Mike DeCourcy

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - There is no mystery as to the identity of North Carolina's point guard. He is the young man wearing the hooded sweatshirt, the white shades with "Soulja Roy" written across the lenses and the confident smile that says he is a little more than 30 hours from another huge college basketball game.

Ty Lawson is ready to go.

It's a little different down the road at Duke. As the Blue Devils enter their most important regular season game to date, coach Mike Krzyzewski will start senior Greg Paulus at the point for the second game in a row but only the third time all season.

"I guess they felt like they needed to change things up," North Carolina guard Wayne Ellington said. "I don't know if it has anything to do with us."

The adjustment at Duke has nothing to do with the Tar Heels because it was made to address circumstances among the Blue Devils. It has everything to do with them because it occurred so close to the renewal of their fierce rivalry tonight at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Replacing sophomore Nolan Smith with Paulus is the sort of maneuver Krzyzewski hasn't had to consider often. With Duke and the U.S. national team, his lineups typically have been loaded enough to require few significant overhauls.

He encountered some controversy for starting Jason Kidd at point guard in the 2008 Olympics, but only because the team's wealth of options provided material for empty talk-show debates.

Krzyzewski tinkered with the lineup of his 2001 NCAA championship team, but only because of an injury to center Carlos Boozer. When Boozer got hurt, Krzyzewski started 6-11 Casey Sanders and moved senior wing Nate James to a sixth-man role and Chris Duhon into the lineup at point guard. All this freed Jay Williams to focus on scoring and account for offensive production lost while Boozer was out.

This is different. This is by choice. And Krzyzewski made the move with the Blue Devils ranked in the top five of the polls, standing tied for first in the ACC and owning a 19-3 record.

In Paulus' return to the lineup, Saturday against Miami, Krzyzewski's decision appeared to be inspired. Paulus scored 18 points and grabbed five rebounds. His hustle was worth, conservatively, an extra half-dozen possessions to the Blue Devils in terms of loose balls collected, rebounds tapped to teammates or disruptions to the Miami attack. Every play counted in that game because Duke needed overtime to win — and scrambled from a double-digit deficit to force the extra period.

It might have seemed to be an easy decision to again start Paulus against North Carolina. But this is different. Paulus never was going to guard Hurricanes star Jack McClinton, the source of most offense for the "U." Paulus dealt primarily with Lance Hurdle, a fine athlete but not an overwhelmingly versatile or creative player.

Facing Lawson will be a much greater challenge. Lawson is shooting 54.5 percent, averaging 15.3 points and 6.6 assists. He ranks among the fastest guards in Division I and will be trying to drive the ball to the lane the way DeAngelo Williams tries to get it to the end zone.

"That's what coach wants us to do, get it in the lane or spread it out and drive it," Lawson said. "We less run plays against them and more freelance. They really don't move their feet too well."

That's the old Duke he remembers. Duke replaced Paulus at the start of this season to enhance the efficacy of its defense, and that never stopped working. Opponents average 61 points and 17.3 turnovers. The offense struggled, though. Krzyzewski joked Monday the Devils' identity on offense had become, "How many shots can we miss and still win?"

Paulus is like a walking can of Red Bull. His energy jolted the Devils from a first-half coma in the Miami game. This game will test him, though, like he hasn't been tested in nearly a year. He will get quite a welcome, one way or the other.

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