Why It’s this High:
The epicenter of college basketball shifts along Tobacco Road from Durham to Chapel Hill. As opposed to just about every rivalry I've listed so far, this one is the unquestioned alpha dog in its sport. No rational person can argue against North Carolina-Duke, a long running rivalry between two power programs that have really upped it to another level since the dawn of the millennium. Collectively, they have owned one of the most talented conferences in the country.
Duke holds a 14-9 edge since 2001, and an even slimmer 9-8 advantage since the hire of Roy Williams in 2003. Each team has won 2 national championships within the past 10 years, and they have respectively dominated the ACC regular season (UNC has finished with the conference’s best record 6 of the past 10 years) and postseason (Duke has won the conference tournament an astounding 8 times in 10 years).
What makes college basketball rivalries the most unique is that for the most part, they remain unchanged for years because of the coaches. Every coach in the country has a style that they prefer to run. Jim Calhoun USUALLY likes to play an extremely physical style of basketball, with an anchor in the paint on defense (Okafor, Thabeet, Adrien) and a shooter on the wing (Ray Allen, Richard Hamilton, Denham Brown). Calipari's dribble drive offense eschews pinpoint shooting for over the top athleticism, and routinely draws in top point guards. Just like those two coaches, Williams and Krzyzewski have been successful enough to have their pick of high school seniors, and tailor their selections to their respective coaching styles.
It’s no secret that Roy likes to run and that his first priority is lighting up the scoreboard (from 2003 to 2009, the Tar Heels ranked an average of 4th in scoring offense), so he populates the team accordingly. It’s usually a safe bet to assume that the Tar Heels will be lead by a grease fire fast point guard (Raymond Felton, Ty Lawson), some hyper athletic bigs (Brandan Wright, Ed Davis, John Henson), and the occasional dead-eye shooter to spread the floor (Wayne Ellington, Rashad McCants). UNC always seems to be a step ahead on the recruiting trail, probably because Williams’ style is more fun to play. But he puts a lot of trust in the instincts of his players, so when those instincts are poor, the results can be disastrous (2009-2010).
If you’ve watched Duke in past 20 years, you know that their success comes from their ability to out-execute other teams to death in half court sets (last year’s UNC game in the ACC tournament is a textbook example). The system Coach K runs doesn’t require the most athletic players (the national championship back court was John Scheyer and Nolan Smith). But recruits need not visit Duke if they can’t sink open threes, or are careless with the ball. In a day in age where kids are negotiating shoe contracts before they can tie their own laces, Coach K holds in high regard the ability to correctly take a charge. People who want to see exciting basketball hate watching Duke play, but basketball purists marvel at the machine that’s put together every year.
Occasionally, each of them has rebuilt their system around one player (Roy slowed his frenetic pace down for Hansbrough, and Krzyzewski sped his up for Jay Williams), but usually the games are about whether the Blue Devils perfectly coached precision can trump the Tar Heels’ supreme athleticism, and that dichotomy of styles has resulted in some memorable battles.
Of the 23 games they’ve played, I’m sure fans of either team can rattle off a few of their favorites/nightmares: Duhon’s game winner in overtime, Duke’s defensive stand in 2005, Carolina’s furious comeback later in that same year, and UNC’s back to back wins at Cameron when both teams were ranked in the top 5. I can literally sit here all day and talk about all of the games played between the two teams (especially since the Williams hire), because almost all of them were played between highly ranked teams in front of raucous partisan crowds, and 13 of them were decided by 10 points or less.
And what’s great is, this year should be more of the same, in fact it might be better. North Carolina starts the year with an NBA-ready front court of Zeller and Henson, and the most talented player in the country in Harrison Barnes. Duke again has a bevy of shooters with Andre Dawkins, Seth Curry, and the mirror-shattering Ryan Kelly at the 3, but they also have a wild card with the explosive Austin Rivers. UNC is the consensus #1 in the country, while people are already saying that the Blue Devils are overrated at #6. Regardless, both of these teams will be in the national title hunt at the end of the year, and the two games that they’re guaranteed to play will just add to the storied history that they already have.
Why it's not higher:
The postseason series is slanted heavily towards Duke. The Blue Devils have played UNC three times in the ACC tournament, winning all three by an average of 13 points. And most importantly, they haven’t met in a national postseason tournament since the 1971 NIT. Granted, it would take a mutual Final Four for the teams to match up with eachother on most occasions, but considering the success both teams have had, it’s surprising and disappointing.
For all of the things at stake in the games these two teams play (the ACC Championship, national ranking, bragging rights), there hasn’t been a win or go home scenario between the two in a long time. The games still definitely mean something, but there is always a game afterwards for both teams. Maybe the two teams are good enough this year that they do end up meeting in March, but until then it doesn’t make sense to me to put this in front of the next two rivalries on my list.
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