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ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : Is Duke-North Carolina really college basketball’s best rivalry?
Some questions seem simple but demand a more complex answer. Some questions seem complicated but don’t require a complex answer. Some questions are complicated and demand an accordingly complicated response.
Then there is the fourth kind of question: the simple question which can be answered simply.
Duke-Carolina IS the best rivalry in college basketball. It’s that simple. Nope — don’t overthink it. Don’t try to be the cool kid in the classroom who thinks he has the answer no one else is brilliant enough to provide.
It’s not brilliant to insist that Blue Devils-Tar Heels is second to any other college basketball rivalry.
The one answer which can MAYBE KINDA SORTA belong in the same ballpark as Duke-Carolina is Kentucky-Louisville, but that is played once per season, not twice. It wasn’t played for multiple decades. When the two teams met in the 1983 NCAA Tournament Mideast Regional final in Knoxville, Tennessee, they were both riding high, but in the 36 years since that game, the high points for UK and UL haven’t always coincided. Louisville lost its edge at the end of Denny Crum’s enormously successful run, and Rick Pitino needed quite some time to build UL into an annual force. Only on a few select occasions were the Cats and Cards both at the top of the mountain in college basketball. The 1983 Elite Eight, 2012 Final Four, and 2014 Sweet 16 were three such moments. Moreover, even in some of those seasons leading up to NCAA Tournament clashes, it’s not as though both teams were fully formed. They often had to struggle before they ironed out their problems in February and early March.
This brings up a key point about Duke-Carolina: It is regularly played in the final four weeks before the NCAA Tournament, AND it sometimes gets renewed in the ACC Tournament. UK-UL doesn’t have the late-season intensity Duke-UNC owns. It also lacks the ability to be played during conference tournament week.
Duke-UNC is played more often; later in the season; for higher stakes; when the teams are better; and the games are usually very close and compelling.
Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. Duke-UNC checks all the key boxes more (or better) than Kentucky-Louisville does.
This doesn’t mean UK-UL is a second-rate rivalry. It is the second-best rivalry in the whole darn country. That’s excellent… but it’s not as excellent as Duke-UNC.
The king stays the king. Don’t overthink it.
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