By Stuart Graeber
After a long tournament that began with 68 teams, only four remain — Villanova, Kansas, UNC and Duke are the teams left standing in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. Kansas will face Villanova and Duke will play UNC with the winners advancing to the championship game.
But the matchup between UNC and Duke is already being hyped up as the biggest game in college history and will certainly outshine the other Final Four game. Here’s why.
Duke and UNC have a long bitter rivalry that has been going on since the beginning of college sports. The two colleges are only eight miles apart in Durham (Duke) and Chapel Hill (UNC) and are both extremely competitive athletic colleges, specifically in basketball where both schools are normally near the top of the college basketball rankings each year. They have played each other 257 times since 1920: UNC with 141 wins and Duke with 115.
Anytime these two teams meet, it is always a showcase of incredible basketball talents from both sides of the court. This year is different, however, as UNC and Duke will be meeting in March for the first time in history. This storied rivalry finally clashes in the NCAA tournament.
To add even more excitement to the game, this is Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final year as the Duke head coach. Coach K is considered one of the greatest coaches of all time, leading Duke to five national championships in his tenure with the team. He also holds the team record for most Final Four appearances with 13 in his 42 years with Duke.
The excitement and hype being built for this game — on Saturday, April 2nd — is a product of the long and rich rivalry between two historically great basketball programs. This Final Four game has arguably been hyped up more than any other game in the history of college basketball and even all of college sports.
The UNC-Duke rivalry comes to its biggest battle yet this Saturday with either UNC or Duke holding a spot in the National Championship game.
