CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Pete Gillen knows. He knows how to beat No. 2 Duke and No. 4 North Carolina, because his Virginia team toppled both in the last two weeks. He knows, and the greedy so-and-so isn't saying.
"We don't have any answers," Gillen insists. "Maybe we did a couple things right."
That's right, you did. And we were watching. And because of that, we've put together a how-to guide on beating the Blue Devils and Tar Heels, a guide that surely -- we repeat: surely -- the coaches and players at both schools will study in the days and hours leading to the Duke-North Carolina clash Sunday at Chapel Hill (3:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
|  | | Pete Gillen isn't giving away any secrets to beating UNC or Duke. |
It is a guide that was altered Tuesday night when Duke center Carlos Boozer suffered a broken bone in his right foot against Maryland, but we soldier on, even if Boozer cannot.
Virginia beat Duke 91-89 on Feb. 14, and 11 days later beat North Carolina 86-66. The first thing we noticed about those games was this: The games were in Charlottesville, Va.
You want to know the Cavaliers' biggest secret to beating big blue? Play 'em at University Hall, where students camped out for many freezing nights to get the best seats in the house. Gillen says the home-court advantage was worth 10 or 12 points in each game. Good information. But useless for our purposes.
North Carolina has the home-court edge Sunday. We already knew that.
So we move on. The next thing we noticed is this: The Cavaliers absolutely shut down both teams' high-scoring guards. Duke's Jason Williams was 5-for-21 from the floor, 2-for-9 on 3-pointers, and scored 14 points -- seven below his average. North Carolina's Joseph Forte actually exceeded his season average by more than six points against Virginia, scoring 28, but he was just 11-for-27 from the floor, and missed 15 of his final 19 shots.
In both cases, Williams and Forte looked exhausted by game's end. The Cavaliers play a frantic pace, throwing out a variety of presses and often fast-breaking after made baskets.
"I think Forte got tired with the pace of the game," Gillen says. "At the beginning of the game he was unbelievable. We tried to keep the ball away from him and couldn't. But he got tired, and a couple shots went in and out."
Aside from the rare, poor game from Williams, Duke showed two weaknesses against Virginia that have cropped up several times this season: rebounding and foul shooting.
The Cavaliers outrebounded Duke 41-25, even though Virginia starts a 6-foot-7 center (Travis Watson) and generally plays with four perimeter players. From the foul line, Duke was just 11-for-19 (57.9 percent) against Virginia, a reminder of its loss to North Carolina, when the Blue Devils were 13-for-27 (48.1 percent) on free throws. Duke also was outrebounded 47-40 in that game. And those games were with Boozer -- their top rebounder (6.5 per game) and No. 2 foul shooter (73 percent).
"When we haven't played well, rebounding and free throws are the common threads," Duke forward Shane Battier said. "We can't keep doing what we're doing and expect to win some of these games."
But maybe, even without Boozer, the Blue Devils can expect to beat North Carolina if they can just shoot 46 percent from the floor. Virginia was the third team to top that mark against the Tar Heels, and all three beat North Carolina -- the first two were Michigan State (46.6 percent) and Kentucky (50.7 percent).
It also would help Duke to take advantage of the slower Tar Heels in transition, as Virginia did. Three days after the loss to Virginia, UNC coach Matt Doherty still was steaming about that.
"The biggest thing for me, and I got mad thinking about it this morning, was we gave up 17 points in transition," Doherty says. "Our transition offense was awful, and I take full responsibility for that. It reminds me of the Kentucky game. But you can fix that. Part of that is taking better shots and getting the ball inside. But we didn't turn the ball over a ridiculous amount. It wasn't their press bothering us. We just didn't get back in transition."
So there you go.
The keys to the game for Duke: score in transition, stop Forte, and hit a mere 47 percent from the floor.
The keys to the game for North Carolina: attack the boards, stop Williams, and hope the Blue Devils struggle from the foul line.
Sound about right, Mr. Gillen?
"I don't have all the answers," he repeats.
No problem. We got the crib notes right here.
Gregg Doyel covers the ACC for The Charlotte Observer and is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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 Virginia head coach Pete Gillen has beaten both Duke and North Carolina this season.
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