Of Heels, Devils and rankings
We illustrated graphically the ebbs and flows of the Duke-North Carolina basketball rivalry in Tuesday's paper all the way back to 1920. One amazing note, courtesy of the UNC sports information office, that we failed to include in our coverage leading into tonight's game at Cameron Indoor: Duke has had a higher AP ranking than UNC in the teams' last 21 meetings.
My first thought was: Wait. Doherty had these guys up to No.1 for a couple of weeks in 2000-01. Well, the Heels were ranked No. 4 when they beat No. 2 Duke 85-83 on Feb. 1 that season, helping propel them to the top. And they were back down to No. 4 -- after losses to Clemson and Virginia -- when they faced No. 2 Duke again on March 4, a 95-81 Blue Devils win. It was pretty much downhill from there for Doherty.
UNC coach Roy Williams, who befriended Duke's Mike Krzyzewski through their work together on the NABC board of directors, is more than willing to admit Duke's owned the Heels lately (14 of the last 16).
"There's a saying that goes, 'As a coach, you don't want to make everybody else's Christmas nice.' Mike has never been nice to anybody at Christmas, New Year's, Thanksgiving or Easter. I say that tongue in cheek, but with a heck of a lot of respect."
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