Duke-Carolina. Carolina-Duke. No matter how you say it, the blue blood programs separated by 8 miles of Tobacco Road form one of the greatest rivalries in sports.
Since 1950, these two storied programs have met 186 times. In 173 of those games, at least one of the teams was ranked. Their streak of 154 straight games where at least one of the schools was ranked was just broken in February 2021 (both have been ranked in 85 of those meetings). To put that number into perspective, the second-most meetings of ranked rivals is 42, between North Carolina-NC State.
Over the last 110 meetings, they've each won 55 times.
These two programs not only play well against each other, but they also have some of the most decorated histories in the sport. They are third and fourth all-time in wins. Combined, they have won nine of the last 29 national championships, participated in 14 of the last 34 national championship games, and at least one of them has been in 22 of the last 34 Final Fours (with both making it in 1991). After Duke won back-to-back national championships in 1991 and 1992, North Carolina won it in 1993. When North Carolina won the national title in 2009, Duke followed with its own title in 2010.
Needless to say that when these two share a court together, it is event viewing. With the next chapter in the rivalry set to tip-off, let's look back at the 20 greatest moments of Duke vs. North Carolina — or North Carolina vs. Duke.
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