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GREENSBORO — The coliseum is gleaming in the bright lights. The streets have been swept clean. Not a blade of grass is out of place outside the sparkling arena. Everything has been prepared for the one thing we wanted more than anything else.

North Carolina playing Duke in the championship game of the ACC tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum.

Today at 1 p.m., with much of the nation’s sports population watching on television, some 23,381 basketball fans will walk into the coliseum for the best sporting event this state has to offer.

The schools, located eight miles apart, only about 50 miles down the road, will play for the ACC title once again. For the 11th time in the 58-year history of the event, but the first in a decade, Duke and Carolina will play for the championship.

This is a game that means a lot to both schools and the fans of the schools and the conference.

“The thing that makes this game is it’s for the ACC championship,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

There will be new and old faces today, freshmen playing in their first ACC final and seniors who look to this game as a career achievement. North Carolina freshman Harrison Barnes scored 40 points Saturday to lead top-seeded UNC to a 92-87 overtime win over Clem-son in one of the semifinal games. Duke senior Nolan Smith scored 27 to lead the second-seeded Blue Devils to a 77-63 win over Virginia Tech in the other semifinal game.

The coliseum was packed, and there were almost no tickets available outside the coliseum before the games began. One week after the ACC women’s tournament ended, also with a Duke-Carolina championship, the arena will be packed again today.

Later this week, the NCAA tournament will begin. Duke and North Carolina will leave here with another trophy to play for. But today, they will play for the championship of a league that began right here in Greensboro in 1953.

In the 58 tournaments that have been played, more in the Greensboro Coliseum than any other venue, either Duke or North Carolina has played in the championship game 30 times. Duke has won 18 ACC titles. UNC has won 17.

But the two schools have not played each other in the championship game since 2001, and the two have not met here in a title game since 1998. Krzyzewski said he wasn’t interested in the games of the past. Roy Williams, the Carolina coach, said he didn’t care who he played.

Their players disagreed.

“We’re looking forward to this," UNC sophomore John Henson said.

“This is what it’s all about,” Duke sophomore Seth Curry said.

This will be the last game of the ACC season. Everything has led to this. Today is the start of another season that will lead to a national college basketball championship that will be played in Houston on April 4.

First comes the ACC championship, though, and today, all roads lead here.

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