It seemed like today would never come, right? You’ve been waiting for this game for weeks, if not all year. It’s the big one. The big clash between ancient rivals that captivates the nation. That’s right, the Seminoles of Florida State travel to U-Hall tonight to take on Virginia in yet another titanic tilt between these two giants.
I CAN’T WAIT!
The other game tonight is Carolina heading up 15-501 to play the Blue Devils in Cameron. That should be a pretty good game too.
Back when I was first getting into college basketball, in the early eighties, the big conference rivalry (to my eyes) was UNC-Virginia. It seemed like whenever they played, one of the teams was ranked #1. Ralph Sampson, Jeff Lamp, Othell Wilson, Jeff Jones, Rick Carlisle, et al versus James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Michael Jordan, Jimmy Black, Kenny Smith, Beelzebub, Brad Daugherty and the rest of the Evil Empire. They were great games.
Before that, back in the 70s, NC State-Carolina was the big game. There was even a stretch of years when State-Maryland was the top rivalry going.
A few years back, Duke-Maryland got all the national press.
But since at least the late 80s, Duke-Carolina has been THE rivalry in the ACC. Hell, it’s been THE college basketball rivalry in the county. For my money, it compares favorably to any other American sports rivalry in any sport. Alabama-Auburn. Army-Navy. Ohio State-Michigan. Yankees-Red Sox. UNLV-NCAA. Those are all great rivalries, but none match the intensity and quality of Carolina-Duke. This year’s game has both teams in the top ten for what seems like the millionth time. Every time they play, it’s a potential Final Four preview. That they’ve never actually met in a Final Four is a statistical anomaly.
I could ramble on about the game, but I won’t because every other writer of note has already done it and most can do it better than I ever could. I’ll just give you some links to some particularly interesting reads on the game. Something to kill your last hour or so of work today.
The DBR (yeah it’s a Duke site, but they have a great preview and lots of links to non-partisan articles)
The News & Observer (and here and here) The N&O’s Caulton Tudor makes a good point that you shouldn’t pay too much attention to the outcome of tonight’s game.
A great piece from the Charlotte Observer on Cameron Indoor.
Michael Ventre at MSNBC.com gives you reasons to hate Duke (this offsets my DBR link).