The Tar Heels likely need to win the ACC tournament to earn a bid into the NCAA tournament after middling in a historically weak league with no signature wins.

The 82-69 win was impressive, despite it being against an unranked team. Rivalry games can always go either way, especially this one. However, earning this victory was a very important way to end the regular season and continue to prove the Blue Devils are the top team in the country.

Duke played down a man — or two — for most of February and the first two games of March. For the final regular-season game at UNC, the Blue Devils had all players available.