By R.L. Bynum

WASHINGTON — Desperation isn’t an emotion you would expect from a No. 4-ranked team that just won the ACC regular-season championship.

But Seth Trimble, Carolina’s indispensable sixth man, says that is exactly the Tar Heels mindset for March.

“We’re desperate,” Trimble said after playing his typical tough defense while collecting 12 points (tying his career-high), five rebounds and two assists in Thursday’s 92–67 victory over Florida State in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament at Capital One Arena.

“We haven’t done nothing yet,” he said. “We won the regular season; it’s nice to win the regular season. We won one game in the ACC tournament. But we’re desperate. We want to win the tournament. We want to win the national championship and we know that, in every game, it’s going to take everything. We’re hungry for it. We want to go get it.”

The No. 1 seed Tar Heels (26–6), who face No. 4-seed Pittsburgh (22–10) in a 7 p.m. ACC tournament semifinal, know that everything they’ve accomplished so far will mean little if they don’t maintain the same intensity in every game.

“We know if we get complacent now, it won’t end that well for us the rest of the year,” Trimble said. “We’ve got goals and the coaching staff, they know what it takes. And they preach down on us each and every day, that we have to give a hard fight each and every day.”

Trimble, who eschewed the short afro he sported all season for braids on Thursday, had a highlight-reel dunk in the second half to put an exclamation point on his stellar game.

UNC has turned up the level of its defense a few notches in recent games, with the brand of intensity that the Heels showed during their earlier 10-game win streak. A big reason for that is the play of Trimble on defense.

“My defensive presence definitely allows other guys to be more of themselves,” Trimble said. “Even the energy, even when I’m not having my best defensive game, I can still impact the team.”

When he missed two games with a concussion, the first time he’s ever missed games in his basketball career, his rhythm wasn’t quite the same for a few games. That’s unquestionably back.

“Since a little drought we had when I was out, even the games that we won, our defensive effort just wasn’t there,” Trimble said. “We’re the defensive team right now that we always aspired to be. That first half, after those first six minutes, I think that was one of our best defensive performances of the season.”

UNC coach Hubert Davis said that Trimble’s play in the last four games is back to what he saw before the guard’s concussion.

“He’s attacking the basket and using his athleticism to be able to finish defensively because of his ability to be able to eat up the ball,” Davis said. “I thought that was really impactful and huge for us.”

It’s bound to leave Carolina’s opponents desperate.

ACC tournament

Capital One Arena, Washington
Tuesday’s first-round results
No. 12 seed Notre Dame 84, No. 13 seed Georgia Tech 80
No. 10 seed N.C. State 94, No. 15 seed Louisville 85
No. 11 seed Boston College 81, No. 14 seed Miami 65
Wednesday’s second-round results
No. 9 seed Florida State 86, No. 8 seed Virginia Tech 76
No. 5 seed Wake Forest 72, Notre Dame 59
N.C. State 83, No. 7 seed Syracuse 65
Boston College 76, No. 6 seed Clemson 55
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 seed North Carolina 92, Florida State 67
No. 4 seed Pittsburgh 81, Wake Forest 69
N.C. State 74, No. 2 seed Duke 69
No. 3 seed Virginia 66, Boston College 60, OT
Friday’s semifinals
North Carolina 72, Pittsburgh 65
N.C. State 72, Virginia 65, OT
Saturday’s championship
N.C. State 84, North Carolina 76

Date	Month/day	Score	Opponent/event (current ranks)	Record
	October
27	Friday	W, 117–53	vs. St. Augustine’s	Exhibition
	November
6	Monday	W, 86–70	vs. Radford	1–0
12	Sunday	W, 90–68	vs. Lehigh	2–0
17	Friday	W, 77–52	vs. UC Riverside	3–0
			Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas
22	Wednesday	W, 91–69	Northern Iowa	4–0
23	Thursday	L, 83–81, OT	Villanova	4–1
24	Friday	W, 87–72	Arkansas	5–1
			ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
29	Wednesday	W, 100–92	vs. No. 6 Tennessee	6–1
	December
2	Saturday	W, 78–70	vs. Florida State	7–1, 1–0 ACC
			Jimmy V Classic in New York
5	Tuesday	L, 87–67	No. `1` Connecticut	7–2
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
16	Saturday	L, 87–83	No. 12 Kentucky	7–3
			Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte
20	Wednesday	W, 81–69	Oklahoma	8–3
			—————————
29	Friday	W, 105–60	vs. Charleston Southern	9–3
	January
2	Tuesday	W, 70–57	at Pittsburgh	10–3, 2–0 ACC
6	Saturday	W, 65–55	at Clemson	11–3, 3–0 ACC
10	Wednesday	W, 67–54	at N.C. State	12–3, 4–0 ACC
13	Saturday	W, 103–67	vs. Syracuse	13–3, 5–0 ACC
17	Wednesday	W, 86–70	vs. Louisville	14–3, 6–0 ACC
20	Saturday	W, 76–66	vs. Boston College	15–3, 7–0 ACC
22	Monday	W, 85–64	vs. Wake Forest	16–3, 8–0 ACC
27	Saturday	W, 75–68	at Florida State	17–3, 9–0 ACC
30	Tuesday	L, 74–73	at Georgia Tech	17–4, 9–1 ACC
	February
3	Saturday	W, 93–84	vs. No. 13 Duke	18–4, 10–1 ACC
6	Tuesday	L, 80–76	vs. Clemson	18–5, 10–2 ACC
10	Saturday	W, 75–72	at Miami	19–5, 11–2 ACC
13	Tuesday	L, 86–79	at Syracuse	19–6, 11–3 ACC
17	Saturday	W, 96–81	vs. Virginia Tech	20–6, 12–3 ACC
24	Saturday	W, 54–44	at Virginia	21–6, 13–3 ACC
26	Monday	W, 75–71	vs. Miami	22–6, 14–3 ACC
	March
2	Saturday	W, 79–70	vs. N.C. State	23–6, 15–3 ACC
5	Tuesday	W, 84–51	vs. Notre Dame	24–6, 16–3 ACC
9	Saturday	W, 84–79	at No. 13 Duke	25–6, 17–3 ACC
			ACC tournament Washington
14	Thursday	W, 92–67	Quarterfinals: Florida State	26–6
15	Friday	W, 72–65	Semifinals: Pittsburgh	27–6
16	Saturday	L, 84–76	Final: N.C. State	27–7
			NCAA tournament
21	Thursday	W, 90–62	First round in Charlotte: Wagner	28–7
23	Saturday	W, 85–69	Second round in Charlotte: Michigan State	29–7
28	Thursday	L, 89–87	Sweet 16 in Los Angeles: No. 19 Alabama	29–8