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CHAPEL HILL — At the end of a long day and a long season, North Carolina stood alone atop the ACC. And as amazing as it might've sounded at almost any point along the way, the Tar Heels were the best team all along.

Now they come to Greensboro with another surprise in store.

"You know what?" Roy Williams said afterward. "We're going to try to win the freaking thing."

Carolina took apart fourth-ranked Duke 81-67 Saturday, their final day of the regular season and a prelude to what comes next. The schools will arrive in Greensboro this week seeded first and second for the 58th ACC tournament.

That it's Carolina first and not Duke as the top seed might be a testament to one of the best coaching jobs in long time in the ACC. Williams was brilliant Sunday, too.

North Carolina broke down Duke and beat the Blue Devils' individual parts. While the crowd roared and the UNC big men closed off the inside game, Duke had few other options. When their shots stopped falling from outside, Carolina began snaring rebounds and running past the flat-footed Blue Devils.

The runs fed the crowd, and the crowd fed the runs and Duke wilted before the nation's eyes. The first regular-season prime time game ever broadcast by CBS was ultimately a coming-out party for Carolina.

"It was a wonderful day to be a Tar Heel," Williams said.

He pushed all the right buttons, made all the right decisions and did the right thing from the very beginning when he sustained a quaint Carolina tradition and started the seniors for the final home game. Three of the seniors, all walk-ons, had never started a game at Carolina. They walked off the floor with a 2-0 lead, and Williams was smiling.

But not for long.

The game plan was daring, but it was necessary. Carolina decided to let freshmen Kendall Marshall and Harrison Barnes do anything they wanted against Duke's switching man-to-man defense. He wanted them to create space, forcing Duke to extend its defense. Williams then turned his big men loose on the Blue Devils inside, exposing Duke's interior defenders. Miles and Mason Plumlee combined for nine fouls and little else. Ryan Kelly was lost.

"They were really good," Mike Krzyzewski said. "We weren't as good."

Its inside game taken away, Duke had no choice but to fire away from way outside. Duke made 6-of-27 shots from outside the 3-point line. That played right into Williams' strategy.

He let Kyle Singler shoot all he wanted with Barnes covering his every move. Singler, who is in another shooting slump, made three of his 14 shots and none of his five 3-pointers. If that wasn't a concern for Krzyzewski coming into this game, it certainly is now.

Krzyzewski agreed that the game was decided by Williams' decision to attack the rim with his big men, 6-foot-10 John Henson and 7-footer Tyler Zeller.

"They're so big inside," Krzyzewski said. "Those two, that's the best tandem in the country. They're talented and good, and Roy obviously is a pretty good coach."

Williams said he'd sensed that his team was rounding into shape in recent weeks. The further the team got from Larry Drew II's departure, the stronger it seemed to get.

"One of my buddies said I got a lot smarter the last couple of weeks," he said. "I don't know that I got smarter, but my team got a heck of a lot better."

Carolina got a lot better on the final day of the regular season. When it was over, Williams paused and looked back on all that led to this day.

"It's been tough," he said. "You go back to last May when two kids leave, then we dismiss one kid and then some other kid leaves. But the whole program is bigger than any one individual, whether it's the coach or a player. The kids have bought into that. It's been a marvelous, marvelous run. I told them I was still hungry. I want a little bit more, too."

UNC will come to Greensboro as the No. 1 seed for the 21st time and the fifth time in seven years.

But for the first time since he returned to Carolina before the 2003-04 season, Williams is coming to the tournament with the express purpose of winning it.

He said so Saturday, which was a departure from previous trips to the tournament. He said so, grudgingly, at the end of a long sentence, at the end of a long day, at the end of a long regular season.

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