Observations

The way North Carolina's season is going, it was no surprise when the Tar Heels had a new injury for the regular-season finale.

Freshman guad Leslie McDonald was in street clothes Saturday night because of a hamstring injury. He became the ninth Tar Heels player to miss at least one game with an injury.

McDonald, who is averaging 3.6 points and 1.5 rebounds, scored a season-high 16 points on Feb. 27 at Wake Forest.

Duke was ahead 35-19 with 6 minutes, 3 seconds remaining in the first half when coach Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout and screamed at big guys Miles and Mason Plumlee.

North Carolina had scored on three consecutive possessions. Miles had failed to help contest a layup by a driving Dexter Strickland, then was outfought by Deon Thompson for a putback.

The player Mason was guarding, Tyler Zeller, had beaten him down the floor for a dunk. There's nothing Krzyzewski despises more than lack of execution on defense, and it showed in what might have been the most heated timeout of the season.

Perhaps it shouldn't have been a surprise to see ESPN's Erin Andrews wearing a blue blouse that matched Duke's team colors on Saturday night.

After all, on Wednesday night off-duty ESPN anchor and Maryland graduate Scott Van Pelt unabashedly wore a mustard-colored shirt to the game against Duke at Comcast Center in honor of the Terrapins' "gold rush".

But Andrews actually was working the game. Wearing the colors of the home team gives the appearance of favoritism even though she certainly couldn't have meant it that way.

Notable spectators at the game included Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart and former Duke great Christian Laettner.