A Rivalry That Can't Be Matched

There's nothing in the world of athletic competition that's quite as spectacular as an intense rivalry. It brings out the passion, intensity, and unity of fan bases that makes sports great. An of all the great rivalries in sports, there is one that stands above all the rest. I am talking about the basketball rivalry between two national powers that reside just 8 miles apart, Duke and North Carolina. But what is it that makes this rivalry stand out above all the others?

Great Players
The slew of great players to participate in this rivalry is endless. Duke boasts 55 All-Americans, 9 National Players of the Year, and 11 ACC Players of the Year including ACC 2nd all time leading scorer JJ Redick, Christian Laettner, Jason Williams, Shane Battier, Elton Brand, Danny Ferry, Johnny Dawkins, and others. Not to be outdone, North Carolina has had 82 All-Americans, 12 National Players of the Year, and 12 ACC Players of the Year including the ACC's all time leading scorer and rebounder Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Sean May, Antwan Jamison, Jerry Stackhouse, Kenny Smith, Phil Ford, and James Worthy. Oh yeah, some guy named Michael Jordan went there. You may have heard of him.

Great Coaches
The coaches that have walked the sideline at these schools are second to none. Obviously, Duke is best known for Mike Kryzewski but Eddie Cameron(Cameron Indoor is named after him) and Vic Bubas were both fantastic coaches for the Blue Devils. North Carolina has had 5 different coaches win National Coach of the Year with Frank McGuire, Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, Matt Doherty, and Roy Williams winning 8 between them. The Carolina coaching tree is very far reaching in both the college and pro game. 10% of all coaches in the NBA are former Tar Heels.

Success
Duke and Carolina are both widely considered Top 5 programs in men's college basketball as well as being the dominant programs in the ACC, arguably the premier conference for college basketball. Duke is tied for 3rd all time with 14 Final Four appearances while UNC has the most with 18 appearances. North Carolina has 5 national titles(they were also awarded a 6th for their undefeated 1924 season by the Helms Foundation) which is tied for 3rd all time. Not far behind is Duke with 3 titles putting them in a tie for 5th all time. Duke is 2nd all time with 18 ACC Regular Season Championships. Guess who's first. Of course, it's North Carolina with 27. And both teams are tied for the most ACC Tournament Championships with 17.

The Fans
These schools have two of the largest and most passionate fanbases in college basketball and nothing revs them up more than when these teams clash on the court. The hate they feel towards their rival team matches the love they feel for their own. The fans measure their teams' successes based off of how they fared against the team that lies 8 miles away. There is no other rivalry where the two teams' fanbases hate each other more than this one and that is one of the main things that makes it great.

