What would happen if Duke met North Carolina in the Final Four?
Mar 31, 2012, 11:01 AM EDT
What would happen if North Carolina and Duke met in the Final Four? According to the Fayetteville Observer, “Armageddon”.
With Louisville and Kentucky meeting on Saturday evening in New Orleans, the “intrastate rivalry” question has been raised, but because of the stakes, parties on both sides of the UNC-Duke line say it would be the biggest game in the history of the rivalry.
“You could argue the point it would give ultimate bragging rights,” former North Carolina player and current UNC radio analyst Eric Montross told the Observer.
The backstory is familiar: Duke and North Carolina are separated by 11 miles, have met 234 times, and harbor more unkind feelings toward each other than most any two teams in college basketball.
Outside of the programs themselves, who wouldn’t want to see that?
Fans were treated to a delight this year, as Austin Rivers hit a rainbow three at the end of regulation to give the Blue Devils a road win over the Tar Heels. North Carolina bounced back in the rematch and trounced Duke by 18 points. Revenge.
But imagine the implications of a moment like the one Rivers had earlier in the season on the landscape of college basketball, were it to have taken place in the Final Four. The two bitterest rivals in the sport, and a freshman knocks down a shot to advance to the national championship or, heck, even win the whole thing.
“I felt like it would suck,” Jay Bilas, former Duke assistant and now broadcaster told the Observer about the possibility of a Final Four matchup. “It would be the last word, the trump card, and it might never happen again.”
Maybe Kentucky-Louisville could be the test run. We haven’t seen an intrastate Final Four matchup in 50 years. If this goes well, we could wish for North Carolina-Duke. Just wish.
Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_
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- someidiotfromouthereintheprojects - Mar 31, 2012 at 11:11 AM
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unc would slaughter them and the duke fans, the fanbase with the most virigins in the world, would cry and go bake homemade cookies. and the next day they’d receive letters in the mail from their mommas telling them they don’t love them anymore. that’s what would happen.
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- shrshot - Mar 31, 2012 at 1:24 PM
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Does this need to be discussed outside of the tiny area full of self important a-holes in this tiny portion of North Carolina where people are more self absorbed than any other part of the world outside of North Korea? The answer to your question is … Hopefully they will burn each others schools down and we won’t have to hear koach k whine at the refs about flops not being called fouls or UNC complaining about depth with 29 McDonald’s AAs on the team
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- someidiotfromouthereintheprojects - Mar 31, 2012 at 3:22 PM
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^^^^^^^^^^
wake forest fan?
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- latchbeam - Mar 31, 2012 at 4:24 PM
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Who cares? They both lost early…
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- jumbossportsblog - Mar 31, 2012 at 4:33 PM
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Reblogged this on jumbossportsblog.
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- shrshot - Mar 31, 2012 at 4:40 PM
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See what I mean? someidiotfromouthereintheprojects can’t even fathom me being from outside of NC… ACC the All Carolina Conference
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- latchbeam - Apr 1, 2012 at 12:40 AM
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jumbo steals another one! Write your own stuff!!!
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- ezmoney78 - Apr 1, 2012 at 12:58 PM
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I dislike both but nobody knows how good duke could have been. It seemed like all i seen all year was how good Austin Rivers isn’t. One lucky shot in a season isn’t enough to write Doc about.
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- ku62 - Apr 3, 2012 at 11:13 AM
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It’s pretty simple. If Duke and Carolina met in FF, Lehigh vs Kansas would be played after midnight in a YMCA gym, and ESPN would show highlights a few days later.
