UNC-Duke: The Rivalry Continues

Kevin McNeill — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:44:16 -0800

On Sunday, two arch-rivals will play each other in their final regular season game. Both teams will be ranked in the Top 10, with nothing less than a possible #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament at stake. It promises not only to be a great game, but also to boast the single highest television ratings of the college basketball season.

Just another day in the UNC-Duke rivalry.

Year in and year out, message boards and talking heads debate endlessly over which rivalry in college sports tops them all. Every year, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils seemingly put an end to that debate, if only for a moment.

What makes it such a great rivalry? To start, you have two of the winningest programs in history. Only Kentucky (1,966 wins) has more victories than North Carolina (1,950), while Duke is right there with the fourth most victories ever (1,846), behind Kansas (1,943). The two programs have a combined 31 Final Fours and 7 national titles, behind only UCLA. Both current coaches are in the Hall of Fame, and each program has consistently produced great NBA players - some of the greatest in basketball history. There are thrilling, nail-biting games between the two that seems to happen every year. But there's one other reason that this rivalry towers above all others.

These guys really hate each other.

Who could forget Coach Dean Smith, responding to Cameron Crazies holding up signs proclaiming "J.R. can't Reid", by announcing the less-than stellar SAT scores of a couple of Duke players - something that was not thought to be public information.

My personal favorite moment came in 1984, when Coach Smith tried to sound the horn himself after not being allowed to make a substitution by the refs. Only he pushed the wrong button, giving North Carolina an extra twenty points on the scoreboard. Smith never received a technical for his new scoring strategy, and UNC went on to win - which led Coach K to make his infamous "double standard" remark after the game.

Over the years, Duke and Carolina fans would go at each other over everything from beer ads, the cleverness (or lack thereof) of the Cameron Crazies, Sam Cassell's "wine and cheese crowd" comment, academics, partying and everything in between.

And then there are the games themselves.

In 1974 North Carolina stunningly came back from eight points down with 17 seconds on the clock and eventually won the game in overtime, widely considered the greatest comeback in history. There were the classic battles of 1984, Michael Jordan's last season in Chapel Hill, where UNC won in double overtime at the end of the regular season to go undefeated in ACC play, only to be toppled by Duke in thrilling fashion in the ACC Tournament a week later.

There was the ultimate "throw-out-the-record books" game in 1995, when a Coach K-less Duke team (who was out due to back surgery) that was 0-7 in the ACC took the second-ranked Tar Heels to double-overtime in a 102-100 thriller. Ten years later, the two would split their regular season games by a combined three points, with both contests decided on the last play of the game.

There was a bloody Eric Montross carrying his team to victory in 1992. An even bloodier Tyler Hansbrough needing to be held back from charging Gerald Henderson two years ago, after Henderson broke his nose with less than 15 seconds on the clock and the Tar Heels up by double digits. The list goes on.

So, if history is any indication, Sunday's matchup will be yet another chapter in that storied rivalry.

Amazingly, as great as this rivalry is, the two schools have never once met in the NCAA Tournament. In fact, they haven't played each other in the ACC tourney since 2003, a game won by the Blue Devils 75-63. Just as a college basketball fan, here's hoping both of those streaks end this year.

Top Student Sections: College Basketball

Dan Daitchman — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:51:43 -0800

What separates college basketball from the NBA and other sporting events? The insane passion that fans bring in on a nightly basis.. here's some of college basketball's best support sections:

1. Duke – The Cameron Crazies are the epitome of what a student section should be. Their seating lines the court all the way up to the front row, and is big factor in what makes Cameron Indoor the toughest place to play in the country. A good friend of mine was a straight – A student until his freshman year at Duke, when he camped out with several other friends in Krzyzewskiville for over a month for the North Carolina game and ended up with a 2.5 GPA for the semester. But was it worth it? “Absolutely” he said.

2. Kentucky – Not only does Kentucky have one of the best student sections, but they also have one of the best overall fan bases. With a capacity of 23,500, Rupp Arena is the third largest venue in college basketball. Students wait in the freezing cold for up to 12 hours before gametime. In honor of former coach Tubby Smith being from Scotland, MD, students dress in blue plaid, kilts, and face paint down in the “eRUPPtion Zone,” the standing-room only section behind one of the baskets.

3. Michigan State – The Breslin Center is commonly regarded as the toughest place to play in the Big Ten. Students have to regularly attend games for their first three years to get a shot at seats in the lower bowl their senior year. Plus it just sounds cool to sit in the Izzone.

4. Illinois – The Orange Krush make Assembly Hall in Champaign, IL a brutal place to play, as many of them are seated right on the floor. Not only are they loud, but they’re incredibly nasty, and got a lot of heat for how they treated Eric Gordon’s parents when Indiana came to town last year.

5. Kansas – The student sections at the Allen Fieldhouse are a big part of what make this venue so great. Students sit directly behind the south basket and the entire north end of the court. The Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk chant is arguably the most well-known these days in college basketball. Students camp out for upcoming games as soon as the current home game ends.

6. Washington – Hec Edmundson (Hec Ed) is arguably the toughest place to play in the Pac-10. The athletic department has gotten very creative in recent years. How do you get students to buy tickets for a football team that just went 0-12? By ensuring priority for basketball tickets! Former Washington State coach Dick Bennett got so mad at the student section that he once flipped them the bird. My personal favorite part about the Husky faithful: they randomly break into “Total Eclipse of the Heart” while waiting all day for a 7 p.m. game.

7. Pittsburgh – The students at the Zoo make the Petersen Events center a brutal place to play. Since they’ve begun play here, Pitt has won over 90% of its home games, and has only lost once in non-conference play.

8. Gonzaga – Bulldog fans have one notable trademark: “Support the ‘Stache.” This of course refers to ‘Zags great Adam Morrison who sported the pencil-thin mustache. Students honor him by wearing fake mustaches to all home games. Students also live up to their Jesuit academic reputation by doing thorough research on the opposition, checking GPA, police records, etc. to come up with original chants against their WCC brethren.

9. North Carolina – The Dean Dome has one of the highest attendance rates in the country at just over 19,000 per game, 6,000 of which are students clad in powder blue. Only two contestants on College Gameday have made the half court shot, one of them being a Tar Heel. The other? Arch-rival Duke.

10. New Mexico – You may not think it at first, but “The Pit” is a phenomenal venue for college basketball. Since it’s built underground, its acoustics make it one of the loudest in the land. It also ranked in the top 10 for attendance for a 35-year time span. The #1 fan for the Lobos is Mark 'Snake' Tichenor, who’s only missed one home game in the last 30 years.

Others: The Barnyard of Minnesota, Nittany Nation of Penn State, Grateful Red of Wisconsin, the general student body at Indiana (not really a unified student section though). (Plus as mentioned in the comments section: Screamin Deacons of Wake Forest, the Rowdy Reptiles of Florida, Utah State's general atmosphere, Purdue's Paint Crew, the Bud Walton crowd at Arkansas games). Post other named/somewhat official student sections in the comments section below.

What's your favorite college basketball cheering section? Lets hear about it below:

cameron crazies

UNC-Duke: The Rivalry Continues

Top Student Sections: College Basketball