When the clock strikes midnight Saturday night, 2022 will be history and 2023 will no longer be the future.

Two things will happen in the days that follow: millions will make their New Year’s resolutions, and the college basketball season shifts from being in its early season stretch into the meat of the regular season and conference play.

In both endeavors, some will succeed and some will fail. Determination and willpower will be as important as natural ability in determining the outcomes for both the resolutions and the roundball.

For the last five years, yours truly has written a column each year making New Year’s resolutions for the “Big Four” ACC sports programs in North Carolina — an task dating back to my time at another publication in the Old North State.

In the previous columns, some of those resolutions have been about basketball and some have been about other sports. But they don’t call North Carolina “the Hoop State” for nothing — and each of the Big Four enter 2022 with a reasonable resolution to make on the hardwood.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Last year’s Tar Heels sat 9-3 on the season at New Year’s, with all three losses to ranked opponents; the team, of course, finished strong, notably beating Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s home finale, making a surprise run to the Final Four, then beating Duke again there to end Coach K’s career. With a similar roster, this season is off to a similar start, with four losses — all to teams that are or have been ranked; the Tar Heels’ resolution is to keep improving enough to allow history to repeat itself.

Yes, expectations were different this season, including a No. 1 ranking. But perhaps now the Tar Heels can play better that they’ve fallen from that perch and spent three weeks unranked before earning the No. 25 spot this week.

The coaching job Hubert Davis did last season, his first, was nothing short of terrific — and shows he’s capable of a similar turnaround this winter. The flourish could come earlier than March this time, though they’ll certainly look to peak in the postseason; look for the Tar Heels to play well enough through ACC play to earn a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Duke Blue Devils

Jon Scheyer took on possibly the most difficult coaching task in recent college basketball history: replacing Krzyzewski after his 42 seasons and five national championships. While Scheyer will certainly be living in the shadow of his mentor, a resolution for the program — and for him personally — will be to let Scheyer be himself.

Scheyer was the hand-picked choice to take over the renowned program for a reason: Krzyzewski clearly has confidence in his abilities to maintain the team’s standard of excellence. But Coach K and Duke picked the 35-year-old Scheyer because of Scheyer’s talents as a bright young coach and recruiter, not because he is Michael William Krzyzewski Jr. Because of this, things may look a little different — and that’s how it should be, with Scheyer putting his own touches on the program.

Duke has three early losses, though only one, an in-state defeat against Wake Forest in the team’s first road game, came to a team that isn’t currently ranked inside the top four. There may be some growing pains as Scheyer adjusts — but, as Duke fans won’t soon forget, Davis’ first season under similar circumstances finished very strong, something that could also happen again 12 months later and eight miles to the north.

N.C. State Wolfpack

The prevailing belief regarding N.C. State is that it’s an NCAA Tournament-or-bust season for Kevin Keatts to remain coach of the Wolfpack, though how true that is remains to be seen. But since that may be required for job security for the sixth-year coach, it wouldn’t hurt to make an NCAA Tournament berth the program’s resolution for 2022.

An 11-3 start entering Friday’s game at Clemson suggests that March Madness could, in fact, be a viable destination for the Wolfpack. Early-season wins over Butler and Dayton are the type of quality wins needed to build an NCAA-worthy resume, and two of the team’s three losses, to Miami and Kansas, won’t hurt in that context.

The backcourt trio of Terquavion Smith, Jarkel Joyner and Casey Morsell have combined for about 48 points and 10 assists per game, helping lead the Wolfpack thus far. But if their coach wants to hang around in Raleigh, the time is now to prove that the phrase “Kevin Keatts is a winner” — famously said at his introductory press conference in 2017 — is, in fact, true.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Making a postseason tournament field was last year’s resolution for a Wake Forest program whose rebuild was ahead of schedule. The Demon Deacons ultimately easily made the NIT, narrowly missing the NCAA Tournament field. The Deacs’ 2023 resolution has been upgraded to the same as that of N.C. State: to make the NCAA field.

Despite a worse record, Wake Forest has arguably positioned itself better for March Madness consideration so far than it had at this point last year, with a road win over Wisconsin and a home upset over Duke giving the team signature wins it lacked a season ago. Valid concerns about replacing departures Alondes Williams and Jake LaRavia have been answered with the addition of transfer Tyree Appleby and the emergence of Cam Hildreth, a pair of do-it-all guards.

Forbes will ultimately lead the program back to the NCAA Tournament, with the Demon Deacons unquestionably headed in the right direction under the third-year coach after a decade in the cellar of the ACC. The only question is whether or not that happens this season.