Tobacco Tonight

I just had kind of mini-epiphany that made me happy. I pulled up ESPN.com's college basketball page to see if Joe Lunardi had put any more than 3 Big XII teams in the dance this week (actually, he had 5, giving ISU the final nod), when I realized I had been completely oblivious to the fact that Duke/UNC is on tonight (8 p.m. CST, ESPN).

One of my favorite small pleasures in life is realizing during the late afternoon that there's a more-than-watchable sporting event on TV that night. Occasionally it'll be a Thursday night college football game, maybe a Nebraska baseball game on TV, Monday Night Football, whatever. While I'm not a person you really have to sell on watching regular season college hoops (I did watch the entire Xavier/GW game last weekend), especially after the football season is over, this is a regular season matchup I have absolutely no problem watching from beginning to end twice a year. It's appointment television.

Things to watch for tonight:

-Apparently if you become an internet hero for unknowingly being duped by a stoner from Maryland while supporting J.J. Redick, he'll drink with you.

-I'm not as much of a J.J. hater as many non-Duke fans are, but I'm a little sick of the Redick/Adam Morrison debates. Shelden Williams will be the most dominant player on the floor tonight. A couple weeks ago he made Craig Smith look like a little girl by swatting everything that left Smith's hands, including passes to the officials right after timeouts. If you count defense, which the game of basketball does, you've got to give Williams more love than he's receiving.

-Will Tyler Hansbrough step up the intensity in his first exposure to this game, or will he stick with the "I don't hate Duke, but when I play them, I won't be nice"?

-Will the ACC refs call a solid game but be less trigger-happy with the Ts now that the ACC has established that referee suspensions are now fair game? (By the way, bravo, ACC)