Opinion: Duke must make deep ACC Tournament run if it wants to participate in March Madness

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — At least now there can be no confusion about the path Duke must take to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Saturday's 91-73 loss to rival North Carolina ended a rocky regular season for the Blue Devils (11-11, 9-9 ACC), which will play in the first round of the ACC Tournament next week for the first time since 2007. 

Chants of "N-I-T" emanated from the student section at the Dean E. Smith Center during the final minutes of Duke's blowout loss, and while UNC coach Roy Williams waved at the crowd to cut it out, the jeers echoed the harsh reality now facing the Blue Devils.

Starting Tuesday against last-place Boston College, Duke, the No. 10 seed in the ACC Tournament, will need to win five games in five days in Greensboro to avoid missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1995. 

"I think in order to win (the ACC Tournament), you can't look at the tournament as a whole," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "You just have to play your next opponent and win, and then win again."

No program has won the ACC Tournament more times than Duke (21), but the Blue Devils, who have lost three straight to end the regular season, have never had to win five straight games to accomplish that feat. 

"The biggest thing now is to believe in ourselves," said Duke freshman Mark Williams, who scored a team-high 18 points in the loss to UNC. "Everyone is going to be doubting us, but at this point, it's us vs. everyone. It's a new season now."

The 18-point win for UNC was its largest margin of victory over Duke since an 88-70 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 3, 2012. It was the Tar Heels' largest margin of victory against the Blue Devils at the Smith Center since Feb. 5, 1998. 

North Carolina (16-9, 10-6 ACC) jumped out to a 26-6 lead with 9:21 left in the first half behind the 3-point shooting of Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton while the Tar Heels' bigs outmuscled Duke's interior players. 

They led 42-26 at halftime and never let the Blue Devils get within arm's reach during the second half. Duke sophomore Matthew Hurt, the ACC's leading scorer, finished with 14 points but struggled to make an impact, hitting six of his 16 shots. 

"Roy had his team really prepared — it’s their senior night and I didn’t have my team prepared the way they did," Krzyzewski said. "They really knocked us back, their intensity was high – they were excellent and we were not very good – that’s on me.”

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UNC senior Garrison Brooks, voted the ACC preseason player of the year, scored 14 points in his final home game in Chapel Hill after leaving the floor early in the first half with an apparent ankle injury. He hit his first jump shot after returning from the locker room. 

The Tar Heels will play the winner of Notre Dame/Wake Forest on Wednesday.

"We've got a lot, lot left that we would like to do," Williams said.

Full ACC Tournament Schedule

Tuesday, March 9 - First Round

2 p.m. – No. 12 Pitt vs. No. 13 Miami (ACC Network)

4:30 p.m. – No. 10 Duke vs. No. 15 Boston College (ACC Network)

7 p.m. – No. 11 Notre Dame vs. No. 14 Wake Forest (ACC Network)

Wednesday, March 10 - Second Round

Noon – No. 8 Syracuse vs. No. 9 NC State (ACC Network)

2:30 p.m. – No. 5 Clemson vs. Pitt/Miami winner (ACC Network)

6:30 p.m. – No. 7 Louisville vs. Duke/Boston College winner (ACC Network)

9 p.m. – No. 6 North Carolina vs. Notre Dame/Wake Forest winner (ACC Network)

Thursday, March 11 - Quarterfinals

Noon – No. 1 Virginia vs. Wednesday Noon winner (ESPN or ESPN2)

2:30 p.m. – No. 4 Georgia Tech vs. Wednesday 2:30 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)

6:30 p.m. – No. 2 Florida State vs. Wednesday 6:30 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)

9 p.m. – No. 3 Virginia Tech vs. Wednesday 9 p.m. winner (ESPN or ESPN2)

Friday, March 12 - Semifinals

6:30 p.m. – Thursday afternoon winners (ESPN or ESPN2)

9 p.m. – Thursday evening winners (ESPN or ESPN2)

Saturday, March 13 - Championship

8:30 p.m. – Semifinal winners (ESPN)

David Thompson is an award-winning reporter for the USA Today Network covering NC State and Duke athletics. He can be reached at dthompson1@gannett.com, at 828-231-1747, or on Twitter at @daveth89.