The Tobacco Road rivalry between Duke and North Carolina has always been a study in contrasts.

Navy blue vs. powder blue.

Large public university vs. elite private school.

Wine and cheese vs. Cameron Crazy.

Their differences on the basketball court may never have been more pronounced than they were Saturday night.

It’s not just that the second-ranked Blue Devils dominated the Tar Heels in an 87-70 victory that was even worse – much worse – than the final score makes it look. Lopsided results sometimes happen, even among teams that are usually so evenly matched that they’d split their previous 42 meetings at 21 apiece dating back to 2005.

No, this was more than just one team having a good night – which Duke did, shooting 53 percent from the floor, going 10 of 20 from three-point range and forcing 14 turnovers while rolling up a 32-point lead with 9 minutes remaining – and the other laying an egg.

It was a definitive sign that two blue blood programs separated by just 8 miles as the crow flies have begun to drift apart and travel in vastly different directions since the retirement of their respective Hall of Fame coaches.


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While Jon Scheyer has made a smooth transition from his mentor Mike Krzyzewski, keeping Duke near the top of the national polls, Hubert Davis has had a harder time keeping up.

The Tar Heels got to the national championship game on his first try in 2022, beating the Blue Devils twice along the way. But they were on the NCAA bubble until a late February surge. Now,  13-10 overall with four losses in their past five games, they’re back there again and in danger of missing the Tournament for the second time in three seasons under Roy Williams’ hand-picked successor.

Saturday’s loss marked only the third time since Frank McGuire came to Chapel Hill in 1952-53 that UNC has suffered its tenth loss by Feb. 1.

The problem isn’t about talent. Though Duke does have an embarrassment of riches beginning with its freshman corps of Cooper Flagg and Kon Kneuppel, who combined for 43 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists against the Tar Heels, to go along with 7-foot-2 Khaman Maluach, it’s not as if UNC is devoid of talent. R.J. Davis was the ACC Player of the Year last season. Elliot Cadeau was a five-star recruit. Ian Jackson was a McDonald’s All-American ranked among the top 10 in his class.

The difference is that Scheyer was better prepared for the job thanks to his season as coach-in-waiting during Krzyzewski’s 2022 farewell tour than Davis, who got his first head coaching opportunity when Williams abruptly retired a year earlier.

The difference is evidenced in the way the respective coaches have constructed their rosters – Scheyer with a big, versatile, balanced mix of freshman stars and veteran role players, Davis with an ill-fitting collection of wings and guards with precious little inside presence.

The contrast is even more glaring in the way they’ve handled their current teams. While Scheyer said on Thursday that he’s “grown and evolved” along with his young players as the season has gone along, Davis continues to speak about consistency while going about things the same way. “With this team and this group,” he said, “I think the consistency of the message is a thing that will help us be the best we can be.”

Even after Saturday’s loss, Davis remained optimistic, saying that UNC’s best basketball is still ahead of it. If the Tar Heels do, in fact, have another gear they might not want to wait too much longer to show it.

Duke’s toughest remaining opponent?

Now that the Blue Devils have extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 15, the most challenging opponent standing in their way of becoming the first ACC team to go 20-0 in the conference might just be themselves.

Yes, they still have to go to Clemson next Saturday. And you never know what will happen in the rematch with the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill to close out the regular season. But beyond preparing physically for those games – and the seven others on the regular season league schedule – Scheyer’s young team will also have to battle human nature.

Duke has already shown a few tell-tale signs of complacency, especially in a sluggish win at Wake Forest and a cold-shooting win against NC State over the past two weeks. The Blue Devils also seemed to take their foot off the accelerator against UNC on Saturday. After sending the Cameron Crazies into a frenzy by playing by far their most dominant 31 minutes of the season on the way to a 77-45 lead with 9:04 remaining, they were outscored 25-10 the rest of the way to make the final score look much more respectable than it actually was.

While Scheyer chalked up the late-game fade to UNC’s fight and his own team’s fatigue amid a flu epidemic that has gone through his locker room, junior guard Tyrese Proctor admitted that he and his teammates have to do a better job of maintaining their focus regardless of the situation or the opponent.

“I thought we had great intensity and we were more together than they were,” Proctor said. “That comes down to our preparation. But we just have to keep playing how we started this game. We can’t take anything for granted.”

Besides Clemson and UNC, Duke’s remaining ACC games are against Cal, Stanford, Florida State and Wake Forest at home, and Syracuse, Virginia and Miami at home. The Blue Devils will also play a non-conference game against Illinois at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 22.

 Around the rim

  • There’s a good chance No. 21 Louisville will fall out of the rankings this week after having its 10-game winning streak snapped by Georgia Tech on Saturday – the same team, by the way, that broke the Cardinals’ most recent 10-game streak in February 2022. Even if it doesn’t, there’s a good chance that Clemson will sneak back into the polls for the first time since mid-December. The Tigers finished the month of January with a 7-1 record, their first month with only one loss since they went 4-1 in January 1951. The Tigers’ .873 winning percentage was their best for a month since they went 8-0 in January 1935. Brad Brownell’s team got February off to a winning start on Saturday with a 68-58 win at NC State. It can tie a school record with its seventh straight win on Tuesday against Georgia Tech.
  • Virginia Tech is making strides toward getting back to .500 in the ACC with wins in its past two games against Florida State and rival Virginia. Besides improving to 10-12 for the season, the Hokies’ modest surge has helped coach Mike Young reach an important milestone. Wednesday’s 76-66 victory in Tallahassee was the 400th of his career. Of those wins, 299 came at his first stop, Wofford. His record in six seasons in Blacksburg stands at 102-78. Young is the third active ACC coach to reach the 400-win plateau, joining FSU’s Leonard Hamilton and Clemson’s Brad Brownell.
  • UNC’s R.J. Davis continues to climb up the ACC’s career scoring list. His 12 points against Duke on Saturday increased his total to 2,526, moving him past Virginia’s Bryant Stith (2,516) for fifth place. The fifth-year senior guard is 25 points shy of his next target, NC State’s Rodney Monroe, and 30 behind third-place Johnny Dawkins of Duke. The top two scorers in conference history – Tyler Hansbrough with 2,872 and JJ Redick at 2,769 – are likely beyond his reach.
  • Six ACC commits have earned invitations to the 2025 McDonald’s All-America Game, which is tied for the most of any league, They are Cameron Boozer, Cayden Boozer and Nikolas Khamenia (Duke); Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville); Caleb Wilson (UNC); and Jalen Haralson (Notre Dame).