University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: It's Still North Carolina-Duke
January 31, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2002
By Adam Lucas
TarHeelBlue.com
So Duke-Carolina is just another game this year. That's the word on the street, propagated by those same folks who want you to believe that Duke-Maryland is the new best rivalry in college basketball.
Maybe so. But if that's the case, you're going to have to convince Tommy Kearns. His free throws at Woollen Gym in 1957 provided the winning margin in a 75-73 win, the 18th straight in a season that ended in a national championship.
You'll have to convince Charlie Scott. He scored 28 points in the second half of the 1969 ACC Tournament championship, leading the Heels to their third straight league title back when you could win the league tournament or you could go home. Scott's performance, which included several long jumpers, would have been even more incredible if there had been a three-point line.
You'll have to convince Bobby Jones. He stole the ball and made a layup with no time left to provide a 73-71 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium in 1974. That game has almost been forgotten because of what happened between the two teams later that season.
You'll have to convince the rest of the 1974 Tar Heels, too. They completed the most improbable comeback in Carolina history, coming from eight points down in 17 seconds--no three-point line, youngsters--at Carmichael Auditorium for a 96-92 overtime win. The hardest to convince will probably be Walter Davis, who banked in a 30-foot jumpshot at the buzzer in regulation to force overtime. The next day, Dean Smith asked him to make the same shot in practice. It missed.
You'll have to convince Phil Ford. All he did was score 34 points on Senior Day, back when it deserved to be capitalized, against the Blue Devils in 1978. It was the perfect end to the perfect Tar Heel career, capped with making both ends of a one-and-one with six seconds left to seal the victory.
You'll have to convince Matt Doherty. He went coast-to-coast--current Tar Heels, stop guffawing, he really did. Trust us, there's tape of it. Anyhow, he went coast-to-coast and hit the game-tying shot with one second left to force overtime. This was yet another Senior Day, capitalized.
You'll have to convince J.R. Reid. He and Jeff Lebo combined to lead Carolina over Duke at the 1989 ACC Tournament at the Omni, back when this hated rivalry really was hated. The players on these two teams weren't off getting haircuts together, as evidenced by a couple of run-ins during the course of the game.
You'll have to convince Eric Montross. To do so, you'll have to convince him that the storied photo of him from the 1992 game at the Smith Center really isn't all that important. You know the one--Montross stands in the Dean Dome, blood streaming from a cut near his eye. Derrick Phelps hit the game-clinching free throws, but Montross remains the enduring symbol of this game.
You'll have to convince Jerry Stackhouse. Two words: reverse dunk. For those who saw the 1995 game at Cameron Indoor, that's all the description that's needed. Even Doherty, when asked about that game this week, said, "Was that the game where Jerry Stackhouse had that reverse dunk?" Yes, and Eric Meek still cringes when he thinks about it. By the way, the game went double-overtime and featured a halfcourt miracle shot by Jason Capel's brother, Jeff.
You'll have to convince Dante Calabria. Carolina trailed by 17 in the 1996 game at the Dean Dome, but they slowly trimmed the lead. Calabria's tip-in of a Serge Zwikker miss resulted in a wild celebration, but only after Ricky Price missed a last-second jumper.
You'll have to convince Vince Carter and Ed Cota. Seriously, have you ever seen a better missed dunk than the one Carter almost threw down off a pass off the backboard from Cota in the second half of the 1998 game?
You'll have to convince Joseph Forte. He set a Tar Heel backcourt record with 16 rebounds and also added 24 points in last year's pulsating 85-83 victory at Cameron.
So maybe you can find moments like this in that suddenly storied Duke-Maryland rivalry. But you'll have to convince me.
Adam Lucas is the co-publisher of Basketball America. He is a lifelong observer of UNC sports and can be reached at JAdamLucas@aol.com.
