Heartwarming Duke basketball memories often involve heartbroken Tar Heels, and the latest example calls for us to relive five moments when Chapel Hell was Blue Devil Heaven.
The Duke basketball program has now won 16 of its 35 games on North Carolina’s home floor since the Dean E. Smith Center opened its doors in 1986. A few more wins like the one on Saturday night would surely call for a statue of Mike Krzyzewski somewhere on the premises — unpopular, sure, yet undeniably the honorable thing to do.
As difficult as all the fresh excitement is to hold in, though, let’s hold off a moment for more on Duke’s most recent victory over UNC, which bumped the all-time wins leader’s all-time record in the planet’s all-time greatest rivalry to 48-44 (33-18 since 1999). Besides, anyone who watched the instant classic knows that the comeback show from Tre Jones, with a finishing masterpiece via Wendell Moore, must have made the cut for this list.
But where does it stack up against Duke’s other Dean Dome delights? Well, before we get to that, just to be clear about the methodology to choose and order the top five here, only one estimated measurement matters: gallons of tears that the home patrons cried, either on ESPN or later on in bed, while replaying their shared real-life Dukie nightmare.
Naturally, unbelievable plays and in-your-face celebrations by the Blue Devils — not to mention whine-inducing blown calls by the officials, also known as karma’s answer to the Tar Heels escaping punishment for fake classes — have contributed to the rival fanbase’s Slip ‘n Slide cheeks.
On that note, let the fun and games begin…
5. Duhon delivers a delicious dub
No. 1 Duke at No. 17 UNC
Feb. 5, 2004
As the favorite and an eventual Final Four team — riding a 15-game win streak — after leading by five at the half, Duke allowed UNC to hang around. And with five minutes to play, the Tar Heels had completely turned the momentum; at the time, they enjoyed a 69-62 lead and were getting giddy about giving Roy Williams a W in his first meeting against Duke as UNC’s head coach.
The Blue Devils had other plans. Little did the Dean Dome spectators know at the time that this ploy by Duke to get their hopes up — only to completely crush their spirits in the end — would become commonplace in the rivalry across the next 16 years.
So down seven, one of the premier Duke basketball lineups in history — Chris Duhon, J.J. Redick, Daniel Ewing, Luol Deng, and Shelden Williams — rediscovered its mojo and scored the next 10 points.
But the Blue Devils weren’t finished toying with Tar Heel emotions, allowing Jawad Williams to drain a game-tying 3-pointer with 18 ticks remaining and then settling for a deep-ball airball by Ewing at the buzzer.
Then with a three-point lead with under 20 seconds to play in overtime, Duke again gave UNC life by not strongly contesting Rashad McCants from downtown. Splash. Tie game.
No worries, though, for Duhon evidently decided at that moment it was time to ensure his name would forever warrant a mention on lists like this one. Without hesitation, as a senior point guard who wound up with a 9-2 overall record against UNC, he took the inbounds pass and scurried past four Tar Heels on his way to a reverse layup with six seconds remaining that left the home crowd in a state of shock.
The Tar Heels’ final prayer fell short. Thousands of teary-eyed UNC fans stood still in sorrow.
Ah, the memories…
4. Ol’ Roy apologizes, blames Dean Smith?
No. 20 Duke at No. 5 UNC
Feb. 17, 2016
Amile Jefferson was out for the season with a foot injury he had suffered in December. Plus, Matt Jones sat out the second half in Chapel Hill with a sprained ankle, leaving only five Blue Devils worthy of significant minutes. And Duke, the defending national champion, came into the game with six losses, having just reentered the top 25 (where the program has now been every week since).
Meanwhile, UNC was in the top five as a legit title contender (and might have ended up the national champ if not for a sweet April shot from Villanova’s Kris Jenkins). Therefore, Dean Dome fans arrived with high hopes that the Tar Heels would snap the Blue Devils’ three-game win streak in the series and begin to reverse the trend that saw Duke win 10 of the previous 13.
Brice Johnson put up a double-double in the first half — he finished the game with 29 points and 19 rebounds — propelling UNC to a four-point lead heading into the locker room. After the break, Duke hung around, thanks in large part to freshman sensation Brandon Ingram, but didn’t hold the lead until a Luke Kennard 3-point swish from the corner with 2:37 to play put the Blue Devils ahead, 72-71.
