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Here’s the story of how I realized that most college rivalries are basically little league rivalries compared to UNC-dook basketball.
First of all, people outside NC have NO IDEA what college basketball means to the state’s residents. For most of NC...certainly in the areas where most residents are natives, in a neighborhood of 100 homes, maaaaybe 3 of those homes don’t have a deep allegiance to a CBB team.
And understand, of those 97 homes, 96.95 of them will have allegiance to one of the big 4. It doesn’t matter if you went to ECU, your favorite brother or aunt, or your dad probably went to one of them and that formed an allegiance. An allegiance you probably literally fought for
growing up. In March, the ACC tourney was more than the start of March Madness, your teachers literally stopped teaching and wheeled a TV into the classroom to watch the early round games. This isn’t hyperbole.
Anyway, basically everyone was a fan of UNC, dook, Wake or State growing up in NC in the 60s-90s. Then a crazy thing happened. State decided to stop cheating in the mid to late 80s, or at least being any good as a result of it. And Wake, after failing to win anything...
with Tim Freaking Duncan on their team realized they would probably suck forever. Their fans, aside from their relatively small alumni bases abandoned ship. And nearly all North Carolinians became fans of one of the two legit programs in the state.
I don’t need to review the qualifications of these two programs over the last 30 years. They’ve combined for nearly as much success as all the other NCAA teams combined. No single *conference* really compares to UNC and dook success-wise.
When UNC plays dook the first time, it signifies the start of college basketball for most fans nationally even though the season is likely 2 months old already. The 2nd game, though still a regular season game, marks the official start of March Madness.
When a UNC-dook game happens, the records don’t matter. Not even in the sense that people throw that phrase around and “anyone can win” (though that’s always true). In NC those records don’t matter to *anyone* in the state...
(Again aside from the small alumni bases of Wake and state). The records don’t matter because no other game means 1% as much as this specific game and *this* game could go either way no matter what.
In NC, if you want to see “the game” everyone knows what game that is and everyone knows you’ll either watch at home or arrive at the sports bar eeeeeeeeeearly and absolutely every TV will be on the same station.
This has all been background to this point and pretty much everyone who follows me understands all this so I’m speaking to the choir. So let’s get to how I realized nothing else compared.
I’ve attended other rivalry games in my life. They were nice. They were interesting. If I didn’t know better I’d have thought tOSU-UM football was an unrivaled even, for instance.
A few years ago, I moved to Miami. I was living in Coral Gables when I first moved down (technically coconut grove, but that’s like Carrboro to UNCs Chapel Hill). I’d heard about the UM-FSU “rivalry” in football and expected...at least dedication. UNC was playing the same day.
I had resigned myself to nearly a 0%chamce I would get to watch my Heels as they were not only playing the same day, but also at the same time and I didn’t have cable yet so I would be having lunch and watching CFB at a local sports bar.
I woke up late. Realizing I wouldn’t arrive for the 12:00 games until about 11:45 I resigned myself to likely having having to find lunch elsewhere all together. When I arrived at the restaurant (think Buffalo Wild Wings type sports bar) I was astounded.
I walked right in. Not only were there no lines, there were open seats at the bar! I asked them to change the TV in front of me to the Tar Heels’ game and they accommodated! (Seriously I appreciated it, but wow!)
In NC, there will be a two hour waitlist for a table an hour before tip in practically any bar/restaurant with even one TV. The best way I can explain any other rivalry I’ve ever witnessed is on a scale of “nice” to “quaint”.
