Jon Scheyer shares how much Duke has discussed winning ACC Championship

Duke and North Carolina will clash on Saturday for a storybook season finale inside Cameron Indoor Stadium with the ACC regular season championship on the line.

Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer hasn’t felt as though he’s needed make that a major talking point this week, however. If his guys don’t understand the assignment — they might need to check their pulse.

“We’ve mentioned it, but it’s not the driving force for us,” Scheyer said on Friday. “This season, I think in the beginning of the year as a team, as a program, our players, me — we talk too much about what we want to do big picture instead of focusing on the process, and focusing on every day. Are you getting better every day? Are you being present, and being the player that you can be? The teammate that you can be?

“And we learn that if we do those things, if we prepare the right way, those goals that we want kind of take care of themselves. It’s the same thing with this. We’ve hardly talked about anything external.”

During the first Duke-Carolina matchup on Feb. 3 saw the Tar Heels emerge victorious in Chapel Hill, defeating the Blue Devils 93-84 behind Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram‘s dueling 20-point double-double performances.

Three Blue Devils scored in double figures during the matchup, but it was UNC’s day in the end. Now, Duke will look to even the series at their place on Saturday with a chance to win the ACC. Scheyer says the game speaks for itself.

“I don’t think this game is about motivation,” Scheyer continued. “If you need motivation for this game, you know, under the circumstances, then we have to figure out another place for you to be. Our guys are made for this.”

Both Duke and UNC currently sit on Joe Lunardi’s 2-seed line on his latest bracketology sheet. Based on what happens throughout the rest of the matchups involving top-16 overall seeds on Saturday, the Duke-Carolina outcome could have be the different between a 2 and 3-seed for the victor.

Tip-off between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN. FanDuel Sportsbook lists Duke as a 5.5-point favorite (-225 moneyline) over North Carolina at home. ESPN’s Matchup Predictor gives Duke a 70.1 percent chance of winning the game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, while KenPom predicts a final score of 78-74 in favor of the Blue Devils.