It's almost impossible to fathom that Duke and North Carolina have never met in the NCAA Tournament. However, in the last dance for Coach K there is not a more fitting opponent than the Tar Heels. The two Tobacco Road rivals are separated by only about 12 miles. However this chapter of the rivalry will play out in "the Big Easy" about 850 miles from Tobacco Road. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it any better than how it has played out in real life.
They are two of the "blue blood" programs in college basketball. UNC has made the Final Four 21 times, the most in college hoops history. Duke is making its 13th Final Four appearance under Coach K. The Blue Devils are looking for their 6th National Title in his tenure. UNC has won 6 national title in program history, the last coming in 2017. The Heels made back to back National Title Games in 2016 and 2017.
The two teams spilt a pair of regular season meetings. Duke took the 1st meeting in Chapel Hill 87-67. UNC spoiled Coach K's final home game handling Duke 94-81 at Cameron Indoor. Now the biggest rival Coach K and Duke have ever had could either end his career or be the stepping stone to another National Title Game appearance.
The two most compelling storylines of this tournament have been 1. How far would Duke go in Coach K's final run in March? 2. St. Peter's unfathomable run being the only 15 seed to ever make the Elite 8. UNC crushed one of those storylines to advance to the Final 4, as they blew St. Peter's out. Can the Heels crush the other incredible storyline and end the career of Coach K, in the first year of the Hubert Davis era? High drama, indeed. Villanova and Kansas will open the Final 4 on Saturday night. That game is set for a 6:09 tip off. Duke and UNC are set to tip off around 8:50 PM. The words "high drama" have never been so fitting. This is one of those times where sports trumps the silver screen, with real life having a way of writing an even better script.