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An easy layup on the other end from Kennedy Meeks gave the lead right back to UNC. After a miss by Ingram, the folks in Chapel Hill were on the verge of erupting in celebration.
But under order from Williams, the Tar Heels began to play safe with only a one-point cushion, trying to milk the clock, resulting in a Grayson Allen steal and drawn foul on a transition layup attempt with 1:09 on the clock. With a sly, confident grin, the Dukie every UNC fan despised calmly stepped up and hit nothing but net on both free throws.
UNC had THREE TIMEOUTS, none of which Williams would use.
Instead, frustrated home fans had to watch as the Tar Heels again turned the ball over to Allen.
Yes, Allen settled for a contested jumper with 20 seconds to play, sparking some life into the UNC faithful. No, it didn’t matter because Williams decided to simply watch as time was expiring while his players couldn’t come up with diddly-squat against Duke’s lockdown defense.
What came next was quite a treat to Heel-loathing Duke fans like myself. During his postgame press conference, Williams sort of apologized yet essentially just blamed — while denying that his words were placing blame — his poor decision-making on his former mentor, legendary UNC head coach Dean Smith, who had passed away the previous February:
“Coach Smith taught me — and I believe this, I’m not blaming it on Coach Smith, it’s my call. I think you should always attack before the defense gets set…We didn’t get as good of a shot as I thought we would get but that’s something I’ve always believed in. I say it’s my fault. If we had to do it all over again tomorrow night I’ll probably do the same thing cause I think that’s the best way to play.”
Good stuff…
3. Brickey’s block gives birth to first
No. 9 Duke at No. 2 UNC
Jan. 21, 1988
UNC head coach Dean Smith reigned supreme over the ACC, even more so inside the building bearing his name. His Tar Heels had lost at home only once since the Dean Dome’s inception two years prior — not to Duke — and entered the season’s first meeting against the rival from Durham on a nine-game win streak.
I was seven at the time. And this battle serves as my first vivid memory of rooting for the Blue Devils with my mood on the line.
Another reason it stands out is that my cousin was born during the game. Knowing that he would be growing up in an extended family divided by two shades of blue, I took it upon myself to forever remind him of what happened the night he was born. My plan to mold him into a Duke basketball fan worked, resulting in one more knowledgeable debater on my side every Christmas.
Of course, the most heartwarming reason for me to always remember the evening was the pure joy I felt by watching Smith’s Tar Heels lose in front of fans sobbing about the officiating and crying about Duke’s brash 40-year-old coach, whom they would soon start referring to as “ratface.”
One more reason it stands out is that my immediate family adopted a puppy shortly after the game and chose a name to honor the game’s hero: Brickey.
Danny Ferry — my first Duke basketball hero — had fueled his team’s surprising dominance for much of the game. However, in the final 10 minutes, point guard Jeff Lebo repeatedly found big man J.R. Reid — the first two of countless UNC players I would utterly detest — who feasted inside against the program that had won only once in Chapel Hill across the previous 21 seasons.
Tied at 69 with under a minute to play, Duke sophomore forward Robert Brickey — an uber-athletic North Carolinian and 6-foot-5 role player — began showing flashes of what would become his most memorable role on several occasions as a Blue Devil: a problem for the Tar Heels. He relentlessly attacked the basket, picking up two offensive boards in one possession, ultimately leading to Ferry’s trip to the charity stripe, where he hit only the first of two attempts.
UNC came up empty on its ensuing possession, but a hectic sequence in the final 30 seconds followed. A miss by Duke on the front end of a 1-and-1, a pair of questionable out-of-bounds calls, a couple of ill-advised shots on both ends, and a ton of bumping that probably should have drawn fouls — sounds familiar — led to the Tar Heels with the ball beneath their own basket down one with five seconds to play, culminating in a 20-foot open look from Lebo in the corner that looked to send the home fans home happy.
Wait, did I say “open look”? Sorry, not open at all, as Brickey’s bounce and right fingertips emphatically stated by swatting Lebo’s shot attempt into Duke basketball lore, thereby handing the Tar Heels the first of three losses in the rivalry for the season (Coach K has now seen three of his teams pull off such a three-game season sweep while never once allowing any of his UNC nemeses to do the same in return).
