A shocker? It wasn't to Skinner

The tone in the voice of the unassuming questioner made it sound as if it had been some God-knows-who mid-major team that came into North Carolina's house and rubbed its feet on the couch.

As if Al Skinner didn't have a roster full of ACC players.

As if he had strolled into the Smith Center in Chapel Hill Sunday and beaten UNC with an AAU team.

One member of the Carolina media asked the Boston College coach, "What does it mean for the program?"

Skinner was respectful, if quietly sarcastic, in his response.

After all, it hadn't been that long - three seasons - since he went down to North Carolina with Craig Smith, Jared Dudley, Sean Marshall, and a baby-faced Tyrese Rice and beat the Tar Heels once in Chapel Hill and again in the ACC Tournament in Greensboro.

Of course, considering BC was picked to finish 11th in the ACC, and that North Carolina was the nation's No. 1-ranked team, the Eagles were understandably underdogs before going out and beating the Tar Heels, 85-78.

Still, Skinner couldn't believe he was facing a room full of people who thought it was impossible.

"There's no doubt about it," Skinner said. "The perception was we have no chance to win, and I'm like, 'It's not like we haven't won here before. It's not like we haven't had success in this league.'

"I can understand it being an upset. I'm not going to be naive that way. But it doesn't impact our program that way, like we need to beat the No. 1 team in the nation to get recognition for our program. I think we're way beyond that."

From the television screens to the Internet, the Eagles were being portrayed all over the place as college basketball's stone-slingers. Since when did BC become David? The win earned them a spot in both polls (17th in AP, 24th in the coaches poll), and even if it marks the first time the Eagles have been ranked since December 2007, Skinner said it is something his team should expect.

"The truth of the matter is, it comes with the territory," Skinner said. "If you're going to be one of the better teams in this league, then you're going to be ranked. That's all part of it. So it's not like you should be overly excited about that.

"The reason that they came here to BC is because we were successful. They didn't come to a program that was failing. We should not all be surprised. We should not be overjoyed. We should be pleased and somewhat satisfied, but obviously it's just a step in our trek and our efforts to reach our ultimate goal.

"It's a quality win. It's a win on the road, and it's a league win. Those are hard to come by and it's valuable."

Still, when you knock off the top team in the country, it's hard to mask the joy. If you were a player with a Smartphone, you were thumbing through text messages by the dozens.

And word got out quickly at the other corners of the Research Triangle.

Duke was playing Virginia Tech at the same time, and even though Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski told the media, "When you're a Cubs fan, you don't scoreboard-watch," he was well aware of what happened.

North Carolina State was off after losing a tight game to Florida Saturday, and coach Sidney Lowe said he watched BC beat North Carolina not by crafting some master plan but by being itself.

"Boston College was determined to run their stuff," Lowe said. "They were determined to set their screens. They were determined to get the ball where they wanted the ball. It was just a team that executed their stuff well. It was just their night. It's going to happen somewhere again. In our conference, there are no gimmes."

Skinner spent yesterday morning trying to explain to people that he wasn't some code-cracker, and that the Eagles had done the same thing to North Carolina that they had tried to do to everyone else this season. The only formula he could offer was the one he's subscribed to since the start of the season: If Rice's scoring average goes down and his assists and shooting percentage go up, then the Eagles will be a better team.

Carolina coach Roy Williams said the Eagles found one way to solve his Tar Heels.

"It broke down in the first half because we didn't get any turnovers," he said.

But if anything, Skinner said, Sunday's game was the biggest indicator that the ACC schedule sorts out every possible solution for every team.

"If you really want to know how to beat someone, you look at league play," Skinner said. "In league play, everyone deciphers everyone else, and what you start to find is, whatever weaknesses you have, that's what they're going to try to attack.

"I don't know if there's any particular formula, but I do know that, in the league, if anyone knows how to beat you, it's going to be the guys in the league, and that's always going to be the case."

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com