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February 13, 2009

UNC- Duke

I am thankful for this rivalry. I grew up on it in the 60's in NC. It was all we had for sports: ACC basketball. And Duke, NC were the best teams then. They were among the best in the country at the time. There was this other team...UCLA or something....coached by a wizard...but we really didn't pay too much attention. We had Duke, UNC, NC State, Wake Forest. We had Vic Bubas and Dean Smith, Bones McKinney and Norm Sloan.

 Soon we had Lefty Driesell who upgraded from Davidson, and Bobby Cremins, Gary Williams, Roy Williams, Coach K (No, I'm not spelling his name w/o looking it up), Rick Barnes (who wanted to go mano a mano w/ Dean Smith...) and Oliver Purnell and Paul Hewitt and those guys down in Florida (No, you haven't quite made the first tier.).

But the heart and soul of all this...has always been the games between Duke and UNC. Other rivalries are there: Duke-Md. NCSU and UNC...But nothing compares with Duke and UNC.

44 times in the past they've played while both were ranked in the Top Ten.

Their campuses are only 10 miles apart. 10 Miles Apart! I used to run that far...and be half done.

This week they played again. At Cameron Indoor. With the Cameron Crazies. Great game...until midway in the 2nd half. UNC ran Duke off the court. That's the 4th or 5th straight win at Cameron by UNC.

Here's why:

* No inside game by Duke
* Coach K refuses to develop his bench in the pre-season.
* Coach K refuses to use his bench...
* Coach K doesn't, can't, won't...I don't know...recruit athletes who can play basketball. Like Duke academics and athletic players are incompatible...

Dukes started it's recent pattern of swooning in March...but they're doing it now in February. And this was supposed to be a deeper team, one that adjusted it's training to be in shape, not burned out at this point. But their missing threes and getting out rebounded in the 2nd half during a game where the gym's temperatures were very high point to....legs being lost during the game. Not a problem, though, for UNC as their coach uses his bench. I'm just sayin'.

Anyway...still a great game. Duke played well, played strong, as much as they could...We'll see what happens with them the rest of the season.

UNC-DUKE...I am thankful for this rivalry. I'd be more thankful if Duke would win a few at home, though.


Posted on February 13, 2009 at 05:13 AM in Gratitude Project - 2009, Iamthankful4 |

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Andy Brudtkuhl

One of the greatest sports rivalries out there. Not a fan of either team but as a college basketball fan this is one that makes the calendar every year.

Great rivalry - although not as good as Michigan / OSU in football :-)

Posted by: Andy Brudtkuhl | February 16, 2009 at 08:44 AM

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