DURHAM ― Ahead of the 2023-24 season, the conversations surrounding Duke basketball centered around Phoenix and getting to the Final Four of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Over the last five months, second-year coach Jon Scheyer has tried to shift the focus of the Blue Devils. Instead of focusing on the full puzzle, Scheyer wanted his players to hone in on the pieces.

“I think in the beginning of the year – as a team, as a program, our players and me – we talked too much about what we wanted to do big picture, instead of focusing on the process,” Scheyer said Thursday.

Now, the "big picture" is starting to reveal itself for No. 9 Duke (24-6, 15-4), which heads into the regular-season finale against No. 7 UNC (24-6, 16-4) with a chance to earn a share of the ACC regular-season championship.

The Blue Devils have mentioned the stakes, Scheyer said, “but it’s not the driving force." He wants his team to remain present amid the day-to-day process.

“We learned if we do those things, if we prepare the right way, those goals that we want kind of take care of themselves,” he said.  “It’s the same thing with this. We’ve hardly talked about anything external, not just for this game (against UNC), but really the last couple weeks.”

Duke hasn’t beaten a top-10 opponent at Cameron Indoor Stadium since beating No. 7 Virginia in 2021. That was also the last time the Blue Devils welcomed a top-10 opponent to Durham.

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Going back to the 2020-21 season, the Blue Devils are 4-5 against top-10 opponents. This season, Duke topped No. 10 Baylor in New York City before losing at No. 3 UNC in Chapel Hill.

Adding another level of intrigue to Saturday’s matchup against the Tar Heels, Steve Kirschner – UNC’s senior associate athletics director for media relations – noted UNC is 8-0 in the last 20 years when facing Duke in the regular-season finale with an ACC title on the line.

There’s plenty of motivation for Duke to even the score with UNC and add a top-10 victory to its resume as March Madness approaches, but Scheyer isn’t worried about that aspect with his group.

“If you need motivation for this game, under the circumstances, we have to figure out another place for you to be,” he said.

“Our guys are made for this, no question.”

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com or @RoddBaxley on X/Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Duke basketball's focus on process reveals big picture for Blue Devils