By LUKE DeCOCK, Raleigh News and Observer

He wears No. 3. Of course, he does. He couldn't wear anything else.

No one has worn No. 3 for the Carolina Hurricanes since Steve Chiasson died on his way home from a season-ending party in 1999. The number isn't retired, because of the circumstances of Chiasson's death, but the franchise hasn't let anyone wear it again, either.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Right about the time the crowd was mouthing "O'er the ramparts we watched," before Wednesday's Duke-North Carolina game, 700 miles away Boston College's Jordan Daniels was sinking the free throw that changed what the game would mean entirely.

DURHAM, N.C. - For a team struggling with consistency, Duke certainly didn't have a problem with inconsistency Monday. To a man, coach and players alike, the Blue Devils were remarkably consistent when it came to identifying their biggest problem.

Lost amid all the talk about North Carolina's occasional lack of intensity, with even coach Roy Williams admitting his team doesn't have the kind of "wacko" who can unfailingly fire up his teammates, is the grim reality that the Tar Heels will not often need to summon that kind of fire in the ACC this season.

RALEIGH, N.C. - One winter night a few years ago, during the broadcast of a North Carolina-N.C. State basketball game, TV analyst Billy Packer wondered how many times that season Tyler Hansbrough had made a conventional 3-point play. Statistician John Maddrey, who had just noted that exact figure, handed play-by-play announcer Tim Brant an index card before Packer finished the question.

Mark Gottfried is selling. Selling, selling, selling. He's selling himself. He's selling his program. He's selling an idea. He's selling a product he cannot yet deliver.

The new North Carolina State basketball coach isn't shy about admitting what many Wolfpack fans already know: The program isn't in great shape right now. That's why he's here, and Sidney Lowe is gone.

DURHAM, N.C. - It took only a few iterations of Duke's first drill for Mike Krzyzewski to interrupt practice and offer a correction.

"Meet the pass," the Blue Devils coach interjected. "In all the stuff we're doing today, don't screen and do this."

Krzyzewski leaned back on his heels and extended his hands, passively.

"Come and meet the pass," he continued.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Everett Withers said all the right things, including that he still believes North Carolina can have a good football season despite a coaching change a week before the beginning of preseason practice.

There's a lot depending on Withers now, the defensive coordinator turned interim coach in the wake of Butch Davis' dismissal. It is not an enviable position.

You have to hand it to chancellor Holden Thorp and the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees. They stood behind football coach Butch Davis for months, passing on every opportunity to fire him, then pulled the trigger only days before practice for the new season begins. It's the right move, but at the wrong time.

CARY, N.C. - The burden of stardom did not come easily to Landon Donovan. Look no further than his first attempts to play overseas, in Germany, which weren't a huge success.