And for the Duke-North Carolina rivalry’s 258th renewal, the stage will be the largest it’s ever seen.
Bigger than all the previous times they’ve been as fellow top-five teams or with ACC tournament titles on the line.
Bigger than when President Barack Obama was among the dignitaries when they met in February 2019 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Bigger even than earlier this month, when nearly 100 former Duke players gathered on the court for a pregame photo with retiring coach Mike Krzyzewski, for the regular-season finale in Durham.
Saturday night, fierce neighborhood rivals Duke and UNC will play at the Superdome in New Orleans in the Final Four, the first time they’ve ever met in the NCAA tournament.
Duke (32-6) won the West Regional on Saturday night, topping Arkansas, 78-69, at San Francisco’s Chase Center.
On Sunday night, on the other side of the country, UNC (28-9) eliminated plucky underdog Saint Peter’sat Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
That means later this week, both teams will gather in New Orleans along with fellow blue-blood programs Villanova (30-7) and Kansas (32-6) for a stellar Final Four packed with championship-pedigree. Kansas and Villanova will play at 6:09 p.m. followed by Duke-UNC.
Even on that stage, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels will stand out.
UNC owns six NCAA tournament titles, stretching from their first in 1957 to their latest in 2017 with 1982, 1993, 2005 and 2009 in between.
Duke has won it all five times: 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010 and 2015.
Kansas and Villanova, while no slouches with three NCAA tournament championships each, don’t quite measure up.
This the second time Duke and UNC have both advanced to the same Final Four. It happened in 1991 in Indianapolis, but they were on opposite sides of the bracket.
On March 30, 1991, at the Hoosier Dome, North Carolina, then coached by the legendary Dean Smith and with current coach Hubert Davis scoring 25 points, lost 79-73 to Kansas in the first of the national semifinals.
Duke, with Krzyzewski leading them, toppled undefeated UNLV, 79-77.
The Blue Devils beat Kansas, 72-65, two nights later for the first of their five NCAA tournament titles.
That was as close as we’ve seen to an NCAA tournament game between them. Until now.
Their campuses famously located eight miles apart, Duke and UNC are as close on the court as they are geographically.
UNC’s 94-81 win over Duke on March 5 at Cameron in Krzyzewski’s final home game evened the series at 50-50 over the past 100 games.
Overall, the 257 games in the series show UNC with a 142-115 edge.
In games coached by Krzyzewski, Duke has won 50 to UNC’s 47.
They split their two games this season, with Duke winning 87-67 in Chapel Hill on Feb. 5 before UNC won in Durham a month later.
The two rivals almost met in the ACC tournament earlier this month. Duke won its semifinal, 80-76, on March 11 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn to reach the championship game. But Virginia Tech knocked off UNC, 72-59, later that night before beating Duke, 82-67, the following night to win the ACC championship.
Now, with Krzyzewski retiring after this season and Davis in his first season as UNC’s head coach, they meet with a berth in the NCAA championship game — and maybe perpetual bragging rights among fans — on the line.
