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GREENSBORO — North Carolina and Duke survived another day under the same roof Thursday, rewriting records and going off in search of more Dove bars.

Carolina demolished Radford 101-58 in the afternoon, and Duke dominated Binghamton 86-62 in the late hours of the first day of the NCAA tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum. Along the way, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina replaced J.J. Redick of Duke as the ACC's all-time leading scorer and tied Johnny Dawkins of Duke for career double-figure games or something.

In the building where Rick Barnes once challenged Dean Smith to a fistfight, the Carolina-Duke thing settled in for another calm weekend with not a hint of controversy in the air and no more sacred records to sacrifice.

North Carolina's game against Radford ended three seconds in when Wayne Ellington took the opening tip from Roy Williams and gave UNC the only margin it needed. Duke's game against Binghamton was over not long after the crowd greeted the Blue Devils with the usual mix of respect and venom.

The usual crowd shuffled in after long ordeals outside the coliseum. Traffic was wrapped around the building two-wide before the first session, and a storm blew away the traffic cones before the second session, rendering well-planned patterns useless and scrambling 20,000 basketball fans rolling in from the bars and barbecue houses along High Point Road.

Those who arrived late missed Carolina's best opening minute of the entire season. The Heels (29-4) scored six points before Radford even set up a defense, the first two on a play drawn up just before the game.

"I have to give Coach Williams credit for that one," Ellington said laughing. "He sent me right there and set me up for the layup."

It was 2-0, and Radford needed a timeout, but Brad Greenberg, brother of Seth, saved them for the end. He even took a few home with him.

The game was played against a Carolina-blue backdrop that was replaced by a dark-blue background for the night session on a day when few upsets marred the peaceful transfer of power in the NCAA tournament. The mid-majors fell steadily all day long, and the lower seeds gave way to the favored. For the most part. Gary Williams took down California, and Clemson was put out of its misery by Michigan.

LSU, the eighth seed, beat Butler, the ninth seed, and the Butler coach complained about the seeding. You never know what a coach will say in the first round of the NCAA tournament. By now, most coaches are crazy.

A day earlier, Mike Krzyzewski had talked to several coaches in Greensboro, many of whom wanted to hear about the Carolina-Duke thing, and he deflected it and told them they would absolutely love the city and most everything about it.

"I told some of the coaches who are obviously not from our area they'll be knocked over with how well they're treated here," he said, "and how much the people appreciate basketball. So to have two of the storied programs from our conference playing under the same roof is a great thing."

That hasn't always been the case. In Charlotte a few years back, the Carolina fans made the Duke experience unpleasant, just as the rest of the entire conference did last week when the Blue Devils were greeted in Atlanta with shockingly loud boos. Duke's entrance Thursday night was equally loud, but the lusty boos were balanced by thousands of Blue Devils in the house.

Krzyzewski has come to terms with Duke's image in recent years, and the past few weeks have been about reclaiming what he calls the program's "culture." From the time he arrived in 1981 to this week in Greensboro, that culture has had an uneasy shadow eight miles long. Krzyzewski and Williams have spent a lot of time in recent weeks praising each other, though. They both seem to have come to terms with the uneasy shadow.

Neither coach will have it easy Saturday against two of the remaining football schools. And after today, neither coach will be thinking about the other or looking back smiling.

"As an assistant, I was walking around smiling," Williams said this week of his early days at UNC. "I didn't have any pressure. Coach Smith was there. I was just like, 'Where are the Dove bars?' "

In the NCAA tournament, the ice cream is served on the first day, when most of the football schools go home and the top seeds get their just desserts.

The fans who packed the coliseum Thursday wanted to feel the Duke-Carolina thing in all its local shading, but the programs were about eight hours apart, and not a hint of controversy hung in the air.

"I love North Carolina — the state," Krzyzewski said a day earlier. "I respect North Carolina — the team."

There were no fighting words leading into the first day of the tournament. North Carolina -- the team -- blew away Radford, and Duke — the team eight miles away — dominated Binghamton under the same roof.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com