This weekend, the UNC men’s basketball team will make the famously short trip down to the road to Durham for round two of the annual rivalry clash against Duke. A couple weeks ago in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels came away with a memorable victory, as a big comeback was capped off by Seth Trimble’s basically buzzer-beating three-pointer.
The second game should prove to be a probably tougher test. Not only are Duke at home and likely out for revenge, they’ve been red-hot since Trimble’s game-winner. The Blue
Devils have won all but one game since by at least 13 points. The one exception in that stretch was a five-point win against Michigan, who are a top five team themselves.
However, that’s not to say that UNC has no chance. Plenty of Tar Heel teams have gone into Cameron Indoor Stadium over the years and won as underdogs. Plenty have also gone in as favorites and taken care of business. With Carolina looking to come away with another road win in Durham, that got me wondering: what is your all-time favorite Carolina win inside Cameron?
As a Tar Heel fan in my 30s, there are two real standout candidates to me, and neither of them are particularly surprising. The most recent was just a few years ago when the Tar Heels famously spoiled Coach K’s last home game.
On March 6, 2022, Duke hosted UNC at Cameron in the final game that Mike Krzyzewski was to coach at his home arena. Everything surrounding the game, from the crowd to the way it was covered on TV seemed to be leading towards a procession where the Blue Devils would easily handle a so-so Tar Heel team and start the celebration.
Things seemed to be trending that way for a while, but UNC then put in one of the more remarkable efforts in the second half. With the soon-to-be-called “Iron Five” not subbing once over the final 20 minutes, Carolina outscored Duke by 15 in the second half, pulling away and winning the game by 13 points. To make matters funnier, after the game during the pre-planned ceremony, Coach K addressed the crowd and said how they knew this game was a let down, but things would get better from there. They didn’t, really.
The other nominee I’m thinking of also involved a botched farewell. Back in 2006, Duke hosted UNC on what was JJ Redick’s senior night. Duke had been one of the best teams all season and were considered among the favorite for the national championship. Meanwhile, UNC had lost many key pieces from the 2005 title team, and were good, but were inexperienced and led by a freshman named Tyler Hansbrough.
In a similar atmosphere to the one 16 years later, the Cameron Crazies were ready to go nuts to honor Redick, but were again thwarted by UNC. Once again, the Tar Heels put up a big second half effort to overcome Duke, eventually winning by seven. The victory would be the first of four that Hansbrough’s teams would record in Durham.
I’m guessing those might be many people’s answers — especially the first one — but there are other good games to choose from too. Let us know your answer as this year’s Tar Heels look to add to the list this weekend!
