“That ain’t gonna happen next year, Scooter,” chirped the Duke recruit. “I’ll be playing Duke D on you.”

“No way,” Scooter said. “You can’t stop me.”

Duhon decided to give up on Scooter and went straight for the big guy — 7-foot-6 Neil Fingleton, a North Carolina recruit.

In the little one-on-one matchup — or should we say big vs. little matchup — Fingleton simply threw hook shots down on the 6-2 Duhon.

Scooter, a future N.C. State Wolfpacker, stood back and laughed.

N.C. State. Duke. North Carolina. The playful attitude during Wednesday morning’s shoot-around at the FleetCenter proved two things.

One, the three haven’t learned that they are expected to be arch-enemies next season as Atlantic Coast Conference freshmen.

And two, once a McDonald’s All-American, always a McDonald’s All-American.

Scooter comes from Cleveland. Not the big city but the small town in Rowan County.

Fingleton is from Durham. That’s Durham, England, not Durham, N.C.

And the 6-2 Duhon is from Bayou Country in Slidell, La. But as different as they are, Scooter, Chris and Neil will be forever linked because of a week they spent under the national spotlight.

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Fingleton was linked with Scooter as soon as the teams checked into the extravagant Swissotel in downtown Boston. They were roommates.

“I enjoy his company,” Fingleton said of Scooter, the West Rowan High School phenom. “He’s a good kid.”

When you’re 7-6, everybody’s a kid.

Scooter tried cajoling Fingleton like he does Duhon without much success but did add, “I got him to talk a little trash.”

The McDonald’s All-Star game was not the type of forum to showcase Fingleton’s skills. The Brit weighs 22.14 stone (310 pounds) but his feet seemed to be made of stone against slashing MVP Darius Miles and burly Zach Randolph, who led the West to a resounding 146-120 win. You could almost sense the North Carolina fans sitting at home giving him the Brendan Haywood treatment. “Another underachiever coming down here?”

But Fingleton knew he wasn’t going to touch the ball much and he didn’t.

“In all-star games like this, whoever has the ball usually shoots,” Scooter said.

But Fingleton did send two rejections skyward that brought some of the biggest cheers of the night.

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Fingleton will try his luck again Sunday when he joins Scooter and Duhon in the Hoop Summit in Indianapolis against some European teenagers.

The best part of playing there is that he’ll get to see the Tar Heels, who just beat out Wake Forest for his services.

“It’s great that they’re in the Final Four,” he said. “Ididn’t expect it. Maybe next year, we can make another run like this. People will have expectations.”

Especially from someone 7-foot-6.

“Some people think it’s a sin to be this tall but I enjoy it,” he said. “There’s no other height I’d rather be.”

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While the relatively shy Fingleton kept to himself, Duhon and Scooter yukked it up the entire week.

“We’ve been at each other since we’ve been up here,” Scooter said.

Duhon didn’t deny that.

“It’s friendly competition,” he laughed. “Scooter says State is making a comeback but I let him know Duke is still going to be on top. We’ve been dogging each other.”

Duhon, who won the 3-point shootout, and Scooter, who made the most impact in the dunk contest with the fans, think it’s a shame they won’t play together anymore after Sunday.

“We played together in the Colorado Sports Festival,” Duhon remembered. “We made a great backcourt. I love playing with Scooter.”

Scooter may hold the upper hand in playing time next season. Duhon is joining quite a lineup at Duke.

“They told me I will play,” he said. “I’m going to have to earn a starting spot, probably, but I have no problem with that. I’ll play a little bit beside Jason (Williams)and a little bit behind Jason. It will be good for me to learn from somebody who has played the college game.”

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And there’s one more link between the three ACC recruits.

The ACC.

“We’re not playing just for ourselves in this game,” Duhon said. “We’re playing for the conference we’ll be in. We hope to be good representatives.”

But will they remain good friends when it’s not an all-star game, but rather the real thing?

“Yes, we will,” said Scooter, who then buried a couple more jumpers — and of course, looked Duhon’s way.