Unlike the men's bracket, the two best teams this season in the women's tournament may actually meet in the Championship game.
In a Final Four that features THREE #1 seeds and one #2 seed.....this thing could be classic. North Carolina faces Maryland [the lone team to beat the Heels all year] and Duke will face LSU.
If the favorites, Carolina and Duke, win.....then what a possible final game it could be in the history of the rivalry.
Don't get it twisted....Carolina and Duke hate each other no matter what they play. The schools have a CARLYLE CUP trophy that goes to the better school in all athletic competition. Not just basketball where they are great.....or in football where they aren't so great. These schools compete highly in soccer, track, tennis, golf, lacrosse.....ooooooh, sorry about that Dookies.
But, the marquee will always be the men's hoops. So it gets you to thinking.....what if the men met for the National Championship some day?
It could happen. Almost did. Back in 1991.....both Duke and North Carolina were in the Final Four. North Carolina was favored to knock out the Kansas Jayhawks [led then by a young head coach named Roy Williams].....but were denied. On the other side, Duke beat a heavily favored UNLV team that came into that game undefeated and as defending champions. Defending champions that beat Duke by 30 in 1990s title game. If Carolina would have done what they should've done, it would've been a Duke-Carolina title game.
And what kind of scene would that be. You think it's hated when they play during the season....imagine the kind of smack and attitudes if they did meet in that arena. I don't think I can even comprehend it. It would be the ultimate game!!!
And it probably would ruin the rivalry.
Not the great games that came after it....but the actual rivalry the fans have. The greatest thing about the Duke-Carolina rivalry is the fact that both teams can make a legit case that they are the better program. Carolina has the greater overall history of championships and wins. But Duke has slammed nearly the same amount in a 25 year span. Carolina has Dean Smith...the all time winningest coach. Duke has Coach K, who won one more title that Smith. Carolina has had more great players on the next level. Duke says "then why don't you have more championships?" Duke can laugh and point at Carolina's 8-20 mark a few years back. Carolina can laugh and point at Duke's 1995 season which saw them missing from the tournament as well.
That's what make the rivarly so great. Heels fans went thru life thinking we were ACC's elite, no one was our equal and that God painted the sky Carolina blue. And it does stick in Heels fan's crawls that Duke can come in and boast the same things now.
We all know the story of the rivalry. But if one of the teams could sit back and say, "but we beat you in _______ for the national title".....then the other team would have to shut it down. As a Heels fan, there would be nothing worse than hearing a Devils fan use that kind of a trump card against you. And I'm sure that Dookies would hate it if we smug Carolina fans had that same card against them. Cuz no matter what numbers or theories you can throw out there....when the chips were down, one team grabbed the brass ring.
And one school would have the ultimate smack that would end it for the other. And we can't have that.
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POST SCRIPT
And just like in 1991....the favored Heels laid an egg in the National semis....while Duke did their thing to advance. Just like 1991, Duke but no Carolina.
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