The Duke-UNC rivalry is red hot, not least of all in basketball, and it’s been like that for at least 63 years, since the Art Heyman fight in 1961.
There have been incredible games along the way – the triple-overtime win by Duke in 1968, the Kevin Billerman game, the Jeff Capel miracle…Wojo’s Senior Day…the Austin Rivers game…we could go on, but you get the idea.
An underappreciated gem came in 2011. UNC came to Cameron and was up by 14 at the half.
A furious rally saw Duke score eight straight to start the second half as Nolan Smith and Seth Curry heated up.
Ol’ Roy Williams burned a timeout – you know he hated doing it – but nothing worked. Duke kept coming.
By the time this was over, the Blue Devils pulled off a remarkable 79-73 win over their 15-501 rivals.
It’s not like this never happens. Both teams pull off crazy victories, virtually every year – but this one was particularly sweet. That team overcame a lot when Kyrie Irving went out and still managed to do quite well, finishing 32-5 and winning the ACC Tournament.
