Without a basketball being dribbled, the great pendulum of superiority in the ACC swung back toward North Carolina this week.

Kyrie Irving is leaving for the NBA. Tyler Zeller and John Henson are staying in college. Harrison Barnes still has yet to make a decision about his future, but it's almost immaterial at this point.

Duke loses its three best players. North Carolina could return all of its best players and is losing one at most.

If the Blue Devils entered last season, on paper, clearly ahead of the rest of the ACC, it's the Tar Heels' turn this season.

It's been a crazy few years for that big ol' pendulum, veering from one extreme (North Carolina in 2009) to the other (Duke in 2010) and, most recently, back and forth all season long. This week, it moved strongly in the direction of Chapel Hill, and figures to stay there for a while.

With Irving, Henson and Zeller settling their futures one way or the other, only Barnes remains. With him, North Carolina probably begins this fall as the No.1 team in the country. Without him, the Tar Heels won't be far off.

The closest ACC challengers to Duke and North Carolina this past season, Clemson, Florida State and Virginia Tech, lose absolutely critical players. No one else in the pack looks ready to step forward and contend, particularly if Jordan Williams leaves Maryland for the NBA.

So that leaves North Carolina and Duke. Again.

Duke with Irving would have been capable of going head-to-head with North Carolina. Duke without Irving has some work to do.

Irving admitted Thursday he thought about how good Duke would be if he were to return. While the Blue Devils lose Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler to graduation anyway, they add the country's consensus No.1 recruit in guard Austin Rivers. Seth Curry, Andre Dawkins, Ryan Kelly and both Plumlees return.

The only notable hole is at point guard. Sophomore Tyler Thornton and freshman Quinn Cook will have to hold down that position instead of Irving, who would have entered the season as perhaps the top college player in the country.

"This year's team was really special," Irving said Thursday. "Next year's team would be really special if I were to return. ... It would give me a chance to lead a team, similar to Kemba Walker at UConn. I'd be the go-to guy and the leader on the team if I were to return. I think it would be a really special team."

That won't happen, and instead, the team with the best chance to be really special is a few miles down the road, where the Tar Heels will enter the season way ahead of the rest of the ACC.

No matter what Barnes decides, the Tar Heels are in great shape.

If Irving had stayed, the landscape of the ACC would have been drastically different, but he didn't. Not even that toe injury could keep him from being a lottery pick.

If Henson and Zeller had left, the landscape of the ACC would have been drastically different, but they didn't. What emerged as one of the best frontcourts in the country this past season will enter next season as the best, without a doubt.

It's the Tar Heels' league to lose now. The pendulum points to them, and no one else.