NEW ORLEANS — The name “Tobacco Road” misses the point. The most important industry in the 11-mile stretch of real estate between North Carolina’s two cathedrals of hoops, the Smith Center in Chapel Hill and Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, is basketball.
For decades, a win, or loss, in any given matchup between Duke and North Carolina has had the power to shape the next week, or month, or year, for the thousands of fans who wear different shades of blue, and bring two different worldviews to one of the most intense rivalries in sports.
On Saturday comes the 258th and most titanic meeting of them all — Blue Devils vs. Tar Heels in the Final Four, the first time that’s ever happened. That it’s happening in the 47th and final year of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s record-setting career, and that North Carolina could put an official end to that career, only adds to the tension.
“There are some portions of both fan bases that are scared to death to see this game for fear of losing it,” said Wes Durham, the longtime play-by-play announcer who also hosts an ACC-themed sports talk show. “There are others who just say, ‘This is the biggest stage this rivalry has seen, but it doesn’t automatically mean whoever wins has leverage over the loser forever.’ Only time will tell.”
The coaches and players are doing their best to play this straight. A national semifinal being played on the floor of the Superdome is a massive enough moment in and of itself. Any opponent in such a high-stakes meeting is, by definition, an opponent demanding a team’s full attention.
“It would always be important if it’s North Carolina,” Krzyzewski said. “It’s the most important because if you win, you get a chance to play for the national championship. And that has to be your focus.”
The messaging is completely valid. Listening to the “outside noise” — or, as Carolina coach Hubert Davis calls it “phone, family, friends and fans” — will not help either team prepare for this meeting.
Yet, there are some things that simply cannot be avoided. Namely, the idea, baked into the DNA and geography of Tobacco Road, that these teams, and these schools, don’t really like each other.
The rivalry shares features with others like it across the college landscape. One that comes to mind is the Auburn-Alabama showdown in football, an annual game that sets, or resets, bragging rights throughout the state for the ensuing 365 days, and often carries with it conference and national-title implications.
Durham said he’s heard Auburn-Alabama described as “a football game that determines a culture war.”
But where those schools are separated by 150 miles, and those teams play once a year, Carolina and Duke are next-door neighbors.
“They both need each other,” Durham said. “The reason it’s great is because both are so successful.”
For North Carolina, this marks a record 21st trip to the Final Four. For Coach K, this is a record 13th trip to college basketball’s biggest stage, which breaks a tie with UCLA legend John Wooden for most appearances by a coach.
The teams meet exactly four weeks after North Carolina walked into Cameron Indoor Stadium and put a beatdown on Duke in Coach K’s final home game. It was supposed to be a celebration of a lifetime of coaching. Instead, a lasting memory of the day was Krzyzewski taking the mic after the 94-81 loss, apologizing and calling the entire performance “unacceptable.”
There are those who had argued that that meeting — meeting No. 257 — was the most consequential game the teams had played in a rivalry that dates to 1920.
Now comes Game No. 258. Yes, there will always be next year. But given the stakes, the setting and the people and history involved, there won’t be anything quite like this again.
“If you’re Carolina and you won Coach K’s last game at Cameron, and then you won the game to end his career,” Durham said, “I could see how that might linger a bit.”
Villanova-Kansas renew high-stakes history
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Bill Self was wading through old video of Villanova this week, trying to scout a specific action that the Wildcats use on the offensive end of the floor, when the Hall of Fame Kansas coach did something he’s avoided the past four years.
Self watched film of the 2018 Final Four.
The one where the Wildcats embarrassed Kansas on their march toward a third national championship.
“I didn’t really watch it to try to, you know, have memories,” Self said with a grim smile Friday. “I say I watched it — I got through about 12 minutes of it. After that it was very obvious I wasn’t going to enjoy it. There are other tapes to watch.”
Plenty involving the Jayhawks and Wildcats.
The college basketball powers have become regular NCAA Tournament dates over the years, and their latest high-stakes showdown comes Saturday night, when they square off again in the national semifinals at the Superdome.
It will be the fourth time since Self and Villanova counterpart Jay Wright took over in the early 2000s that they’ve matched wits in the Sweet 16 or beyond, and each time, the winner has gone on to claim the national championship.
That includes Self’s lone national championship in 2008, the first for Wright in 2016, and that memorable 2018 matchup in San Antonio that folks in Kansas have tried to forget — and that fans in Philadelphia continue to cherish.
“It was just one of those games,” recalled Wright, whose team roared to a 22-4 lead, dropped an astounding 18 3-pointers and was never challenged after about 5 minutes. “We’ve been on the other side of that. I remember looking down at Bill and thinking, ‘I’ve been there before.’ It just so happened it was a Final Four game.”
Self and Wright are quick to say what happened in the Alamodome has no bearing on what will take place in the Superdome, where the winner will face Duke or North Carolina for the title. But the programs are the same, and so are some of the players, thanks to medical and COVID-19 waivers that have produced two of the oldest teams in Final Four history.
In fact, two-time Big East player of the year Collin Gillespie is still running the show for the Wildcats four years later, and Kansas big man Mitch Lightfoot is still giving the Jayhawks energy and attitude off the bench.
“Its fate, almost. Like it’s written,” Lightfoot said. “We played them in the Four and lost to them in 2018, so it’s only fair to go out there and give them our best shot, and we’re going to get their best shot. It’s going to be a great game.”
Kansas has been perhaps the most dominant team in the tournament, rolling into the Big Easy as the lone No. 1 seed still standing, while the Wildcats have become a feel-good story after losing star guard Justin Moore to an injury.
Yet both have flown under the radar. And they’re content to let the epic Duke-Carolina showdown — their 258th meeting but first in the NCAA Tournament, and the last for retiring Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski — absorb the harsh spotlight that comes with playing on college basketball’s biggest stage.
“It’s perfect. We don’t need anybody to talk us up,” Jayhawks guard Christian Braun said. “We know who we are. We’re Kansas. We’re the only No. 1 seed and that’s for a reason.”
