Welcome to another podcast by Inside Carolina.com, the independent voice of UNC Sports,

your home for Tar Heel football, basketball, and recruiting.

I'm your host Tommy Ashley, joined by Greg Barnes and mixing it up a little bit for our usual weekly podcast.

Sherell McMillan takes Ross Martin's spot.

Ross is out on the town, I believe, and somewhere in Tennessee, Greg.

But I'll go ahead and start with you Thursday night, 8 o'clock in the Smith Center.

It's Duke, Carolina.

And been a lot of ups and downs from North Carolina over the past couple months.

This game is a big game, not just for rivalry purposes, but it's a huge game for North

Carolina, ACC standing-wise, NCAA, tournament-wise.

Your overall look at that ball game.

Well, I think there's a lot of elements in play, kind of like you mentioned. And for whatever reason, it seems like a lot of people have Duke kind of penciled in as the easy winner in this game.

And having watched Duke throughout the season,

I just don't see why people believe that necessarily.

If this game is at Cameron, I think maybe it would be a little bit different story.

But I think this is a good opportunity for North Carolina to grab a big win. Duke probably will be favored in this game, which is understandable.

But they've had some issues this year, and I think it's a game for North Carolina.

They kind of had the ability to regain some confidence this past

weekend.

I know it was pit, but at least being able to get out there and execute and do some things

you wanted to do, I think that helps get past that three-game losing streak.

They understand that is February.

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