Duke or North Carolina for the ACC Tournament crown? ESPN experts give their picks

Duke and North Carolina are barreling toward a regular-season finale that will decide the ACC championship. The Blue Devils (23-6, 14-4 ACC) host the Tar Heels (23-6, 13-5) in a revenge spot on the final day of the ACC’s regular season.

If North Carolina wins and sweeps the season series, the Tar Heels will secure their first outright ACC regular-season title since the 2016-17 season. Hubert Davis’s group beat Duke by nine points in the first meeting, and the second chapter figures to provide an explosive end to the regular season.

The ACC Tournament, with several bubblicious teams hoping not to burst, could provide the same kind of drama. Duke won it last year. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech surprised with runs in the two previous seasons. Carolina hasn’t won the conference tourney since the 2015-16 season.

In a roundtable piece predicting the winner of every Division I conference tournament

on Monday, ESPN’s Jeff Borzello, John Gasaway, and Myron Medcalf all picked Duke to make it back-to-back. Borzello wrote the following as justification for the pick:

The Blue Devils has woken up since losing in Chapel Hill on Feb. 3, winning seven of eight. (The lone loss came in the infamous court-storm game at Wake Forest.) They’ve bought in on the defensive end, holding six of those eight opponents to fewer than one point per possession — and they’re really starting to shoot the ball effectively, making double-digit 3s in four of the past five games.

In his dissenting opinion, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi picked Carolina to win the conference tournament behind the strength of its dynamic duo:

One year after the colossal disappointment of missing the NCAA tournament as the preseason No. 1 team, the Tar Heels are back with a vengeance. The inside-outside duo of RJ Davis and Armando Bacot is as good as any in the country, and let’s not forget their Final Four experience just two years ago. The best is yet to come for North Carolina.

Notably, Georgia Tech has beaten both North Carolina and Duke this season. Virginia, Pitt (which has a four-point win at Duke), and Syracuse all have work to do if they want to secure a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Wake Forest beat Duke at home on Feb. 24, prompting many to stump for the Demon Deacons as a tournament team

, but back-to-back losses to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech have pushed Wake right back out into murkier waters.

A strong showing at the ACC Tournament would make a strong case to the selection committee.

This year’s tournament runs March 12-16 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.