Most experts didn’t expected much of a tournament run from the North Carolina men’s basketball team. After all, they were dubbed a bubble team after a lackluster start to the year.
But after a remarkable run as the eighth seed out of the East region, North Carolina is squaring up to face its Tobacco Road rival in the Final Four, the first time ever the programs will meet during the NCAA tournament.
Hubert Davis is in his first year as the head coach of the Tar Heels, taking over the role after Roy Williams retired last April. And with taking over the Blue Blood program, the former UNC standout kept the players’ eyes set on New Orleans with a tactic from his playing days.
On the first day of practice in Sept. 2021, Davis hung a photo of the Superdome in the locker room, something Dean Smith used to do when Davis played for North Carolina.
The Final Four has more stakes than normal this year, at least for the teams from down south. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski is in his final season, and the Blue Devils will likely be looking to avenge the March 5 loss in Coach K’s final game at Cameron Indoor, even though the legendary coach said he is not focused on the storied rivalry.
“I haven’t looked at it as us against North Carolina,” Krzyzewski said during a press conference on Tuesday. “I’ve looked at it as, ‘we’re playing in the Final Four,’ so the history of (the rivalry) I have not paid attention to.”
The teams have both been to the Final Four at the same time before, just opposite sides of the bracket, such as when Davis played for the Tar Heels the same year Duke won the national title (1991).
“I really think each of us was a different team,” Krzyzewski said. “We were different when we played them there (Feb. 5), and so were they. Then we played them here (March 5), they had developed into an outstanding team, and we weren’t at that time. We’re going to have two really good teams play against one another (on Saturday). Whereas, the last two games, we were better than them at that point, and they were better than us at the other point. And, now, we’ll see what happens.”
