Jon Scheyer always seems to play well against the Tar Heels. We need another great shooting performance from Jonny on his senior night. (courtesy DukeBluePlanet.com)

Tonight is an opportunity. Duke can break a tie with Maryland for first place in the ACC and potentially grab the number 1 seed in the conference tournament. Jon Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Brian Zoubek can cap off their home careers with a victory. Coach K can move closer to 900 wins. Etc.

There are a million reasons why a win tonight is important for tangible and statistical reasons. But then there’s that creeping feeling, the weird tingle you get under your skin when the pale blue boys come out on Coach K Court. North Carolina has had our number for four years in Cameron. Last year, two of our most hated Tar Heels had their day: Ty Lawson sliced through our defense and Hansbrough completed the career sweep of Duke at Cameron. Regardless of Carolina’s record (16-14, 5-10 ACC, by the way) this game is outside of trends, ignorant of statistics. The bad guys will have swagger tonight, and they deserve to. It’s up to us to beat it out of them and leave them deflated and CBI-bound.

This game is personal for everyone involved. Last night Coach K urged the residents of K-Ville to bring two emotions to the game tonight: anger and fury. I, for one, will have no problem with that. With a few Red Bulls in me tonight, I can’t wait to scream all game, and hopefully burn benches all night.

Let’s do this for the seniors. Let’s win it and send Roy’s Boys back to Chapel Hill to hole up in their apartments. As Coach K said last night, we are all a family—the team, the coaches, the students, the University. Tonight we can remind the nation whose house this is.

Let’s Go Duke.

Enjoy this pre-game pump up video from DBP: