CHAPEL HILL - Before Thursday's practice, North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams gathered his players at mid-court and reminded them where the Duke game ranks.

"This is just a basketball game,'' he said he told the Tar Heels. "It's a big game, it's a game that's going to get a lot of attention, but it's still a game."

He and his team had recently learned of the killing of student body president Eve Marie Carson, who was shot early Wednesday and officially identified only hours before UNC's practice.

Williams said her death made an impact -- and that Duke has agreed to observe a moment of silence before today's game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. In addition, UNC players and coaches plan to wear something to honor her memory.

"It has an effect; we have a couple of the guys who knew the young lady,'' Williams said, declining to identify the players. "Any time you're talking about a college community, you're talking about a small group, a small family, a small village ... and when somebody breaks into your home -- and some of you may have had that happen -- you feel sort of violated, that sort of thing. And when something like that happens on your community, it does hit you."

Williams said the headlines in Friday's edition of the school paper, The Daily Tar Heel, particularly touched him.

"It said she loves the quad in the spring and the arboretum in the fall and I love Roy all the time. I mean, you're talking about a young person,'' he said. "And we as old people, we're supposed to die before our children, not have our children die before us.

"And I can't imagine what that young lady's family is feeling and thinking."

Once the moment of silence is observed and the game starts, Williams said the team will be doing everything it can to win.

"But," he said, "there's no question you think about, 'Are there more important things?' "

NEW POLICY FOR HENDERSON: Duke guard Gerald Henderson injured his right wrist the last time Duke played and beat North Carolina on Feb. 6.

Since then, he has been wearing a brace on his shooting wrist and the Blue Devils have instituted a new policy: no grabbing Henderson by his right hand to pull him back up off the floor when he falls or gets knocked down.

"Yeah, I'll give them my forearm or my left hand or something," he said. "Yeah, it hurts when they pull on it."

SOUVENIR EDITION: Besides entrance to the game, fans with Duke-UNC tickets will receive complimentary game programs honoring Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who earned his 800th career victory as a college coach a week ago against N.C. State.

Also, anyone interested in getting his or her mug on national television can attend one of the live time slots of the ESPN Gameday broadcast. The first live spot is from 11 a.m. to noon in Cameron Indoor Stadium; the second live spot will be run 8-9 p.m. in Krzyzewskiville outside.

READY FOR THE CHALLENGE: Duke forward Kyle Singler will have to contend with UNC forward Tyler Hansbrough, recently chosen the Sports Illustrated national player of the year.

"It's not going to be myself and Tyler," Singler said. "It's going to be team 'D' like it was at Carolina."

Hansbrough has averaged 22.2 points and 11.4 rebounds in five career meetings against Duke.

The Blue Devils, who beat UNC in Chapel Hill on Feb. 6, will do what they've done all season against teams with a bigger frontcourt: The guards with help inside, everyone will crash the boards and they'll try to replace power with hustle.

"It'll be five guys, but that's not where the game will be decided," Duke guard DeMarcus Nelson said. "It's about winning the rebounding battle, getting stops and winning the transition battle. Obviously, they're bigger than us inside. We've faced teams like that and found ways to win."

Eve Carson