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UNC’s motivation goes beyond winning in final week of regular season

For the purposes of its positioning in the upcoming ACC tournament, North Carolina’s next two games – games that appeared so daunting and demanding when the schedule was released last fall – are meaningless.

Win or lose at Virginia on Monday night, and at home against Duke on Saturday, and the Tar Heels will enter the ACC tournament as the No. 1 seed. And so the Tar Heels during the final week of the regular season will need to find motivation beyond the tangible rewards of victory.

One of their motives is easy enough to identify: A win at Virginia, or against Duke, would give the Tar Heels an outright regular-season ACC championship, one they wouldn’t have to share.