With its fractured harmony and two-game skid in the past, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team faces another challenge: its first visit to the Dean Dome.

The Hokies (17-7, 7-3 ACC) face fourth-ranked North Carolina (22-3, 8-2) at 8 tonight. It will be Tech's first trip to Chapel Hill since a December 1975 loss at Carmichael Auditorium, before the Dean Smith Center was built.

The Tar Heels haven't lost at home since a Feb. 7, 2006, loss to Duke, but the Hokies are looking forward to their first trip to the Dean Dome.

"That was my favorite team," Tech guard Jamon Gordon said. "I've always dreamed of playing there. I just can't wait."

"It's going to be an exciting experience," forward Deron Washington said.

Tech brings some confidence into the game, and not just because it thrashed Virginia 84-57 on Saturday. The Hokies snapped their 18-game losing streak in the UNC series by toppling then-No. 1 Carolina 94-88 at Cassell Coliseum last month.

"We match up pretty good, besides the depth that they have," Washington said.

The Hokies are coming off an eventful eight-day period that began with an 80-59 loss at Boston College on Feb. 3. Gordon said after that loss that there was "a lot of pointing fingers" and that the Hokies needed to come together as a team.

With Tech trailing BC 47-26 at intermission, the Hokies got testy. Gordon said players had to be separated at halftime in the locker room at BC. He said players were "fighting" but didn't name them.

"When you play bad, a lot of stuff comes out," Gordon said Saturday. "As a team, you need fights. ... You ain't got no fighters that are going to bump heads, you ain't going to be a good team."

Coach Seth Greenberg said players did not have to be separated, although he wasn't in the locker room during the incident. Greenberg spoke to his charges about their roles and what he expected from them when they got back from BC that night. Last week, Greenberg met with players individually and as a team to try to get them "on the same page."

When the Hokies practiced Tuesday for the first time since the loss, guard Zabian Dowdell addressed the team.

"I just told them that I was ready to do whatever they needed me to do to give our team the best chance to win," Dowdell said.

Dowdell said he gave the speech because of the "vibe" he was getting in the locker room.

"It just seemed like guys didn't have any fight, didn't have any pride about getting stops and playing well out there, playing hard," he said.

The pressure of trying to reach the NCAA tournament for the first time in 11 years had been weighing on the Hokies, Greenberg said.

"They are very focused on trying to make the NCAA tournament," he said. "I guarantee you they know RPI, they know who we have left on our schedule, they know what [ESPN's] Jay Bilas is saying about us.

"All that wears on you ... because it's something that they really, really want to accomplish."

With the Hokies coming off back-to-back losses, Gordon considered the UVa duel a must-win game because the trip to UNC was up next.

"Games get ugly down there in Chapel Hill," he said.

Greenberg is worried about the Hokies being in "awe" of the Dean Dome.

"We do have some experience to handle their swarming defense, but this is a new environment we're going into," he said.

The Hokies shot 52.6 percent from the field in last month's win. Tech's 94 points were the most UNC has given up in two seasons. Tech led by as many as 23 points.

"I've never been a guy that gets caught up in how many points a team's scoring as long as we're scoring," UNC coach Roy Williams said. "We did not do a good job of taking care of the basketball; that led to easy baskets. We didn't box them out; that led to easy baskets. We took bad shots; that led to easier baskets.

"I don't think our defense was nearly the problem up there as our offense was."

The Tar Heels committed 17 turnovers in that loss. The Hokies had 14 steals.

"We turned it over so many times with just not being strong enough with the ball or being careless," Williams said.

The Tar Heels rank second in Division I in scoring (88.4 points), so not getting burned by their fast break will be a key for Tech. UNC shot 43.8 percent from the field in the last meeting.

"We did a good job of containing the ball in transition, excluding the first four minutes," Greenberg said. "We did a pretty good job of getting back and setting our defense."