Yes, I would grow up to further appreciate the Duke-owned Dean Dome…
T1. Rivers of Tar Heel tears
No. 10 Duke at No. 5 UNC
Feb. 8, 2012
Imagine, before this game, I just assumed no Duke basketball player would ever top Duhon’s layup as the greatest Dean Dome game-winner.
Then, the day after the buzzer-beater from Cam Reddish at Florida State last season, as part of my list ranking Duke’s top 10 game-winning shots under Coach K, I wrote the following — perhaps a bit prophetically — about the comeback and shot that stood alone, until Saturday night, as the No. 1 Tar Heel soul-crusher:
“I’m convinced that no Blue Devil could ever top the moment in the rivalry when Austin Rivers‘ 3-pointer at the buzzer instantly turned upside down the smiles of more than 20,000 Tar Heels in attendance.
“Yet I hope I’m wrong again.
“But if the shot by Rivers stands as the all-time greatest Duke game-winner in Chapel Hell, I cannot complain; that moment was simply heavenly. The Tar Heels led by 10 with 2:15 to play, but a flurry of incredible shots by the Blue Devils cut into that lead in a hurry. A three from Tyler Thornton. A three — seemingly from Durham — from Seth Curry. A silky baseline jumper from Ryan Kelly.
“And after a tip-in by UNC’s Tyler Zeller — into the basket that he was defending — following a nothing-but-air deep attempt from Kelly, I was officially down on the floor praying for a memory-of-a-lifetime victory. Zeller then missed a free throw with 13 seconds remaining and his team up by two.
“And following a rebound by Mason Plumlee — who handed the ball over to the team’s freshman point guard — and Rivers’ smooth-operator 14 dribbles to the other end, Zeller missed an opportunity to play better defense against a 3-point attempt from Rivers.
“What followed was one of the most beautiful sights these two eyes have ever seen, the memory of which will never leave me.”
Neither will the memory that, in my mind, now deserves this tie at No. 1 here due to the circumstances entering the game, the drama throughout the game, and the abundant mix of both furious and subdued UNC fans today because of the game…
T1. Jonesing for Moore
No. 7 Duke at unranked UNC
Feb. 8, 2020
Duke basketball fans couldn’t ask for anything Moore — no matter how hard they Tre.
The Blue Devils trailed the 12-loss Tar Heels from the 18:30 mark of the first half until the game-tying shot from Tre Jones as time expired in regulation. Up until that moment, UNC Twitter was asking why Duke fans were being so quiet and allowing themselves to openly dream that Cole Anthony was in the process of turning around what has been a historically heartbreaking campaign (a giant underachievement based on the roster’s slew of four-stars and couple of five-stars).
The Blue Devils had trailed by 13 with 4:30 to play, by 10 with 2:18 to play, by seven with 1:11 to play, and by three with six ticks remaining. Dean Dome attendees were gearing up to laugh at Coach K and his squad on their way off the court.
Instead, badly missed free throws on one end and epic heroics on the other end led to overtime. And overtime turned into yet another tease of the Tar Heels in the final minute by Duke. Down five with 20 seconds on the clock, the Blue Devils once again gave UNC fans every reason to believe the home team had sealed the victory.
Nope. A quick layup by Jones. A missed and-one attempt that went out of bounds off the fingertips of a Tar Heel. A strong drive for an easy bucket by freshman Wendell Moore. An aggressive defensive play by Moore that led to screams for a foul after UNC guard Andrew Platek — a top Duke helper — gave the ball back to the visitors by touching the ball last before it fell out of bounds.
A drawn foul by Jones, resulting in a swish from the foul line to tie the score at 96. A missed free throw by Jones, resulting in a long rebound by a heady Jordan Goldwire. A pass to Jones. An airball by Jones.
A beautifully brilliant putback at the buzzer by Moore — who grew up in North Carolina with Duke posters on his bedroom walls — for the unforgettable win.
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An outcome that is the equivalent of kicking the Tar Heels while they are down. A truly heartwarming display for Duke basketball fans everywhere.
ALSO READ: Former Blue Devils react to Duke’s win at UNC
Now, this fan is left jonesing for the ACC to release next season’s schedule so that we can mark our calendars for the Blue Devils’ next chance to prove the darker shade of blue rules over the Dean Dome.
It was indeed a Duke-friendly atmosphere for a tone-setter to the rivalry in the 2020s.
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