The Tar Heels missed a chance to improve their NCAA Tournament resume with a loss to rival Duke in the regular-season finale. Now, they will need a deep run in the conference tournament to merit consideration. But it will be difficult to create separation from a late-blooming Notre Dame club that lost the lone season meeting 74-73 on a late 4-point play. The Irish's grinding style lends itself to close games, giving more value to the double-digit spread.

Notre Dame is riding some lightning, beating Cal in a loop-record 4 OTs on Saturday before knocking Pitt out oft he festivities in Charlotte in the final second Tuesday on a Tai Davis FT with 0.5 seconds to play! The Irish also beat Stanford by 2 preceding the Cal win, so Micah Shrewsberry is flying by the seat of his pants these days. But ND has been undeniably scrappy, partly because of mercurial soph G Markus Burton, on a recent scoring tear that included scoring 30 on Clemson and 43 on the Golden Bears in that 4-OT marathon. Note bubble-riding UNC was all-out for a 1-point win at South Bend on January 4. Play ND (ACC at Charlotte).