Upcoming Event: Men's Basketball versus Coastal Carolina on November 5, 2026 at 8 p.m.
Men's Basketball
vs Coastal Carolina
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3/5/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2004
by Bill Brill
Blue Devil Weekly
DURHAM, N.C. - I have been giving this serious consideration and, having witnessed the Duke-Carolina game in Chapel Hill, have come to this conclusion -- there is no second-best rivalry.
I repeat this in all humility. It's not that the two schools are better than anybody else, but they have some things going for them that simply do not exist elsewhere.
Let's start with this statistic: the last time that Duke and Carolina played a basketball game in which neither was nationally ranked was in 1955 -- some 49 years ago. If you care, Duke won easily.
The next season, both teams were ranked virtually all year -- UNC in all but the first poll, Duke in all but the initial two. By 1958, they were in the Top 10 together when they met. And in 1961, the infamous game in which Art Heyman, Larry Brown and Doug Moe fought, the two schools were rated fourth and fifth -- another first. Together among the top five.
For the most part, it's been that way ever since. Duke has finished No. 1 six times since 1986, including a record four in a row beginning with 1999. UNC has led the final poll five times, including 1957, when it went unbeaten. The other four have come since 1982.
Duke has been ranked every week since the start of the 1997 season. The streak is now 156 weeks and counting. Carolina had weekly streaks of 172 and 171 polls, second only to UCLA's 223. What that means to the rivalry is consistency. Almost every year, each team is good to great.
Just look around the country. There are 326 Division I teams but only a relative handful can be considered to be perennial powerhouses. Most -- but not all -- have natural rivals, but in every instance, there have been periods where the rivalry has slipped or even become nonexistent.
The Big East, as its height of power in the mid-80s, had numerous great rivalries. Georgetown-St. John's. Syracuse against either of them. Villanova and others have been notables. But they haven't remained good enough, long enough, to be considered for a national rivalry.
Kentucky has been the dominant program in the SEC for far longer than any other school in any other league. There once was a time when the Wildcats laughed their way through the conference season and into the NCAAs.
Now the SEC is among the top three strongest leagues virtually every year. But which is UK's biggest rival? None of the other teams has been strong long enough. Florida-Kentucky had possibilities, especially when it was Rick Pitino against former assistant Billy Donovan. But now Pitino is at Louisville and Florida's program has slipped.
The Big Ten traditionally gets more teams in the NCAAs than anybody, but no longer is there a dominating member. Bobby Knight was fired at Indiana by the guy who now runs the NCAA. Michigan ran afoul of the NCAA law. Tom Izzo has threatened to take Michigan State to traditional power status, but you don't absorb tradition that swiftly, and this year the Spartans are merely decent.
So what's the big rivalry? Indiana-Purdue? Michigan-Michigan State? Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
The Big 12 has a great rivalry in Kansas-Missouri, but the Tigers have a hard time upholding their end of the bargain and who knows if Bill Self can match annual success with the departed ol' Roy? Does Kansas-Oklahoma have a ring to it? Somehow, not on a regular national basis.
The Pac-10 has seen the demise of UCLA, which really had no significant challenges when the Wizard of Westwood was in command. When you think UCLA-Southern Cal, the sport is football. Does Arizona-Stanford grip the nation? Me thinks not.
So we're back to Duke-Carolina, and even in the ACC, where Duke-Maryland has been torrid of late and where UNC-N.C. State always is testy, if not tasty, there's no real competition for best of the best.
This one has it all. Obviously, proximity is a factor. Even if nobody seems to actually know how far it is from one campus to the other. Anywhere from eight to a dozen miles is often written. Years ago, when I moved here from Durham, I measured 10.8 miles from Cameron to the Dean Dome. But that's the way I travel. There may be shorter and longer trips.
Coaching, of course, is huge. Dean Smith was the bellwether. Even though he has now been retired for seven years, he was at the UNC helm for 36 of the ACC's 51 seasons. Roy Williams, another icon, now is in charge at Chapel Hill. Mike Krzyzewski is in his 24th campaign at Duke. So coaching longevity, plus success, is major.
Also important is that the media agrees. Two Duke-Carolina games, Feb. 5, 1998 at Chapel Hill and Feb. 1, 2001 at Durham, are the highest rated ever by ESPN2. And why, you ask, are those games on the Deuce, the baby brother? To seduce ratings, silly. To give you a reason to watch that network.
Everybody in the nation who knows and cares about basketball understands Duke. All 29 games are on TV this season; 27 are on the networks (CBS, ABC, Fox, ESPN). Only the Coastal Carolina game played by the Tar Heels was not televised. Nineteen of the contests show nationally. To give you some idea of the attraction of the Duke-UNC rivalry, consider that 43 newspapers and magazines covered this most recent clash. That's probably triple the number for another game. And this was that most-hated of all for reporters, a 9 p.m. midweek contest. Terrible on deadlines. When Coach K left the media room, it was midnight.
There were people on hand from Denver and Fort Worth, New York and Atlanta, Chicago and USA Today. The Associated Press sent Jim O'Connell, its national basketball writer.
As usual, the first Duke-UNC game was carried both by Jefferson Pilot/Raycom and ESPN2. I suspect there are no other games anywhere in which this is the case. What that meant is we not only had Billy Packer as an analyst, but Dick Vitale as well. A comparison of their opinions would have been intriguing. Andy Katz also was on hand for his observations.
All this for a midyear meeting between two ACC teams with the home squad in sixth place with a 3-4 record. Even the Tar Heels' relative lack of success didn't diminish the attention. I'm here to tell you, that simply wouldn't -- couldn't -- happen any place else.
To be fair, North Carolina is hardly your average sub-.500 entry. The Tar Heels have at least three players who eventually will make a very nice living at the "next level."
Coach K heartily endorses Raymond Felton, who surely goes from one end to the other faster than the speed of sound. (At least it looks that way; he's really, really quick.) Rashad McCants is an enormous talent who seems to have harnessed his emotions. And what can you say about a guy who collects 21 rebounds, as Sean May did? That's a number almost never seen these days.
Obviously, Duke has some extraordinary players as well. Chris Duhon has shown time and again this season that merely being around for your senior year is a bonus too seldom seen in this era of NBA glitter.
Nobody -- I would submit that includes at any level -- has a better stroke than J.J. Redick. Luol Deng is an emerging supertalent. Shelden Williams blocks shots the old-fashioned way, keeping the ball inbounds. And Daniel Ewing simply can do a little bit of everything. But, as the saying goes, it is the names on the front of the jerseys, not the back, that makes this the best of all rivalries. Duke and North Carolina. When they play a classic as they did last Thursday, nobody should be surprised.
What we -- I include myself in this evaluation -- should understand, and appreciate, is that we are spoiled. We have a chance, at least twice a year and often three times, to see this all up close and personal. I have now been fortunate enough to see well over 100 games in this rivalry, and it never grows old.
I grew up a Sinatra fan. I didn't question that he was the best. Simply, I knew it. I feel exactly the same way about Duke-Carolina, and so should you. The rest of the sports world should be so lucky.
Players Mentioned
Tuesday, November 03
Monday, November 02
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Monday, October 26
