By Aaron Beard
Associated Press
DURHAM ó Bobby Frasor remembers all the fuss when North Carolina went from being favored to win the national championship to occupying the bottom of the ACC standings in the span of a week.
That seems like a lot longer than just a month ago.
After losing their first two league games, the third-ranked Tar Heels are now alone atop the ACC standings after a 101-87 win at No. 6 Duke on Wednesday night. It’s right where everybody expected them to be, yet no one expected the preseason No. 1 team to take the long way there.
“I don’t know that there’s that much of a difference,” Frasor said of how the Tar Heels are playing now. “Yeah, we’ve been playing better. Defensively, we’re a little better. But it wasn’t the end of the world when we were 0-2 like everybody was making it seem.
“Even if we lost this game, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. There’s still a lot of games left, and anything can happen in the ACC.”
North Carolina (22-2, 8-2 ACC) has won eight straight since a loss at Wake Forest that followed a stunning home setback to Boston College.
In the current streak, seven victories have come by double-digit margins ó including a 24-point home win against then-No. 10 Clemson to keep the Tigers winless all-time in Chapel Hill ó while the exception was an 80-77 win at Florida State in which Ty Lawson hit a running 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Yet those performances don’t hold the same luster as Wednesday’s victory.
After all, this one came against the hated Blue Devils in Cameron Indoor Stadium on the court that bears Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski’s name.
Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, Duke and now Connecticut have grabbed headlines as the nation’s top-ranked team since North Carolina’s string of losses.
The efficient and composed performance Wednesday reminded everyone why these Tar Heels are no afterthought even after losing three key players to injuries or suspension since the start of the season.
“There’s no laying in the weeds here,” said Danny Green, who joined fellow senior Tyler Hansbrough as the first Tar Heels to play in four wins at Cameron during the Krzyzewski era. “There’s always a target on our chest every time we play somebody. It’s their best shot, and we’re expecting their best shot, so every time we step on the floor we’ve got to give it our best shot and work as hard as we possibly can and execute the way we’re supposed to.”
After allowing Duke to take a 52-44 halftime lead, North Carolina answered with a dominating second half in which it led by as many as 17 points. The Tar Heels shot 59 percent after halftime, outscored Duke 57-35 and held the Blue Devils to 36-percent shooting.
Lawson led the way with 21 of his 25 points coming in the second half, and four others finished in double figures. Even Frasor, who has struggled with his shot all year, had three 3-pointers off the bench. Freshman big man Ed Davis added eight points.
North Carolina was the first team to score 100 points against the Blue Devils since 2000, when Duke won 109-100 in overtime against Virginia.
It was also the first time any team had scored 100 points in regulation at Cameron since North Carolina did it 26 years ago.
“I thought overall we played well, but we’re not as good as they are right now,” Krzyzewski said. “They’re better than us, and sometimes a team that’s better doesn’t play as well, but they played that way, too. It’s going to be difficult to beat them.”
One of the biggest questions surrounding UNC is its depth, which was unrivaled in the preseason given that the Tar Heels returned their top six scorers from a Final Four team and added a touted recruiting class. The Tar Heels have taken a hit with the losses of senior Marcus Ginyard (medical redshirt), freshman 7-footer Tyler Zeller (broken wrist) and junior reserve Will Graves (suspension).
Zeller was expected to miss the rest of the season after being hurt against Kentucky in UNC’s second game, but he has since returned to limited practice. It’s unclear whether he will redshirt.
Short-handed or not ó the Tar Heels are looking just fine.
“We didn’t panic when we went 0-2,” junior Wayne Ellington said. “We felt like it was a long, long season left. We knew that we were going to get a chance to make up for it. We just had to take care of our own business.”