Storylines abound as Kansas and UNC announce “Battle of the Blue Bloods”

The college basketball world got a bit of unexpected fun news on Monday as Kansas and UNC announced a home-and-home series beginning in 2024.

Dubbed the “Battle of the Blue Bloods,” the series will feature a rarity in college basketball: two top programs playing each other not in a preseason tournament or at a neutral site, but on campus. This will mark only the second time (and the first since 1960) that UNC has visited Kansas, and the first time that Kansas will make the journey to Chapel Hill.

Perhaps more than any two programs in the country, Kansas and Carolina share deep ties that go back decades. Dean Smith, the legendary Tar Heels coach, was born in Kansas and played for the Jayhawks and Phog Allen, winning a national championship in 1952. Smith’s protege, Roy Williams, attended North Carolina, then coached the Jayhawks before ultimately leading the Tar Heels to three national championships.

The programs have split their 12 previous meetings, though Kansas has won the last four. Five of those matchups occurred in the Final Four, most recently the 2022 National Championship game, which Kansas won with a record-setting second-half comeback. Carolina’s undefeated 1957 team won the title in one of the NCAA’s all-time classics, defeating the Wilt Chamberlain-led Jayhawks in triple overtime.

This home-and-home series gives Kansas the opportunity to stamp itself as the bluest of blue bloods, while North Carolina has a chance to exact revenge for its four straight tournament losses to the Jayhawks.

As a Carolina grad and lifelong Tar Heels fan, I know I’m not alone in believing that Carolina made its own Faustian bargain in wooing Roy Williams to leave Lawrence behind in 2003. It’s not hyperbole to say that Williams rescued his alma mater after a stormy end to the Matt Doherty era, but in bringing their favorite son back to Carolina, the Tar Heels seemingly cursed themselves to never again beat the Jayhawks.

For most teams that don’t share a conference, this type of curse would rarely show itself. In the case of two of the most successful programs in college basketball history, though, they just can’t avoid each other. The two teams matched up three times in the tournament with Roy Williams on the Tar Heels sideline, and each time the Jayhawks came out on top.

First, there was the 2008 Final Four, the first and only to feature all four 1-seeds, which Kansas won handily on its way to a national championship over Memphis. Then there was the 2012 Elite Eight, which Kansas again prevailed in, this time thanks in large part to the absence of Tar Heels point guard Kendall Marshall, who broke his wrist in the second round against Creighton. Tar Heels fans still believe that team could have beaten Kentucky in the national title game, but they never got to find out. The teams met again the next year, this time in the second round. The 8-seed Tar Heels got an early lead, but Bill Self once again engineered a victory.

I was hopeful that when the teams met for the 2022 national championship, the curse would have been broken. Coach Williams had retired the previous year, ceding his seat to Hubert Davis. As a first-year head coach, Davis led the Tar Heels on one of the most thrilling runs in program history, first beating Duke in Cameron Indoor to spoil Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game, then sending him into retirement in a Final Four game for the ages.

College basketball fans know the rest. The Tar Heels dominated the first half, jumping out to a 15-point halftime lead, only to see Kansas come storming back to lock up its second championship under Bill Self.

Both Kansas fans and Carolina fans would gladly accept the results of Roy Williams’ decision to come home to Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels returned to their former glory, winning three national titles under Williams while being arguably the best program in the country during his tenure. Kansas, who was unable to cut down the nets with Williams, has won two championships of their own since he left, dominating the Big 12 under Bill Self in a way that college basketball has never seen before.

More than anything, having these blue blood programs playing each other on campus is good for the game. It follows in the footsteps of Gonzaga and Kentucky, who announced a six-year series beginning last year, though only three of those games will be played at campus sites (two at Rupp Arena and one at the Kennel in Spokane).

Hopefully, this inspires more top-tier programs to schedule each other. How cool would it be to see Duke and UCLA visit each other, or UConn and Indiana? Many casual college basketball fans don’t tune in until March, but more matchups like this could get people interested earlier in the season.

There are just two issues I now face. The first is deciding where to sell my kidney to be able to afford a ticket, and the second is finding the best way to get to Lawrence. Luckily, I’ve got some time to figure it out.