Bobby Frasor knows the Duke-North Carolina rivalry better than most, even though he's never actually participated in a game between the two schools.
The freshman will be one of ten players-five each from Duke and UNC-taking part in their first career installment of the rivalry, but he has already approached the game from two vastly different angles. Frasor, a Blue Devil fan through eighth grade, now starts at point guard for the Tar Heels.
The Illinois native said he attended basketball camp at Duke the summer before eighth grade-Frasor's father helped coach at the camp so Bobby could attend. While he was there, Blue Devil head coach Mike Krzyzewski autographed a magazine cover for the budding star, which Frasor said he still has.
Frasor's situation is different because he switched sides before coming to college, but nearly every player involved in tonight's game made a special effort to watch Duke play North Carolina as a younger college basketball fan. And each of them said he looks at the game differently as a player.
For fans, the relationship between the two programs may be one of hatred-both schools' fight songs tell their rival to "Go to hell." But players said the ill-will is absent on the court, characterizing the teams' relationship as one of respect.
This mutual admiration between players from the two programs keeps the action on the court from getting overly physical. No technical fouls have been called in the teams' last four matchups-emotional contests that were in doubt until each game's final play.
"There is a competitive nature between Duke and North Carolina," senior forward Lee Melchionni said. "But I think on the court we respect each other-the programs, coaches and players-and from that point they are always competitive but well-played games."
While the players may not share fans' hatred for their rivals, they do recognize the heightened intensity of a Duke-Carolina game. Melchionni said playing the Tar Heels "just means a little more."
The national media has also latched onto the rivalry to the point where it has become the biggest regular-season matchup of the year nationwide. The success of the two programs is a major reason. In each of the last 120 games between the teams, at least one of them has been ranked in the AP Top 25.
"There's a great deal of interest just because of the location," North Carolina head coach Roy Williams said. "This is a game that gets so much national attention that nothing compares to this game on a national basis."
A lot of the increased intensity comes from the energy created by the fans in the arena and on campus before the game. UNC freshman Tyler Hansbrough said teammate Wes Miller told him that Hansbrough would be able to see how important the Duke-UNC game is from the fans' excitement during pregame warm-ups.
"Fans, players, media, coaches, there's probably all kinds of stuff that's built up over the years," Miller said. "And when you see the first Duke-Carolina game when you come here, you understand why it is what it is.
"You just see the intensity and the emotion and the passion and you understand a little bit more. It's kind of hard to put in words."
But while fans might circle the game on their calendars and players might play just a little bit harder, coaches try their best to stop their teams' from putting too much effort and emotion into just one game.
With such a young team, Williams has been especially persistent in his attempts to convince his players that the Duke game is just another conference matchup.
At the pregame press conference, Williams told a story about an eight-year-old boy calling into his radio show during the first week of the season asking how he thought UNC matched up with Duke. The coach responded that he "could care less" about the rivalry, but acknowledged its importance to Tobacco Road fans.
"Coach told us it's just like any other game," Frasor said. "I think he's just trying to calm us down. [Former Tar Heel] Jackie Manuel's back in the locker room telling us it's the Super Bowl around here, the National Championship for some people around here, but in reality it's just another ACC game, with just a lot of hype around it."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.