UNC Basketball: 5 reasons why the Tar Heels will be better than Duke in 2018-19
By Brian Rauf
Duke and North Carolina Basketball are two of college basketball’s elite programs and make up the sport’s biggest – and most balanced – rivalry. However, UNC has the leg up this year.
Seeing either Duke or North Carolina at the top of preseason college basketball polls has become somewhat of an annual tradition in the sport and adds more fuel to the seemingly never-ending debate along Tobacco Road about which team is better.
Both programs have insanely proud and accomplished histories that put them among the elite of the elite (which you already knew) and they have been so evenly matched over the past half-century that only a few total points separate them in their past 103 match-ups (you may have already known that as well, given the fact ESPN beats that stat into our heads every time they play).
This year promises to be another great one for both schools. Duke enters the preseason as a consensus top-three team (along with Kentucky and Kansas, with all three schools being slotted either one, two, or three depending on which publication you look at) thanks to a historic recruiting class. Freshmen R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson, and Cameron Reddish – the top three overall incoming recruits in the country, according to ESPN – will all be in head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s starting lineup. All three players are projected to be top-five picks in the 2019 NBA Draft, showing just how much talent Coach K has at his disposal. That trio is joined by point guard Tre Jones, who was the top point guard prospect in the 2018 class.
Yet, despite everything they have going for them in Durham, they won’t be better than their hated rivals in Chapel Hill. North Carolina can usually be found at the very bottom of the top 10 or in the early teens depending on the preseason poll you’re looking at, but I’ve argued that the Tar Heels should actually be the No. 1 team in the country.
Why do I feel this way? And why should you be as confident in the Heels as I am? Here are five reasons why North Carolina will be better than Duke this upcoming season.