It ended ugly, with a longtime North Carolina assistant coach chasing a controversial official into the back hallways of the Hoosier Dome in search of a confrontation. There was enough shoving and shouting to make headlines in the newspapers the next day, but stadium security intervened and a major physical altercation was narrowly averted.
Also narrowly averted that night in Indianapolis: the biggest Duke–North Carolina game of all, for the national championship in 1991.
Instead, that distinction now belongs to the Final Four semifinal matchup of the Blue Devils and Tar Heels Saturday night in New Orleans. It is an epic story line beyond the rivalry itself: Duke program patriarch Mike Krzyzewski trying to win a national championship on his way into retirement, Carolina trying to end his career before then and win its own title under first-year coach Hubert Davis.
