MY PREDICTION: No. 3 North Carolina vs No. 6 Duke

Whenever Duke (20-3, 7-2 ACC) or North Carolina (21-2, 7-2) make the 8-mile trip down Tobacco Road there is always a battle. Just check out their past 10 match-ups:

Their 10 most recent games

March 6, 2008: UNC 76, Duke 68*
Feb. 6, 2008: Duke 89, UNC 78
March 4, 2007: UNC 86, Duke 72
Feb. 7, 2007: UNC 79, Duke 73
March 4, 2006: UNC 83, Duke 76
Feb. 7, 2006: Duke 87, UNC 83
March 6, 2005: UNC 75, Duke 73
Feb. 9, 2005: Duke 71, UNC 70
March 6, 2004: Duke 70, UNC 65
Feb. 5, 2004: Duke 83, UNC 81

Wins: Duke 5, UNC 5

Average victory margin: 6 points

Average score: UNC 77.6, Duke 76.2

Tonight shouldn't be any different.

The winner of this evening's classic will take sole possession of first place in the ACC, would move into position to claim the top seed in next month's ACC tournament and most importantly makes a strong case for a No. 1 seed.

Not like there needed to be any more added drama to the match-up, but Tyler Hansbrough is also trying to beat Duke for the fourth straight time on Coach K court.

With a win tonight, Hansbrough and Danny Green would become the first North Carolina players to beat Coach K four straight times at Duke. Since Mike Krzyzewski took over the Duke program in 1980, only two visitors have gone 4/4: Tim Duncan and Rusty LaRue.

Will 'Psycho T' suffer his first defeat in front of the Cameron Crazies??? You better believe it.

MY PREDICTION:
DUKE - 74
UNC - 70

Why I have Duke winning tonight's game I will explain shortly. But don't worry about the loser in this match-up. In both of the schools' most recent national championships (North Carolina in 1993 and 2005, and Duke in 1992 and 2001), it was the loser of the mid-season meeting who rebounded to make title runs.

People have been saying that Duke is too slow to match-up with speedy North Carolina, but I don't think speed will factor into the outcome like it did when the Blue Devils fell to the Clemson or fell behind to Miami. The ball-handlers will play a huge factor in the tempo of the game and overall, the outcome. If Duke's guards step up and control the ball well (don't turn it over), they'll give UNC a good fight. And whether you agree with me or not, I'll take the Devils offense over the Heels defense.

The Hansbrough-led North Carolina offense is tops in the ACC in scoring (92.3 ppg). But lucky for Duke, the Blue Devils have allowed an ACC-low 61 points a game (though they have allowed an average of 75 in their three losses).

Another big reason why I like Duke is because I like the chance of them carrying over how they played in the second half Saturday against Miami, when Duke rallied down 16 to win in OT. Like I said from the beginning of the season, I like Duke because of the TEAM concept -- something Coach K has been calling "collectiveness".

In order for Duke to "upset" UNC, they need their best from their best: Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Greg Paulus.

Henderson is by far Duke's best player, he has led Duke in scoring eight of the past nine games -- and tonight Henderson will be matched against Wayne Ellington, his former high-school teammate, which should be interesting. Although Singler leads the team in ppg, he was a putrid 1/9 in the first half against Miami and finished 5/23. Singler must be hot from deep as well, he is just 2 for 13 from 3-point range in his last three games. Paulus moved into the starting lineup against Miami and scored a season-high 18 points. If UNC doesn't respect Paulus' three-point ability, he could cause them some trouble (Paulus hit 10 3-pointers in the two games against UNC last season).

Vegas has the Tar Heels as a two point favorite. Accuscore thinks UNC will win 81-78. I have a gut feeling we'll see the underdog win tonight.

Game Time: 9:00pm ET, ESPN