Duke Basketball: Nothing finer than Zion Williamson muting Carolina

With a one-point win Friday night, thanks mostly to the brilliance of Zion Williamson, the Duke basketball team proved to its now-silent rival that one win can be greater than two.

The latest Duke basketball win calls for the deletion of two losses (and the addition of two more dunks, both at the hands of one freshman, to the short list of the all-time greatest from the world’s greatest rivalry).

I suspect most any UNC fan would disagree with the assertion from this Duke fan that all memories from Feb. 20 and March 9 should be swiped from existence. That being said, I also suspect I’d need to file a missing fanbase report before having any way to confirm my assumption.

Trust me, I’ve been trying to track down anyone wearing baby blue ever since the No. 5 Blue Devils’ 74-73 victory over the No. 3 Tar Heels on Friday night in Charlotte (to move to 28-5 on the season and advance to Saturday’s ACC Tournament final at 8:30 p.m. against No. 12 Florida State).

I started my search on Twitter. No luck. The last tweets on record from most UNC fans came seconds after their team’s final possession came up short. Those tweets provided no hint of their whereabouts. Instead, in typical Tar Heel fashion, they primarily consisted of expletives directed at a “ratface” and bogus reasons as to why the loss to Duke doesn’t much matter.

But I had dogged determination to do the right thing by hearing out the other side before writing this opinion piece.

So I took another step to find missing UNC fans in order to ask for their response to my stance that this season’s first two meetings between the separated-by-eight-miles schools should no longer count since neither included the play of Zion Williamson for more than 30 seconds. I hopped in my truck and headed to Franklin Street, followed by the Chapel Hill Walmart parking lot, rolling down my window and repeatedly hollering the first half of their war cry.

TAR…

Tar?

Crickets.

Realizing the winning plays from the most amazing specimen in the rivalry’s history must have forced Tar Heels into hiding — possibly adding to their pain, whether they admit it or not, is the fact that Duke has now won 13 of 15 meetings ever decided by one point between the rivals — I decided to proceed with this article and not give a hoot about their counterarguments.

Including the game-winner putback following his own miss with 31 seconds remaining, Williamson dropped 31 points in his rivalry debut (not counting his half-minute appearance on Feb. 20 — also, remember my assertion of that game no longer counting — before blowing out his shoe and spraining his right knee to the degree that he missed the next five games before returning to action in spectacular fashion on Thursday against Syracuse in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals).

In addition to his efficient and consistent scoring attack throughout from inside and out — 11-for-16 from inside the arc, 2-for-3 from beyond the arc, and 3-for-3 from the charity stripe — Williamson grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked one shot, snagged one steal, and acted as the central disrupting figure on seemingly every UNC possession during his 35 minutes on the court.

And Williamson’s two plays that best showed off his unmatched athleticism — two dunks, one flying in with authority off a steal in transition and the other off a seemingly impossible reverse jump-step under the basket — had to make UNC fans question whether their program still owns bragging rights for having the most phenomenal rim-rocker in the rivalry’s history.

Feel free, Duke fans, to spend as much time as necessary to fully appreciate his highlights below:

Without the ACC Player of the Year, the Blue Devils would have almost certainly suffered an ugly outcome similar to the now-meaningless first two meetings (which should always have giant asterisks next to them if they must remain in the history books at all).

Without the surefire ACC Tournament MVP — should Duke win tonight — the Blue Devils would not have scored 50 points in the paint, marking the most any UNC squad has allowed in a game in eight years.

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Without the obvious choice for both the Naismith National Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year — with his one block Friday night, he joined former DPOYs Shane Battier and Shelden Williams as the only Blue Devils to ever record both 50 steals and 50 blocks in a season — Duke would not have wrapped up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament while possibly forcing UNC to settle for a No. 2 seed.

Without the 6-foot-7, 280-pound native of Tar Heel nightmares — across his two games back, he is averaging 30.0 points and 12.5 rebounds while shooting 81.3 percent from the field — I wouldn’t trust this Duke team to cut down nets tonight or advance to the Final Four in Minneapolis and leave with more nets around their necks.

The most important item left for the Blue Devils to now find is a saddle for Williamson. Because it’s abundantly clear they will be riding on his back the rest of the way; as long as they do that, seven more wins are likely on the horiZion.

Speaking of finding things, though, I’m going to wrap up this article with one more demonstration of good sportsmanship — i.e., helping to locate last night’s losers. Because I still feel it is important to hear UNC fans’ take on what Williamson’s return meant to them, the season series, and the history of the rivalry. So here goes…

TAAAAAARRRR…

Top 10 game-winners of the Coach K era. dark. Next

Oh well, I tried. Not my fault if they decide to stay mum for a while — a.k.a., my wildest dream come true — due to the emphatic rivalry statement from Zion “Tar Heel Muter” Williamson.

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