VOD Not Available
This video is not available.
UNC-Duke Preview: Predicting Who Will Win Round Two
UNC and Duke will square off on Saturday inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Previewing who will win Round Two of college basketball's best rivalry.
March 4, 2016
UNC and Duke will square off on Saturday inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Who will win Round Two of college basketball’s best rivalry?
Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski is the winningest Division I men’s basketball coach of all-time.
Coach K has walked off the court a winner a whopping 1,040 times, losing just 318 games in his 41 years as a head coach. Take away his years at Army early in his career, and his record with the Blue Devils is 967-259. That’s 36 seasons of unparalleled success, heading, arguably, the most dominant programs of the past three-plus decades.
Yet he’s only five games above .500 vs. North Carolina.
Though they haven’t come often of late.
Duke has won four straight over its bitter rival, and six of the last seven meetings. That includes a 74-73 thriller in Chapel Hill earlier this year, a game that saw the Blue Devils rally from an eight-point deficit with 6:49 to play.
Round Two goes down Saturday in Durham, and as it is every time these teams play, the intensity will be off the charts.
North Carolina is in the hunt for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and wouldn’t mind holding on to at least a share of the ACC title along the way. Duke, meanwhile, is looking for respect and to improve its own seeding in both the NCAA Tournament and the ACC Tournament. Sweeping the Tar Heels would be pretty nice to boot.
The first time these two teams met, Duke didn’t have an answer for UNC forward Brice Johnson. Johnson put forth a masterful performance, scoring 29 points and grabbing 19 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. Though he was an absolute stud, he also was the only weapon the Tar Heels had that night. Justin Jackson scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds, but no other Tar Heel scored in double figures, and UNC shot just 1-of-13 from beyond the arc at home.
Oh, and Johnson led the Tar Heels with five trips to the line. In other words, Duke was willing to let Johnson get his without sending him to the line, thus forcing UNC’s other players to beat them.
North Carolina couldn’t do it. The Tar Heels shot 42.9 percent from the floor and dominated on the boards, winning on the glass 46-34. They handed out 17 assists on 30 field goals.
Duke was puddle in a parking lot shallow, playing just seven players, but the Blue Devils got 20 points and 10 rebounds from forward Brandon Ingram and 23 and 7 from guard Grayson Allen. Allen used his quickness and athleticism to get to the line 10 times, and the attention he drew opened the floor for his teammates.
Luke Kennard came off the bench to add 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting for Duke, and UNC simply couldn’t answer.
The question now for UNC is whether more players than just Johnson will show up in Durham. Justin Jackson, Joel Berry II, Marcus Paige and Kennedy Meeks have been more than good this season, and that one hiccup on Feb. 17 isn’t anything to get too upset about in the grand scheme of things. Still, if UNC is going to make a statement in Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Tar Heels will need more balance and use Johnson as both a scorer and a hub running the offense.
Playing physically will be a key to slowing down Ingram and Allen, and UNC will have to look to control the tempo.
Duke, meanwhile, can try to follow the same blueprint from the first meeting and make UNC’s other cast of characters beat them. UNC might have more depth on paper, but when the Tar Heels have lost this season, it has been because they have struggled from the perimeter and become one-dimensional.
The atmosphere for this one will be as crazy as any game in college basketball this season, and Coach K has been through so many battles that he knows one game won’t make a season. Still, Duke wants this one badly, and for a team that is still looking to build some momentum with the Big Dance approaching, look for the Blue Devils to crank its focus up to 11.
Pick: Duke
