After Duke’s players indicated that they thought their offensive struggles against North Carolina affected their defense on Saturday, Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski said Monday that he’s not sure it won’t happen again this season.

“That’s just who we are,” Krzyzewski said during the ACC teleconference. “You can tell them not to do that, but I tell ‘em to block out and they don’t always block out. It’s going to happen. It’s reoccurred through the season and hopefully during this postseason, we can eliminate that.”

The Blue Devils shot 26.5 percent in the first half on Saturday against the Tar Heels while UNC shot 52.6 percent on the other end. The discrepancy helped the Tar Heels build a 24-point halftime advantage.

Updated (Sunday, 8:35 p.m.)

North Carolina will go to Atlanta as the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament, just as everyone predicted in the preseason.

The Tar Heels (14-2 in the ACC) took the regular-season title with Saturday's 88-70 win at Duke. The Blue Devils (13-3) will be the second seed in the conference tournament.

Thursday's games
No. 8 Maryland vs. No. 9 Wake Forest, noon
No. 5 N.C. State vs. No. 12 Boston College, 2:30 p.m.
No. 7 Clemson vs. No. 10 Virginia Tech, 7 p.m.
No. 6 Miami vs. No. 11 Georgia Tech, 9:30 p.m.

Other than Duke's Austin Rivers and Boston College's Ryan Anderson, the freshman class is difficult to sort through.

DURHAM -- About five minutes after North Carolina put the finishing touches on its 88-70 win over Duke on Saturday night, the Blue Devils players made their way back onto the court at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Miles Plumlee addressed the remaining crowd, thanking the Duke students for their support during his career. He then said the Blue Devils would make amends for its disappointing performance against the Tar Heels by reaching the Final Four.

Such a promise required a bit of a leap of faith after Duke’s miserable effort in the first half against UNC. But if the fourth-ranked Blue Devils (26-5, 13-3) have shown nothing else this season, it’s that they have the ability to defy expectations in both directions.

See vidoe highlights of the North Carolina Tar Heels' 88-70 win over the Duke Blue Devils to capture the ACC regular-season crown.

Updated 10:42 p.m.

DURHAM -- Ever since it beat North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Feb. 8, Duke has played Austin Rivers’ dramatic game-winning shot on its video board before each home game as a way of inciting the crowd at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

From Roy Williams to Kendall Marshall, many of the Tar Heels’ coaches and players took a long look at the highlight when it was shown Saturday.

Rather than stew silently, Marshall told his teammates what he thought.

“When they showed the big-time shot Austin hit, I just brought my team together and told them I thought it was extremely disrespectful,” Marshall said.
 

If Duke wins tonight over North Carolina in Durham, the official preseason ACC predictions would be off-target where it matters most _ the top of the standings.
A win not only give the Blue Devils a regular-season series sweep against the Tar Heels but outright ownership of the regular-season league title.

At next week’s ACC tournament in Atlanta, former Duke standout player Kenny Dennard will inducted into the league’s Legends program, joining Kenny Smith of UNC and Todd Fuller of N.C. State in the 2012 class.

A native of King, N.C., Dennard was an all-state player at South Stokes High and played briefly in the NBA until he was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1983.
Now a 30-year cancer survivor, Dennard is active in raising money for the Coaches vs. Cancer program.

Asked to share his thoughts about the future of the Duke-UNC rivalry, Dennard offered "a few" thoughts.

A couple bits of news came out of Duke's media availability Thursday ahead of Saturday's game against North Carolina:

First, the Blue Devils aren't sure if Josh Hairston will be available for Saturday's game, although the sophomore forward sounds like he's doing better than he was ahead of Tuesday's game against Wake Forest.

“Josh is going to practice today," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said before practice Thursday. "He’s doing a lot better."

For the second time in three years, Duke women's basketball coach Joanne McCallie has been selected the ACC Coach of the Year.

The fifth-year Blue Devils coach has guided Duke to its third straight ACC regular-season title and a 24-4 overall record this season. In the ACC's preseason poll, Duke was picked to finish second after losing three seniors to graduation and the WNBA.