UNC Basketball: 5 keys to beating Duke in “must win” regular season finale
Name something in sports as reliable as Carolina-Duke. It’s OK, don’t waste your time, you can’t.
Tar Heels vs. Blue Devils goes beyond college basketball.
Kentucky-Louisville? Get out of here.
It goes beyond college.
Ohio State-Michigan? Please.
It goes beyond basketball.
Lakers-Celtics? Not a chance.
It goes beyond all sports.
Yankees-Red Sox? Federer-Nadal? Barcelona-Real Madrid? All fantastic, but for my money you can’t beat the passion, longevity, and all-time closeness of Carolina-Duke.
By now, we know all the reasons. Campuses eight miles apart. Dean Smith. Coach K. Roy Williams. Dozens of amazing players. Fantastic finishes. A point total and win-loss record for both teams that always seems to be dead even for decades. Last year’s Final Four matchup was the cherry on top.
I’ve been to more sporting events than I can count, and for the longest time, the top of the list was Senior Day, 2005. I was a senior too, and when Marvin Williams completed the comeback against Duke to win the ACC regular season title for the Heels, the atmosphere inside the Dean Dome was beyond euphoric.
Nothing could match that, until, of course, last year’s Final Four matchup. Before the Elite Eight, I had decided that I would sell any non-essential organs (mine or others) to be able to make the trip to New Orleans and see the ultimate installation of sports’ greatest rivalry.
Understatement alert: it didn’t disappoint. Being in the Superdome when Caleb Love and the gang slayed Coach K once and for all was a religious experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything. I think it’s what Aaron Rodgers is searching for inside those mud huts.
As amazing as it was, the Heels need to move past it on Saturday. This season hasn’t gone quite to plan, but as the Heels showed last year, if you make the Dance, you have a chance. Regardless of postseason aspirations, it’s always a good time to beat Duke.
With Hubert Davis and Jon Scheyer inheriting the legacy of these incredible programs, we’ve entered a new era in this storied rivalry, and if the first confrontation this year is any indication, the matchup is as close as it ever was.
Duke came out on top in the first game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, part of their perfect record at home. This time though, they have to make the ride down 15-501 to the Dean Dome, where they’ll find a Carolina team that is in full-on desperation mode. The Heels have won their past three games, but by all accounts, they’re bubblier than Dom Perignon. In order to rid themselves of Joe Lunardi, they have to get a win over the Blue Devils. Here are five ways they can do it.