Duke basketball uses strange earthquake as cruel reminder to Tar Heels

It’s no wonder Duke basketball puts foes to shame at the social media game.

Around 8 a.m. Sunday, North Carolina experienced its strongest earthquake since 1926, per the North Carolina Geological Survey. Perhaps the sight of the 5.1-magnitude Richter scale reading reminded Duke basketball’s official Twitter account of the “win probability over time” graph from the last minutes of regulation and overtime the last time the Blue Devils visited Chapel Hill.

Or maybe the creative minds running the account felt their earth trembling, which would naturally bring to mind the eruption that followed the 98-96 overtime win at UNC. After all, though the odd seismic event occurred 150 miles from Durham in Sparta, N.C., many folks around the Triangle reported vibrations, which was undoubtedly the case up and down Tobacco Road back on Feb. 8 (oddly enough, these two events came within nine hours of happening exactly six months apart).

Whatever prompted the tweet below, it’s a welcomed reminder to Duke fans that any random reason should suffice when it comes to finding another reason to remember the No. 1 highlight of the 2019-20 college hoops season:

This witty rival-taunting entertainment explains why Blue Devils reign on social media. According to SkullSparks, combining July interactions across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for each program’s official accounts, Duke is No. 1 with 1.17 million while UNC sits No. 2 with a measly 507k; rounding out the top five are Michigan State (484k), Kentucky (478k), and Kansas (300k).

The most memorable feat of last season’s 25-6 Duke basketball team

Back to the earthquake game. As if any Dukie or UNC fan needs a reminder of what all transpired, the lowly Tar Heels (10-13 at the time) had led the first “Battle of the Blues” meeting of the year from the 18:32 mark in the first half all the way until the tying shot from Tre Jones at the buzzer in the second half. In fact, they led by 13 points at the under-4 timeout, by 12 with three minutes to play, by nine with two to play, by seven with 70 seconds to go, and by four with 17 ticks remaining.

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The Jones magic that happened next is too sweet for words. The same goes for the Wendell Moore putback game-winner at the buzzer in overtime after the Blue Devils had trailed by five with 17 ticks remaining this time around. Besides, rather than explain all the miraculous sequences, we should relive it via this colorful creation by, you guessed it, the Duke basketball social media team (5:30 is the timestamp below for the “tip” of the beautiful aftershock):

One oversight in Duke’s tweet, though, is that comparing the W to a mere 5.1-magnitude quake is a bit disrespectful to Jones, Moore, and the others responsible for the picturesque Dean Dome devastation. Yes, even the aftershock still feels like a 10.0 to those of us near the fault line.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more news and views regarding all things Duke basketball.