With Duke and UNC squaring off on Saturday, we thought we’d look back at some classic games between the teams. This one is from 1986.
Blue Devil fans know the story. In 1980, Mike Krzyzewski was hired. His first season saw Duke get an NIT bid, which was reasonable by the standards of the day.
The second and third seasons were lean though, and after a second year of struggle, some fans were ready to move on from Coach K.
But he got through that rough second season with a freshman class of Johnny Dawkins,
Mark Alarie, David Henderson, Jay Bilas and Weldon Williams. Those guys started winning as sophomores and by the time they were seniors, it was a battle-hardened team that was ready for anything.
So, when the #3 UNC came over for Senior Day in 1986, the #1 Blue Devils were ready. And while the Tar Heels were solid, they were not what they had been a few years earlier, with Sam Perkins, James Worthy and Michael Jordan.
Duke would win this one, marking a turning point in the Duke-UNC rivalry, as well as the balance of power between Dean Smith and the young upstart, Mike Krzyzewski.
At the very end, you’ll see that this was the old Cameron, before the renovations, and that the students were still allowed to hang signs on the blue wall that was then between the students and the upstairs part of Cameron.
Among other things that were different then, there was no air conditioning in the building, something that was really in Duke’s favor.
This was also the game when Steve Hale arrived with a partially collapsed lung, leading to the exuberant Cameron Crazies to chant “In-Hale! Ex-Hale!” at UNC’s senior guard, who was unable to play due to his injury. Allegedly, even Hale laughed about this after the fact.
