In June, Coach K announced his extremely un-sudden future retirement, giving the world a full 10 months to prepare for (celebrate?) his departure.įor his final campaign, Coach K secured the services of three five-star recruits, including two of the top six players on Kevin O’Connor’s NBA Big Board, Paolo Banchero and A.J. In April, UNC head coach Roy Williams announced his sudden retirement, elevating longtime assistant Hubert Davis into the head job. In 2020-21, Duke missed the men’s tournament for the first time in 26 years, while UNC was eliminated in the first round. In 2019-20, North Carolina finished below. However, neither team made that Final Four, and both programs took steps back in the years directly afterward.
At the time, I described the situation as “ college basketball armageddon.” 1 seeds in the men’s tournament, prompting me to write a lengthy article about whether the programs could meet in the Final Four for the first time. In 2018-19, both the Tar Heels and Blue Devils earned no. This isn’t the first time that both Duke and Carolina have looked like national championship contenders in the same season. This one game is a potential inflection point for the sport’s biggest rivalry and could provide the defining memory of one of the sport’s greatest coaches. He could go out with a national championship, helping cement his legacy as the greatest coach of all time, or he could lose his final game to his biggest rival. If Duke wins the title, it will tie UNC for third place on the all-time leaderboard, with six.Īnd there’s an added layer of intensity because Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski-the winningest college basketball coach in history-is set to retire after 42 years in charge of the Blue Devils. Now, not only are they playing in the NCAA tournament, but they’re playing in the Final Four, with both teams just two wins away from a championship. However, Carolina and Duke have never faced off in men’s college basketball’s signature event. (Kansas is in second, having gotten a head start by hiring the guy who invented basketball.) UNC-Duke is easily the biggest rivalry in the sport, in terms of all-time achievement, modern-day success, and, of course, proximity-fueled hate. The campuses of North Carolina and Duke sit just 20 miles apart outside of Raleigh, and the schools are third and fourth, respectively, on the all-time men’s college basketball wins leaderboard. Here’s everything you need to know about the game of the year, or decade, or millennium. The two fierce rivals are playing for the first time in March Madness, with a potential championship-and a defining moment for head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s legacy-on the line.
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