While 2020 marked the first year since 1938 without an NCAA tournament, that doesn't mean spring should go completely bracket-less. The Chronicle is holding its own tournament to decide Duke men's basketball's best win during the Coach K era, with each matchup determined by your vote.
There will be four regions within our 32-win bracket: Duke vs. North Carolina regular season games, other regular season games, 20th century postseason games and 21st century postseason games. Each region includes eight Blue Devil wins seeded one through eight. These were subjective selections, and there will obviously be snubs that many believe should've made the top eight. If it makes it easier to understand our choices as well as the criteria for your own voting, we chose these wins based on the excitement of the game, the importance of the game and the manner in which Duke won the game.
If you want quick descriptions of the wins included in each region as well as the bracket for each region, check out the links below as they appear over the next few days.
Duke vs. North Carolina regular season region
20th century postseason region
21st century postseason region
The matchups within each region will be decided by polls on our @dukebasketball Twitter account, with each poll starting at approximately 9:30 a.m. EST and lasting 24 hours. The full voting schedule can be seen below. You can vote either on Twitter or in the region links above. The Final Four and championship matchups and voting can be found below the following schedule.
Thursday, April 2: Duke vs. North Carolina regular season region first round
Friday, April 3: Non-UNC regular season region first round
Saturday, April 4: 20th century postseason region first round
Sunday April 5: 21st century postseason region first round
Monday, April 6: Duke vs. North Carolina regular season region second round
Tuesday, April 7: Non-UNC regular season region second round
Wednesday, April 8: 20th century postseason region second round
Thursday, April 9: 21st century postseason region second round
Friday, April 10: Duke vs. North Carolina regular season region finals; Non-UNC regular season region finals
Saturday, April 11: 20th century postseason region finals; 21st century postseason region finals
Monday, April 13: Final Four
Tuesday, April 14: Championship
Now without further ado, may the best win, win.
Champion:
No. 1: Duke vs. Kentucky 1992
Championship matchup
No. 1: Duke at Maryland 2001
No. 1: Duke vs. Kentucky 1992
Final Four matchups
No. 2: Duke at UNC 2020
No. 1: Duke at Maryland 2001
No. 1: Duke vs. Kentucky 1992
No. 2: Duke vs. Wisconsin 2015
Superlatives
Biggest blowout
No. 4: Duke vs. Georgia Tech 1986 (ACC tournament)
No. 5: Duke vs. Kansas 1991
Closest matchup
No. 4: Duke vs. Maryland 2001 (ACC tournament)
No. 5: Duke vs. Baylor 2010
Biggest upset
No. 3: Duke vs. UNC 1981
No. 6: Duke at UNC 2004
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.