Gene Wojciechowski once described the Duke-North Carolina rivalry by saying, “It has been played in black and white. And in black and blue, with a little red mixed in too.” If it wasn't clear, the renowned ESPN writer wasn’t referring to the two schools’ uniforms, but rather the long-standing tradition of bumps, bruises, blood and physicality when the Blue Devils and Tar Heels meet.
While Saturday night’s showdown didn’t provide any lasting images of battle wounds and grit, it was evident that physicality, or the lack thereof for one team, played a chief role in Duke’s 91-73 loss to North Carolina, during which the Blue Devils never led.
The Tar Heels’ ferocious defense in the opening minutes set the tone for what kind of game would be played. North Carolina head coach Roy Williams had his guards on the hips of Duke freshmen Jeremy Roach and DJ Steward as soon as they crossed halfcourt. Scrambling to protect the ball, the Blue Devils often found themselves starting offensive sets deep into the shot clock. And once the game had settled in, Duke already trailed 24-6.
“They came out really aggressive with us on both ends of the floor, and we never responded to that throughout the whole entire game,” Steward said. “We came out—we were playing too fast, not executing the game plan, which is just playing under control, making good cuts and being poised out there. And we didn’t do that.”
In its two previous losses to Louisville and Georgia Tech, Duke faced experienced guards who dominated the backcourt with heady play. North Carolina’s advantage, however, came from its size.
Freshman Kerwin Walton’s height is listed at 6-foot-5, and his classmate Caleb Love combines an impressive mix of length and athleticism at 6-foot-4, 195 pounds. Wing Leaky Black has established himself as one of the Tar Heels’ best perimeter defenders while standing at 6-foot-8.
Meanwhile, neither Roach, Steward nor senior guard Jordan Goldwire is listed as taller than 6-foot-2, and Steward and Roach weigh 163 and 175 pounds, respectively.
The Blue Devils’ pair of rookies didn’t get a full offseason to develop their bodies for the college game and have yet to learn the crafty offensive skills that other small guards around the ACC—like Miami’s Chris Lykes and Louisville’s Carlik Jones—have acquired over many years at the collegiate level.
“We knew coming into the game that they were going to high contest and pressure the ball,” Steward said. “So that means just make back cuts, play off of each other, set screens. I feel like we didn’t do that in the beginning. Throughout the game we would do it, but we didn’t stick with it. It just caused problems throughout the whole entire game and we have to figure that out.”
North Carolina doesn’t rank No. 7 nationally in average height just because of its guards, and it was expected coming into the contest that the quartet of Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot, Day’Ron Sharpe and Walker Kessler—all at least 6-foot-10—would control the paint. Center Mark Williams led Duke with 18 points on 70% shooting from the field, but found himself in fierce battles all night and only collected three rebounds. In addition, graduate transfer Patrick Tapé saw the floor in both halves but couldn’t crack the Tar Heels’ rough interior play after appearing in just seven conference games this year.
“They have a lot of bigs,” Williams said. “They’re all skilled. They’re rotating them in through all parts of the game, so I think we didn’t do as good of a job as we could’ve and that led to them getting a lot of easy baskets, and the results show for themselves.”
Playing just four nonconference games this season, this young Duke team was still adjusting to the schematics of college basketball during ACC play, when it normally would have been adjusting to the fierce, war-like competition of one of the best conferences in the country. While the Blue Devils have had trouble closing games all season, it was the physical punch from the Tar Heels at the start that doomed Duke this time around.
“They really knocked us back,” Krzyzewski said on the opening minutes of the game. “[North Carolina] really played at a high level of intensity, and their defense was outstanding and knocked us back. They were excellent and we were not very good, and that’s my responsibility.”
North Carolina’s depth allowed Roy Williams to keep a wave of Carolina blue crashing on each Blue Devil possession. Three different Tar Heels scored 18 points and their bench had as many points as the entire Blue Devil team.
“They keep coming at you with fresh bigs and fresh perimeter, and they’re all good,” Krzyzewski said. “They’re all good players. Sometimes, one of them is a little bit better and he goes off. That’s a big thing for them, and they’ve developed that. It’s not luck—they’ve developed that."
If Krzyzewski’s squad is to make a run in the ACC tournament starting Tuesday, it’ll have to carry over the lessons learned from Saturday’s loss. There isn’t time to recover and regroup after each slugfest in the Greensboro Coliseum. Now playing for its season, Duke has to use that emotion to embrace the physicality of the ACC.
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