember.

Rivers is the most dynamic offensive player Duke has. The downside is his decision-making sometimes is lacking -- he forces 2 or 3 shots per game, no question. But Duke needs Rivers to be a force offensively.

Just to finish that last thought, I suspect there's a part of Coach K that, as was the case with the Olympics, took on Rivers as a sort of challenge -- to take this extremely talented player and mold him into a "Duke" player. Parts of that are still a work in progress.

I'd expect UNC to get the better of Duke in the rematch, if only because these teams are so closely matched and home-court advantage doesn't seem to mean much in this rivalry.

With this Duke team, you can't even predict with any accuracy if it will win Saturday. Who knows where the Blue Devils will be in a couple of weeks? That's one of the reasons Coach K has been so frustrated with this team at times.

But as last night showed, from UNC-Duke to BC-FSU to Virginia against Wake Forest-Rolesville, the ACC is unpredictable.

Didn't see that at all.

Zeller went for the ball. He missed it.

Jack?

Yeah, I didn't see that. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, but I don't remember that.

I thought Barnes had a great second half last night. If UNC wins, he's one of the major reasons why (along with Marshall).

That was at the other end of the court, and I haven't seen a replay of that shot other than the release. It didn't look like a walk to me at the time, although the crowd certainly thought so. Would like to get another look at that.

I thought it was a walk at the time, but those judgments calls happen hundreds of time during the game. Ref made a quick judgment.

Interesting officiating crew last night: UNC-Duke veteran Bryan Kersey, national ace John Cahill and first-timer Tim Nestor, who has moved into the ACC's top nine refs. No Karl Hess, Les Jones, Roger Ayers, Jamie Luckie, etc.

Huge game for the Wolfpack. A must-win as far as I'm concerned for NCAA tournament purposes.

Tough situation for GT, playing as nomads. Bet they get more fans than the Thrashers would, though. 5K?

The atmosphere will be horrible.

I still think the door is open for NC State and Miami to make the tournament, if they can continue winning games down the stretch. But the Wolfpack can't take any more bad losses and needs an upset or two in the tough stretch coming up.

NC State has to pick up a win against Duke, FSU or UNC, I think, to get in.

Interestingly, I thought Duke played the game N.C. State SHOULD have played against UNC, just trying to get hot from outside instead of going directly at Henson.

The stretch that begins next week for State at Duke is huge.

I'll take UNC to bounce back at home, but I have the utmost respect for Virginia, and Mike Scott is my ACC player of the year, although Barnes and Rivers both buttressed their own cases last night. I don't think Scott gets anywhere near the credit he deserves.

One would think Duke's comeback is the worst thing possible for UVa.

Agree completely with what Luke said about Mike Scott.

ACC is down as a league, but I still think UNC and Duke are in that second tier behind Kentucky and Syracuse etc. Florida State and UVa behind that. The bottom is awful with BC and Wake and GT. VT and Clemson, thoroughly mediocre.

If you look at it though, all of Duke's ACC games have been good ones, with the exception of the win over Wake.

Has made for some good games.

My FF right now is Ohio State, Kentucky, North Carolina and Michigan State. Kansas and Syracuse in there, too.

Man, that's a rivalry. That's what it's all about.

They celebrated hitting a massive shot. What's wrong with that?

Roy took pains to point out afterward that he didn't have a problem with it, which probably means he had a little bit of a problem with it, but if you're ever going to celebrate a game-winner, isn't that the one?

I don't see any chance for State to win the ACC with their schedule, but I think the door is still open for 10 or 11 wins and an NCAA tournament bid, which would be a huge accomplishment for Mark Gottfried. Even an NIT bid is a big step forward.

Agreed -- I don't see any scenario where State wins the league.

Ryan Kelly -- the shooter -- got credit for the basket.

Credit went to Kelly, because he was the last opposing player to touch it. No "own goals" in college basketball.

Scott Wood?

My point is, you're better off hoping Wood and CJ Williams and Lo Brown get going from the outside than you are sending CJ Leslie at Henson and hoping for the best.

That was a no-chance strategy on the road. Maybe at home, where you might get Henson in foul trouble.

Kyrie Irving was a great college player. Miss watching him play. Of course, that was true most of last year as well...

In today's era, though, I don't think coaches expect guys like Irving to stay more than one year. It'll be interesting to see what Rivers does.

He could use another year of seasoning before heading to the NBA.

I might put UNC at home ahead of at Duke, just because the crowd will be nuts (both places).

I think State can win at Duke, though.

The FSU game at this point, is pretty much a must-win.

Duke's only real blowout at home is Wake. Unless Duke the Good shows up for 40 min, in which case all bets are off.

At this point, I think it was a strong finish for Duke. Duke has to string a number of games together before it can be said they've turned the corner.

Will have to wait to see with Duke. Turning the corner for them will be putting a string of good games together without losing focus. I think it did say a lot about how being poor at the free-throw line is a serious problem for UNC. Definitely cost the Tar Heels this one.

I've written more than one story saying Duke has "gotten it" so far this season.

And I've written more than one column saying Duke is still searching for an identity.

Think that motivated them for this one. Not sure about the next one.

Duke doesn't care about identities, Luke.

Oops. My fault. Also, Austin Rivers in no way resembles Kobe Bryant. Even their dads being NBA players is coincidence.

As I wrote today, I think Duke is in control, followed by FSU -- basically the winner of that game in Tallahassee. UNC needs help. State and Miami need divine intervention.

Looking forward to heading to Tallahassee for the Duke-FSU game in a couple of weeks. How often has that sentence been written?

Thanks everyone for stopping by today in the aftermath of that crazy game last night. The word "epic" is so overused these days. ("It's an 'epic' combo meal!") It should be saved for games like that. Hoping for a few more like that one in the ACC tournament in Atlanta.

Likewise, thanks for stopping by. If another ACC game can top last night's, we'll be in for a nice final three weeks of the season.

That's it for today, but thanks to everyone who joined us. We'll do this again soon.