WATCH: North Carolina governor releases bold proclamation ahead of Final Four
The state of North Carolina has to two of the most storied programs in college basketball, and ahead of the first-ever meeting between Duke and their rivals from Chapel Hill, the governor of the Tar Heel State released an official video with a bold proclamation that is going to make a lot of other fan bases and states angry.
With North Carolina battling the Blue Devils in one of the most highly-anticipated Final Four showdowns in recent history, Roy Cooper himself took to social media to inform the masses that his state is now the best in the land when it comes to college hoops.
The Duke Blue Devils — with Coach K facing rival North Carolina for the final time for sure this time with — have managed to find themselves competing in the Final Four, making unprecedented history along the way.
Even other coaches still competing in the NCAA Tournament agree that Saturday’s ACC clash between the bitter rivals deserves all of the attention.
North Carolina vs. Duke makes for historical matchup
In a series that was first played in 1920, North Carolina and Duke have met an astonishing 256 times and the Tar Heels own a 144-114 edge in one of the greatest sports rivalries of all time.
Now, in 2022, the longtime ACC powerhouses — who had much different paths to New Orleans — will do something that’s never been done in the history of the rivalry by competing in the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Duke and North Carolina played their first basketball game on January 24, 1920. The two teams have met at least twice a year since then. The games frequently determine the Atlantic Coast Conference champion; since the ACC’s founding in 1953, Duke and Carolina have combined to win or share 49 ACC regular season titles (77.7% of the total) and 38 tournament titles (59.4% of the total), including 14 of 15 from 1996 to 2011. The final game of the regular season for both schools alternates between Chapel Hill and Durham and has been played in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1940 and the Dean E. Smith Center since 1986.
Combining for 11 national championships over the last 36 years, Duke and Carolina have captured 28% of the national championships, or greater than one every four years. Over the past 18 years, one of the two teams has been the AP pre-season #1 ranked team in the country 8 times (44% of the time). Since 1977–78, Duke or Carolina has been in the pre-season top three 28 times (70%). Over the entirety of the AP poll (the past 69 years), the teams have been in the pre-season top four 69% of the time. Over this same period, one has been pre-season #1 18 times, making it an almost 3 in 10 chance that Duke or North Carolina starts the year at #1 in the last 50+ years. One of the two teams has peaked at AP #1 in 32 separate seasons since 1977, a 7 in 10 chance that Duke or Carolina peaked as the top-ranked team in the country at some point in the season since 1977.
“The basketball gods put two very deserving programs there because both of us played well in four games to get here,” Krzyzewski said. “This is not somebody putting you there – it’s somebody earning the opportunity. I think this will be my 98th game that I’ve coached against North Carolina.
“Roy Williams and I, before Hubert [Davis] took over this year, we often remark how lucky we were to be the coaches of Duke and North Carolina because what people have done before us. … Players and coaches have really elevated this rivalry to such a high level – and to do it on this stage is pretty cool, really.”
No. 2 seeded Duke and No. 8 North Carolina are set to tipoff at 8:49 p.m. ET on Saturday at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, with TBS carrying the national broadcast. The winner will face the winner of No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Villanova in Monday night’s national championship game.
No matter the outcome, a team from the state will advance. If either Duke or UNC claim the title, the governor could actually have a strong case.