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

Spectrum Center | Charlotte
Tuesday’s first round
No. 12 Notre Dame 55, No. 13 Pittsburgh 54
No. 15 California 82, No. 10 Virginia Tech 73, 2 OTs
No. 14 Syracuse 66, No. 11 Florida State 62
Wednesday’s second round
No. 8 Georgia Tech 66, No. 9 Virginia 60
No. 5 North Carolina 76, Notre Dame 56
No. 7 Stanford 78, California 73
No. 6 SMU 73, Syracuse 53
Thursday’s quarterfinals
No. 1 (and No. 1-ranked) Duke 78, Georgia Tech 70
North Carolina 68, No. 4 Wake Forest 59
No. 2 (and No. 13-ranked) Louisville 75, Stanford 73
No. 3 (and No. 10-ranked) Clemson 57, SMU 54
Friday’s semifinals
Duke 72, North Carolina 71
Louisville 76, Clemson 73
Saturday’s championship
Duke 73, Louisville 62

Date	Month/day	Time	Opponent/event (current ranks)	TV/ record
	October
24	Friday	L, 78–76	vs. No. 10 BYU in SLC	Exhib.
29	Wednesday	W, 95–53	vs. Winston-Salem St.	Exhib.
	November
3	Monday	W, 94–54	vs. Central Arkansas	1–0
7	Friday	W, 87–74	vs. No. 17 Kansas	2–0
11	Tuesday	W, 89–74	vs. Radford	3–0
14	Friday	W, 97–53	vs. N.C. Central	4–0
18	Tuesday	W, 73–61	vs. Navy	5–0
			Fort Myers Tip-Off
25	Tuesday	W, 85–70	vs. St. Bonaventure	6–0
27	Thursday	L, 74–58	vs. No. 9 Michigan State	6–1
	December		ACC/SEC Men’s Challenge
2	Tuesday	W, 67–64	at Kentucky	7–1
			—————————
7	Sunday	W, 81–61	vs. Georgetown	8–1
13	Saturday	W, 80–62	vs. USC Upstate	9–1
16	Tuesday	W, 77–58	vs. ETSU	10–1
			CBS Sports Classic in Atlanta
20	Saturday	3 p.m.	vs. Ohio State	CBS
			—————————
22	Monday	8 p.m.	vs. East Carolina	ACCN
30	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Florida State	ESPN2
	January
3	Saturday	2:15	at SMU	The CW
10	Saturday	6 p.m.	vs. Wake Forest	ACCN
14	Wednesday	9 p.m.	at Stanford	ACCN
17	Saturday	4 p.m.	at California	ACCN
21	Wednesday	7 p.m.	vs. Notre Dame	ESPN2
24	Saturday	2 or 2:30	at No. 23 Virginia	ESPN or ESPNU
31	Saturday	2 p.m.	at Georgia Tech	ACCN
	February
2	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. Syracuse	ESPN
7	Saturday	6:30	vs. No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at Miami	ESPN or ESPN2
14	Saturday	2 p.m.	vs. Pittsburgh	ESPN
17	Tuesday	7 p.m.	at N.C. State	ESPN or ESPN2
21	Saturday	1 p.m.	at Syracuse	ABC
23	Monday	7 p.m.	vs. No. 11 Louisville	ESPN
28	Saturday	6:30 or 8:30	vs. Virginia Tech	ESPN or ESPN2
	March
3	Tuesday	7 p.m.	vs. Clemson	ESPN or ESPN2
7	Saturday	6:30	at No. 3 Duke	ESPN
10–14	Tues.-Sat.	ACC tournament	Spectrum Center, Charlotte