If you grew up locally in the triangle region,"the rivalry" was always known as Duke and Carolina.  Regardless of your geographic location or whether you see it as Duke-North Carolina or Duke -UNC, you realize this is a rivalry steeped in tradition.

When the teams take to the floor in the Dean Dome tonight, it will be as spirited match up as ever.  This game has always been one that garners extra and special attention and deservedly so.

Before Mike Krzyzewski took over at Duke, UNC dominated the series under Dean Smith for several years.  In time, Kryzewski built Duke into a power house and the rivalry became something people would talk about all year round. Quite simply, the programs aspired to be among the elite and each made the other better.

Duke is coming off a national title.  They've done this before under Krzyzewski, only to see North Carolina win it the following year.  In short, there are ebbs and flows to the results.  Duke has had their way of late, but many feel the worm will turn this year and rightfully so.

North Carolina is the most experienced and deepest team in the country, not just the ACC.  While that could be argued, they are one of three schools most felt had the best chance of winning it all coming into the season.

The Tar Heels will provide Duke with their staunchest test of the season to date tonight and they are the clear favorite.  What Duke lacks in experience, the Tar Heels have in droves.  They are an older team with more overall talent than the Blue Devils this season.

North Carolina has had this game circled on their calendar for a long time.  The game could actually mean a tad more to them in that Duke won the national championship a year ago.  Their players have been a part of some losses to Duke and they will not hesitate in running the score up if blood enters the water.

To put the daunting task into perspective for Duke, three played  minutes against the Tar Heels last year in Matt Jones, Marshall Plumlee and Grayson Allen.  And none of the three played significant minutes.

North Carolina has a sensational talent in Brice Johnson and a tried and true leader Paige, but you can in no way concentrate on just those players.  Johnson has shown he can go off in freak show fashion and even Kennedy Meeks has had solid success in the past for Duke.

UNC has loads of depth in the paint and wings and that depth and possible foul trouble for Duke has to be a major concern going into the game.  Other intangibles come to mind as well, including Duke not getting too pumped up, too soon and then run out of gas.

From the Duke perspective, look for Brandon Ingram to be turned loose.  The freshman has become a go to leader on the court with his play bit he has never faced a team with players as long as he is with concern to reach.

And this will also pretty much be the first time, Duke star Grayson Allen will play significant minutes against the Blue Devils arch rival. The sophomore will draw plenty of attention and that means Duke will depend on Luke Kennard to break out of a one game scoring slump.

In short, with just six players playing minutes, Duke needs to click on all cylinders.  It will be interesting to watch how true freshman like Derryck Thornton responds in this ga,me and did I mention foul trouble being a major issue?  Trust me, the goal for the Tar Heels to come in waves at Duke tonight.

You may have guessed by now that I see this game as a difficult match up for Duke.  But even if Duke drops this contest, just playing well ans continuing to improve will be a positive.

Duke must also save enough in the tank with concern to emotion for a difficult road trip to Louisville this weekend.  Duke will be the  underdog this week after re-entering the top 25 in both of their games.

What Duke can use this week for is a measuring stick.  The two contests at hand will tell us a lot about the team.  At the same time, don't make too much out of a loss tonight.  And Duke will show up.  We'll just have to wait and see how they handle their toughest challenge to date.

Hit your threes and get to the free throw stripe and see what happens.