Duke vs North Carolina: Five things to watch

With the ACC basketball schedule quickly winding down, it’s time to get the main event started on Tobacco Road. Duke and North Carolina will meet for the first time this season in Chapel Hill on Wednesday, and both teams are playing their best basketball of the season. Here are five things to watch for once the ball tips:

1. Does UNC adjust its regular starting lineup?

The Tar Heels normally go with center Kennedy Meeks and power forward Brice Johnson on the floor in the frontcourt, along wing Justin Jackson and guards Joel Berry and Marcus Paige. But Duke’s four-guard lineup isn’t an ideal matchup for UNC’s regular starting unit. Tar Heels coach Roy Williams would prefer to force his opponent into adjusting to UNC’s lineup and not the other way around. But with Duke having just Marshall Plumlee as a viable post option, the Blue Devils will stick with what they’ve got. And that leads to the next question….

2. Who guards Brandon Ingram?

Ingram is the reason that the Blue Devils are a tough matchup for any team. He is a 6-foot-9 guard with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and he plays the “power forward” position in Duke’s perimeter-oriented lineup. UNC’s Jackson, at 6-foot-8 with a similarly slim build, makes the most sense on paper to man up with Ingram. But Johnson wouldn’t guard any of Duke’s smaller, quicker guards, and Meeks could only mark Plumlee. Williams could put Johnson on Ingram and hope the forward could stay with Ingram along the perimeter.

Ingram presents this matchup dilemma to every ACC team. In Saturday’s 63-62 win over Virginia, the Cavaliers opted to go with a four-guard lineup in the second half to better match up with Ingram. But that decision had unintended consequences for Virginia…

3. Can Duke keep up on the glass?

In the first half against the Cavaliers, the Blue Devils were beaten soundly on the glass, grabbing just one offensive rebound (against 12 defensive rebounds for Virginia) and nine defensive rebounds (while the Cavaliers had four offensive rebounds for six second-chance points). Ingram, who Krzyzewski called Duke’s best defensive rebounder, had zero first-half rebounds. But Ingram single-handedly brought Duke back from an 11-point deficit, scoring the Blue Devils last eight points of the half. Operating from the left wing beyond the 3-point line, Ingram drained two 3s and took off through the lane for a vicious slam.

In the second half, Virginia head coach Tony Bennett moved guard Malcolm Brogdon over on Ingram and played with four guards. That helped the Blue Devils grab nine second-half offensive rebounds (to nine defensive rebounds for the Cavaliers) and 15 defensive rebounds (to just one offensive rebound for Virginia).

The Tar Heels are the best offensive rebounding team in the ACC – and they do normally have the benefit of two true post players on the floor. Matchups for Wednesday might necessitate a change, or maybe there won’t be as many available offensive rebounds because…

4. Has UNC’s offense rediscovered its mojo?

The Tar Heels shot a season-high 59.3 percent in their 85-64 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday with with 26 assists on 32 made shots from the field. To borrow a favorite term of Mike Krzyzewski’s, it was beautiful basketball. And it was also a marked departure from about two weeks of blah basketball from UNC, with second-half collapses in losses to Louisville and Notre Dame and a tense 68-65 win at lowly Boston College.

Sunday was arguably the Tar Heels’ finest offensive performance since an 83-68 win over Wake Forest on Jan. 20. Around that time, there was debate about UNC being the best team in the country. If the Tar Heels can continue Wednesday against Duke where they left off Sunday against Pitt, that discussion will begin again.

And, finally, it wouldn’t be a proper discussion of Duke basketball without asking this question…

5. Do the Tar Heels use depth to wear Duke down?

There has been much talk of Duke’s lack of depth, as the Blue Devils have run with a six-man rotation since forward Amile Jefferson broke his foot on Dec. 12. UNC has eight players who average at least 16 minutes a game, and a ninth, center Joel James, who averages 9.8 minutes per contest. The Tar Heels also play at the ACC’s fastest pace, averaging 72.1 possessions per ACC game, so watch for the Tar Heels to try and run the Blue Devils until their tired legs can’t keep up.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Duke vs North Carolina: Five things to watch."