DURHAM - Gerald Henderson won't just be walking into the lion's den when his No. 2 Duke Blue Devils meet the No. 3 North Carolina Tar Heels at the Smith Center tonight at 9. He'll be sticking his head into the lion's wide-open mouth.

The Duke sophomore guard said he has moved on in the 11 months since 21,750 Tar Heels basketball fans and millions watching on television saw him break North Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough's nose trying to block a shot at the end of UNC's 86-72 victory.

"There's a lot more going on in my life now that I have to worry about," Henderson said.

Lately, he's been concentrating on helping Duke (19-1, 7-0 ACC) with his scoring and rebounding abilities. This week, he's worrying about building a two-game lead in the ACC with a victory.

Still, Henderson has known since March 4 that the Tar Heels crowd will have something to say when he walks on the court.

He said he believes Hansbrough, a candidate for national player of the year, also has moved on. Henderson's just not so sure Tar Heels fans have.

Tonight, he'll find out.

"It'll be crazy," North Carolina guard Marcus Ginyard said. "The crowd is not going to be happy. We'll have to ignore it. It'll be easy to feed off that knowing they'll be so into it."

As soon as Hansbrough went down with a bloodied nose with 14.5 seconds left in the game, Henderson said he was thinking, "Oh, man, this is going to be bad."

Hansbrough had missed a free throw, grabbed his own rebound and was going up strong for the shot when Henderson went up to block it. Duke forward Steve Johnson fouled Hansbrough from behind instead. As Hansbrough was falling back, Henderson was coming down and he struck Hansbrough's nose with his forearm.

The Smith Center crowd watched Hansbrough fall hard as blood gushed from his nose. Hansbrough said the crowd didn't see the half of it.

"I couldn't believe it," Hansbrough said. "It kept on coming. When they tried to get it stopped, it went down my throat and ... it was clogging up my lungs."

Henderson, bothered at the time because Duke was about to lose by 14, said he didn't strike Hansbrough intentionally.

"Physically, I wish it hadn't happened the way it did," Henderson said. "I wish I would have blocked the shot and ended the game. Mentally, I don't wish I had done anything different because my intent was to block the shot and get the game over with. ... What made it bad was the game had already been decided."

ACC officials called it a "flagrant, combative foul." Henderson was tossed from the game and served an automatic one-game suspension during Duke's ACC Tournament loss to N.C. State.

An hour after being escorted from the court, Henderson was on the bus back to Durham when best buddy and high school teammate Wayne Ellington, a Tar Heels player, called to see how Henderson was doing.

Henderson knew then he wanted to call Hansbrough to tell him the foul wasn't intentional. He consulted his father, Gerald Sr., a former NBA veteran of 13 seasons, about how to handle it.

"I thought it would be a good idea to call Tyler, but I got to doing it because of my dad," he said. "Not just to let [Hansbrough] know I didn't do it on purpose but to let him know I genuinely cared about the situation."

Ellington did his part. He talked to Hansbrough and passed along Hansbrough's cell number to Henderson. Three days after the incident, on the night before the ACC Tournament, Henderson called to apologize.

The two players had played against each other in AAU tournaments but didn't really know each other before that call. When Henderson apologized, Hansbrough was "pretty cool about it" and told Henderson he knew he wasn't trying to hurt him.

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