Memorable Games
There have been an endless number of fantastic games between these two schools and that is something that really separates this rivalry from others. And because there are so many of them, I will probably dedicate an entire post to them in the future but for now I'll list the 5 greatest North Carolina-Duke matchups ever in my opinion(Note: Due to my age, I will show a slight favortism towards more recent matchups)
5. March 2, 1968: #10 Duke 87 #3 North Carolina 86(OT) "Lind Becomes An Unlikely Hero"
Duke defeated North Carolina 87-86 in triple overtime at Duke Indoor Stadium (later renamed Cameron Indoor Stadium) when seldom used Duke junior Fred Lind erupted for 16points, 9 rebounds, and 3 blocks after having only scored 21 points total in his entire career. When Duke All-American center Mike Lewis picked up his third foul in the first half (and Warren Chapman, his backup, had a knee injury), Duke coach Vic Bubas called on Lind to fill the void against North Carolina greats Rusty Clark and Bill Bunting. Lewis returned in the second half, but fouled out (four Blue Devils and one Tar Heel fouled out of the game) with about five minutes left in regulation when Duke was down by five, and Lind returned to the court. Lind went on to carry the Blue Devils in the three overtimes, blocking North Carolina's shot attempt at the end of regulation, making two free throws at the end of the first overtime, and knocking down a 15-foot jumper at the buzzer to send it into a third overtime. At the conclusion of the game, the students carried Lind to Duke’s main quad.
4. February 28, 1998: #1 Duke 77, #3 North Carolina 75 "Huge Second Half Comeback"
Just two months removed from a broken foot that most assumed would sideline him for the season, Duke freshman Elton Brand rallied the Blue Devils from a 64-47 second-half deficit with 12 minutes remaining to a 77-75 victory over North Carolina. The victory earned Duke the ACC regular-season championship and Coach Mike Krzyzewski his 500th victory in the most memorable game of the college season. Duke tied the game at 75-75 on a slashing floater by sophomore Chris Carrawell with 2:00 remaining and took the lead for the first time on a driving basket by Roshown McLeod one minute later as the North Carolina offense lapsed into a series of turnovers and errant shots. Both point guard Ed Cota and freshman center Brendan Haywood had a chance to tie the game from the free-throw line in the waning seconds, but both missed the first of two free throws, and the Tar Heels were unable to turn intentional misses on the second attempts into points.
3. March 4, 2006: #13 North Carolina 83 #1 Duke 76 "Hansbrough Ruins Redick's Senior Night"
Coming into the game ranked #1 in both polls, Duke hosted senior night, honoring the National Player of the Year and all-time ACC leading scorer J.J. Redick and two-time National Defensive Player of the Year Shelden Williams. North Carolina, the defending national champions, had lost the whole core of the team that won it all the year before, but came into the game on a 4-game winning streak. Freshmen Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green led North Carolina as well as veterans Reyshawn Terry and David Noel. ESPN broadcast the game on all three of its channels as part of its first ESPN Full Circle coverage, showing a marathon of past games hours before tipoff. Duke led early 13-2 as Redick caught fire and hit his first five shots. The Tar Heels fought back, cutting the deficit to one by halftime. The Tar Heels stormed out to a 72-62 lead as Hansbrough and Terry starting hitting their shots in the second half. After a timeout, Duke's Williams hook shot pulled Duke back within eight, but Hansbrough recovered a loose ball 25 feet from the hoop answered with a three pointer to beat the shot clock. Duke gradually pulled within three points with 1:31 left. However, that was as close as it would get. The Heels hit their free throws down the stretch, Redick missed 15 of his last 16 shots, and DeMarcus Nelson shot an air ball that resulted in a shot clock violation that prevented a late Duke rally, leading to a final score of 83-76. The game was watched by 3.78 million households on ESPN and ESPN2, making it the most-viewed men's college basketball game ever.
2. March 2, 1974: #4 North Carolina 96 Duke 92(OT) "Eight Points in Seventeen Seconds"
Duke led North Carolina by 86–78 with 17 seconds left. Despite the deficit and despite the fact that the game took place prior to the implementation of the three point shot, North Carolina rallied with a pair of free throws and two forced turnovers, and after Duke's Pete Kramer missed two free throws, tied the score on Walter Davis's 30 foot bank shot as time expired. The game went into overtime, where North Carolina prevailed, 96–92. To this day, many regard this comeback as the greatest in college basketball history.
1. March 6, 2005: #2 North Carolina 75 #6 Duke 73 "The Thriller in Chapel Hill"
On Senior Day in Chapel Hill, before the largest crowd to see a college game on-campus in the state of North Carolina (22,125), the Tar Heels had a chance to win their first outright ACC regular-season title since 1993. However, they trailed Duke 73-64 with three minutes to play. Offensive rebounds and subsequent put backs by North Carolina's Jawad Williams and Marvin Williams, the latter set up by a Duke turnover, cut the lead to five with two minutes to go. Duke's DeMarcus Nelson missed the front end of a one-and-one, giving the ball back to North Carolina. Sean May then rebounded a miss of his own, was fouled on the put back, and converted the free throw to complete the three-point play, trimming the lead to 73-71 with 1:45 to go. Missed jumpers by Lee Melchionni and J.J. Redick gave the ball back to the Tar Heels, but Duke's Shelden Williams came up with a huge block to regain possession for the Blue Devils with less than a minute to go. Duke inbounded the ball and looked to move it quickly up court, but North Carolina's David Noel chased down Daniel Ewing from behind and knocked the ball away before he could get a pass off. Raymond Felton came up with the loose ball in a scrum and called for time, setting up a game-tying possession for the Tar Heels - an eerily similar scenario to the game one month earlier at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This time, Felton took the ball to the hoop and drew a foul. Felton nailed the first free throw to cut the lead to one, but missed the second one. However, Felton redeemed himself for his failure at Cameron, and managed to tip the rebound to Marvin Williams, who took it straight back up, put the ball in the hoop and drew a foul, giving the Tar Heels the lead and blowing the roof off the Smith Center in the process. The free throw made it 75-73, and Duke called time to set up one final play. The ball went to sharpshooter Redick, but his three-pointer rimmed out, and Ewing's desperation jumper at the buzzer fell short. After Marvin Williams' putback to give the Heels the lead, the Dean Dome became the loudest it has ever been.

It is those factors that lead me to argue that the Battle for Tobacco Road is the best rivalry that American sports has to offer. With all that said, there is only question that remains. What shade of blue are you?