Duke’s remarkable win at UNC on February 8th will be talked about for years and the focus will be on the comeback.
We will forget - to an extent we already have forgotten in the glow of what happened - that prior to that, UNC was kicking Duke’s butt, that with 5:41 left to go, UNC was up 13. Then UNC took the lead in the first overtime.
Tre Jones put Duke in position for that remarkable win, twice, and Wendell Moore provided the explanation point.
But we’ve been here before.
In 2012, Austin Rivers hit an all-time dagger, an audacious three launched as time ran out. It was another comeback as Duke won 85-84 with the ball falling through as the buzzer went off.
In the rematch, Duke put that shot on the scoreboard as UNC’s players looked up calmly.
A couple of hours later, they had the win, 88-70.
In Cameron.
So don’t imagine it couldn’t happen again. Of course it could. Even with UNC coming in at a dismal 13-17 it could happen again.
Why not? In Coach K’s year away, in 1995, when Duke was struggling the same way, Jeff Capel launched an epic half court shot to tie the game at 95 and put it in double overtime. Duke lost, but still.
And then there’s the Robbie West game in 1972 when a weak Duke had no business competing with a highly ranked UNC team.
Stuff happens in this rivalry.
And the funny thing is, that as long as the game meets rivalry standards, people on both sides are mostly okay afterwards.
Don’t get us wrong, both camps want to win. But when the games are played at an extraordinarily high level, losing is less painful. You spend the next few days just shaking your head at what you saw.
Much like the first game this year.
UNC is reasonably healthy now and has won three in a row, and all of them fairly easy wins: NC State by six, after having a 10 point lead late, Syracuse by 13 on the road and Wake Forest by 10.
In both the Syracuse and Wake games, UNC was offensively explosive.
Against Syracuse, the Heels shot 51.6 percent overall and hit 11-26 from behind the line for 42.3 percent.
And against Wake Forest, UNC hit 58.8 percent from deep and 50.8 percent overall.
Cole Anthony, who earlier this season was taking (and missing) a huge percentage of UNC’s shots, has reined it in and moreover is scoring efficiently. Against Syracuse he was 8-13 and 7-11.
And against Wake Forest, he was 8-14 and 4-5.
That’s 33 points on three pointers if anyone is keeping track.
It’s not just him though. UNC has, overall, improved considerably. We talked earlier about how hard Garrison Brooks played while Anthony was out with an injury. That guy showed immense heart.
He’s a load inside and as we’ve seen in the last few games, Duke has had trouble defending quality post players without fouling a lot.
Obviously Duke will have to crack down on both perimeter shooting and Brooks’s inside dominance.
Brooks and Anthony have combined to average 51 ppg during the winning streak.
Duke has weapons to throw at Anthony. Between Jones, Jordan Goldwire, Cassius Stanley and Wendell Moore, the Blue Devils can put a lot of pressure on UNC’s perimeter game. And Alex O’Connell has improved to the point where we should mention him too. He was an awful defender as a freshman. He’s certainly above average now.
We’re not sure yet what the status is for Armando Bacot. A talented freshman, he has had more difficulty as the season has ground on and missed the Wake game with an ankle injury. We’re pretty sure he’ll play Saturday and even though he hasn’t scored well late in the season, he has continued to be an excellent rebounder.
Look, the rough season, the injuries, none of that stuff matters. UNC will be highly motivated; Duke will be defending home court on Senior Day.
At the end of the game, it’s very likely to be close and you just hope Duke pulls it out.
What else can you say? We all know how this works. It could be a classic.
Again.
And by the end of the evening we’ll all have moved on to looking at the ACC Tournament bracket anyway.
Incidentally, if the tournament were played today, UNC would be #13 and Duke #4. If UNC got past #12 Wake Forest and #5 Syracuse, the teams would go at it again on Thursday afternoon. That presumes a lot obviously but it’s worth keeping an eye on.