In April of 2021, Roy Williams, head coach of North Carolina, announced he would retire from coaching after 33 seasons. Williams coached 33 seasons and won 903 games as a college basketball coach and took the Tar Heels to three NCAA Championships. Williams’ retirement hit most of the college basketball world hard. He had been one of the greatest coaches in college basketball and losing Williams was a huge loss.
Then, on June 2, Duke’s head coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K) announced he would be retiring after his final season in the 2021-2022 season. Currently, Coach K has won 1,170 games as a head coach and 1,097 as Duke’s head coach, where he started coaching in 1980. It’s about to be the end of an era.
A poll conducted by ESPN in 2000 ranked the North Carolina and Duke’s rivalry as the third greatest North American sports rivalry while Sports Illustrated on Campus named the match-up the number one hottest rivalry in college basketball and number two rivalry overall in 2003.
We won’t get into the history behind these two basketball teams but through Coach Williams and Coach K, we’ve seen a lot of great basketball between the two teams. There have been a total of 254 meetings between these two North Carolina teams with North Carolina leading the all-time series, 141-114. But between Coach K and Roy Williams, the meetings were a lot closer. Coach K held a 23-17 record against Roy Williams when Williams took over the UNC program in 2003.
The rivalry was so tight that the longest winning streak between one of these teams against the other was just four games. But in all of those match-ups, Duke outscored North Carolina by just .63 points per game, showing you just how tight these two teams played each other. Eight of the 38 matchups between Coach K’s Duke and Roy Williams’ North Carolina were decided by two points or less. However, Duke went 7-1 in those games and found a way to win those tight and close match-ups.
But to go even farther, 27 of the 38 games were decided by 10 points or less. The rivalry was the best in sports despite what publications say. For North Carolina, Hubert Davis will take over as head coach for the Tar Heels. He has already trolled Duke since taking over and has talked about focusing on player development and finding multi-dimensional pieces.
Davis was a former player and longtime assistant at North Carolina so he understands the heated rivalry between North Carolina and Duke. He appeared on MSG Network’s PM with Monica McNutt and Kazeem Famuyide. Famuyide asked Davis to describe Duke University in one word. He responded with two words but, Davis replied, “second place.”
Hubert understands the rivalry and what it brings the university. He’s all over it. On the other hand, Duke will hite Jon Scheyer as head coach starting next season. He’s been an assistant since 2014 for Duke. After being introduced as the new coach, many people took to social media to disagree with Duke for naming Scheyer the next head coach.
He responded to the hate. “I’ve been told many times in the last 48 hours, ‘You’re not supposed to be the guy that follows the guy. You’re supposed to be the guy that follows the guy that follows the guy,'” Scheyer said. “With that said, I am not afraid of it. This is an incredibly unique situation. Coach did mention it yesterday. This is one of one in terms of succession in how this is going to work. I think it’s built for success.”
This is the same guy who recruited Jayson Tatum as the lead recruiter and while it’ll be no easy task to take over Coach K, it seems like no task is too tall for Scheyer. During his retirement announcement, Coach K spoke of Scheyer being his replacement.
“Any of the guys who work for me, they were my former captains. They all had great résumés, and I tell all of them when they come on, ‘I only want you here if you want to be a head coach,'”
Krzyzewski said Thursday. “What I’ve learned is to give them all these responsibilities where they didn’t have different things — they do everything. Jon’s done everything, and in the last few years, we’ve taken it up to another level. He’s one of the smartest coaches in the country, to be quite frank with you. Nobody knows that as well as I do, and [assistant coaches] Chris [Carrawell] and Nolan [Smith] know it. The players know it.
“It’s ironic — he’s 33. I was 33 when I was [hired] here. My main wish for him is not to replicate my first three years. That wouldn’t be good.”
It sounds like the rivalry will last forever. Davis and Scheyer have played for their respective schools and have also coached at their respective schools. New faces won’t hurt this rivalry. It’ll only enhance it.
Duke and North Carolina were starting to fall apart. The teams weren’t nearly as good as they used to be. It’s now up to these two head coaches to compete and build championship level teams so we can watch these two teams play potentially three times per season. They’re up to the task.