Carolina has beat Duke 135 times, won the first game in which the two schools were matched up, in 1920 (36 - 25), and holds the longest win streak, with 16 games in a row.
It's hard to have grown up watching basketball without taking note of the bitter rivalry between the two teams. Every year, the two schools watch to make sure that they are not the first to get out and celebrate when the other one does. For instance, when South Carolina beat Duke in the round of 32 this year, Carolina fans were, yes, shocked, but also extremely satisfied. Of course, we wanted the national title (and we got it, don't forget), but at that point, we could at least be satisfied knowing that no matter what, we were the superior ACC, North Carolina team.
Even the school's newspapers get in on the fun. The Chronicle, Duke's newspaper, prints The Daily Tar Hole the day before a Carolina-Duke matchup. The Daily Tar Heel prints Ian Williams' "Insider's Guide to Hating Duke" the day before the game. Whichever team loses the first matchup of the year has to print their masthead in the other school's blue, and place a logo from the other school in a conspicuous place in the paper, claiming that the winning school is "still the best."
It's all in good fun, but even still, sometimes, when I'm feeling down, it helps me to think about why Duke is the worst. There are whole books written on this, so there's no way for me to list all of them here. Here's a short version...
First, they're the wrong shade of blue. Or rather, Carolina has the better blue. Nobody wants to be caught in that darker blue.
The mascot is an actual devil. I think we should certainly have questions about that. Why would anyone want to dress up as the devil on a regular basis? Or support one?
Krzyzewskiville. It seems like a pretty narcissistic, unnecessary way to support your team. Why can't you just show up to the game two hours in advance like a normal school?
Coach K. Oh, Coach K. He has a temper that flies off at the tip of a hat. It's not fun to watch a coach treat players that way. Sure, Roy Williams has a temper too, but you can see that he's having fun with the players, at the end of the day. With Coach K, you're just never quite sure.
From Christian Laettner to Grayson Allen, Duke always seems to have players we love to hate. And for good reason, too! They don't seem to get nearly the punishment other teams' players get, which is pretty tough to swallow, especially when their fouls injure our team's players.
They're lucky to have a school like ours 8 miles from them. We can only hope some of the Carolina nature rubs off on them...
