ACC Notebook: Core rivals
Jim Sumner, ACC Columnist
There was a lot of talk last week about rivalries. Maryland's Mark Turgeon declared Duke as Maryland's rival. Maybe in basketball.
But core rivalries are rivalries in everything. The University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University have one of those core rivalries, one that we see in South Carolina/Clemson, Virginia/Virginia Tech, Alabama/Auburn and so many other in-state rivalries.
North Carolina is the haughty liberal arts/social science school, the place with a law school, a medical school and a state legislature full of fawning alumni. North Carolina State is the land-grant school, built on agriculture and sturdy yeoman farmers. Of course those clichés don't always hold up. The sons of daughters of the farm go to Chapel Hill to become teachers and entrepreneurs, while the sons and daughters of the city go to Raleigh to become engineers and designers. And corporate farmers.
But the cultural fault lines are deep. The two flagship schools of the University of North Carolina system don't much like each other.
There was a time when Carolina and State had something approaching parity in hoops. But Everett Case, Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano gave way to Les Robinson, Herb Sendek and Sidney Lowe.
Remember the Cardiac Pack and that 1983 NCAA title? Well, the Wolfpack hasn't been back to the Final Four since then. The Tar Heels, on the other hand, have won three NCAA titles since 1983.
The head-to-head count has been just as one-sided.
State hasn't won in the rivalry since 2007. But this year was
supposed to be different. Mark Gottfried had energized the
faithful and coached State to a first-place ACC tie going into last
week. And North Carolina was wounded, down a starter after
losing Dexter Strickland to a knee injury.
So, this was the year when State reasserted its relevance.
Well, not so fast. The Wolfpack went to Chapel Hill last Thursday and laid a giant egg. North Carolina's game plan was simple but effective. Use its size advantage early and often, on offense and defense. North Carolina pounded the visitors on the glass 48-26, with 7-1 Tyler Zeller scoring 21 points (8-11 from the field) and grabbing 17 rebounds.
Meanwhile, a UNC team chided for its occasional defensive indifference challenged practically every shot and didn't allow many second chances.
The final was 74-55.
Gottfried tried to shrug it off. "It happens. They're a little bit better than us. Let's be honest."
When asked how the loss felt, State's Scott Wood asked his questioner "Has your wife ever cheated on you?" Ouch.
State gets another chance February 21 in the friendlier confines of the RBC Center.
Required Reading
The state of the UNC-NC State rivalry after last week's rout.
Clemson senior Andre Young playing the best ball of his career.
Maryland keeps Virginia Tech in the doldrums.
What I Knew
Mike Krzyzewski is a perfectionist. I'm not sure I've ever heard a coach more unhappy after a win then he was after Duke's 83-76 win over St. John's Saturday. Duke led 63-45 with 12 minutes left but put it in cruise control way too soon. The lead shrunk to four before Duke put it away from the line.
"We did enough to win, which almost makes me sick to say that. I hate saying that. That's not who I am and not who this program is. We don't do enough-to-win. We play really good basketball and then hopefully, we win. Believe me, I do this all the time and I'm not pleased with today. I'm not pleased with today one bit."
Duke goes to Virginia Tech next Thursday. We'll see if the message was received.
What I Should Have Known
Clemson's Andre Young might be the nation's best 5-9 shooting guard. He's scored 48 points in wins last week over Georgia Tech and Wake Forest and has a superb 69/24 assist/turnover ratio on the season. Brad Brownell says Young has become Clemson's go-to guy.
Stat of the Week
11. That's the number of consecutive wins North Carolina has over NC State. That's the longest run of UNC victories since the 1930s.
Sumner's final thought
Go on the road, get outrebounded 42-25 and don't make a field goal for the final 8:20 of the game. Sounds like a recipe for certain defeat. But somehow Virginia managed to pull off a 61-60 win at NC State Saturday.
Virginia's Tony Bennett called it "stealing a win" and it's hard to argue with him. And it's not likely that the height-challenged Cavaliers can spot opposing teams an 18-5 edge on the offensive boards and get away with it on a regular basis. But Bennett has sold his team on defending every possession on every spot of the floor and that kind of defensive intensity should be a constant.
"We showed resilience and battled hard," Bennett says. "This is what we do. We're a defensive-minded team."
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Wood photo courtesy Mark McIntyre
