Duke-North Carolina might be a trilogy for the second straight season.
After former Duke assistant coach Jai Lucas led Miami to a road win over SMU last night, the Hurricanes are locked into the 3-seed in the ACC Tournament with Virginia as the 2-seed. That means North Carolina will be the 4-seed, potentially setting up a third matchup between the Blue Devils and Tar Heels during Friday's ACC Tournament semifinals, assuming both teams win their quarterfinal matchups.
Duke captured the 1-seed in the ACC Tournament with last Saturday's win over Virginia, then snagged the outright regular season conference championship by blowing out NC State on the road on Monday night.
Duke's attention is now squarely on avenging the road loss to North Carolina last month, with the Tar Heels coming to Cameron Indoor on Saturday night.
But just like last year, Jon Scheyer's Blue Devils might have to turn around and beat the Tar Heels again next week.
Miami's win over SMU sets up a 3rd Duke-UNC matchup in the ACC Tournament
A year ago, Duke swept the three meetings against North Carolina. They beat Carolina in Durham, Chapel Hill, and then in Charlotte during the ACC Tournament. The best they can hope for this year is two out of three after dropping the game in Chapel Hill.
But beating a team twice in a span of six days is difficult. Duke did it a year ago, but this is a much-improved North Carolina team than the bubble squad of a year ago, especially if freshman star Caleb Wilson is healthy and able to play in the ACC Tournament.
But the opportunity to beat North Carolina twice in one week is certainly intriguing, and not something this Duke squad would pass up if given the opportunity.
First and foremost, they need to take care of business this weekend to make right on their only ACC loss of the season.