UNC-Duke Rivalry

According to Webster, the term rivalry is defined as competition for the same objective or for superiority in the same field. In sports, rivalries are known as some of the greatest games ever to be played. Rivalries are a tremendous aspect of sports and without them; athletics would not be at the same competitive level.

When one hears the term rivalry regarding athletics, majority of people immediately think to the Red Sox vs. Yankees, Michigan vs. Ohio State college football, Muhammad Ali vs. Joe Frazier, and the Giants vs. the Patriots. Even the Cortland vs. Ithaca football game is a well-known rivalry across the nation. Although these rivalries are some of the greatest known in sports history, the one that stands out to me the most is the Carolina-Duke men’s college basketball rivalry between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University.

The Carolina-Duke rivalry is considered to be one of the most intense rivalries in all of sports and it is currently ranked as third on ESPN’s “The 10 greatest rivalries” list. Both Carolina and Duke are two of the four most successful teams in the history of college basketball, with the most wins. These two teams match up twice a year, and just about every time the game is down to the wire, relying on a buzzer shot to determine the outcome. Carolina and Duke have met up a total of 233 times, UNC leading the series with 131 winning games to Duke’s 102.

In tonight’s matchup during rivalry week on ESPN, Duke’s freshman Austin Rivers shot a 3 with less than a second left on the clock to win the game for Duke. Immediately the Duke team swarmed Rivers, tackling him down to the floor with absolute excitement and happiness. At one point it seemed as if UNC was going to take the win when they were up by ten with just a few minutes left in game play. However; when Carolina and Duke are playing, the game is not over till it is over, and Austin Rivers certainly made this point clear tonight after sinking the winning three pointer. Tonight was a great game for college basketball, and now I can only look forward till the next Carolina- Duke rivalry matchup when the two teams meet again on March 3, 2012. 

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