Duke fans have spent years rolling their eyes whenever the Mike Krzyzewski versus Roy Williams debate pops up. While Williams had an incredible career at North Carolina, bringing three national championships to Chapel Hill, Blue Devils fans have never viewed the comparison as particularly close.
After all, Coach K retired as the winningest coach in college basketball history, won five national championships, and built Duke into one of, if not the biggest, programs in the sport. Of course, that hasn't stopped some Tar Heel fans from arguing that Williams belongs in the conversation with Krzyzewski.
A recent ranking from Brian Rauf of Basket Under Review may have just given Duke fans even more ammunition. Here's a direct breakdown of how Duke and North Carolina stack up on his list:
- Duke's 21st-century titles (3): 2001 (No. 1), 2015 (No. 11), 2010 (No. 17)
- UNC's 21st-century titles (3): 2009 (No. 7), 2005 (No. 9), 2017 (No. 22)
Looking at these rankings, Duke's 2001 squad stands out, coming in as the No. 1 team of the 21st century and showing just how dominant Krzyzewski's best teams were compared to anything Roy Williams put together.
Mike Krzyzewski's best Duke team runs laps around North Carolina, and there's no argument
Tar Heel fans will certainly keep the debate alive, but these rankings don't exactly help their case. No matter how you spin it, Krzyzewski's title-winning teams in the 21st century come out ahead of Williams' by a pretty clear margin.
The clearest takeaway from the rankings is how the top teams from each coach stack up in the century. The 2001 Blue Devils coming in at No.1 overall, while the closest thing North Carolina has to offer is the 2009 squad at No. 7, says it all. For two coaches with the same number of titles in the 21st century, that kind of gap definitely stands out.
Even from the opposite end of the spectrum, Coach K still comes out on top. Looking at each coach's lowest-ranked championship team, the Tar Heels once again fall a few spots behind, with Duke's 2010 title team at No. 17 and UNC's 2017 squad at No. 22. It's a consistent pattern that shows up no matter how the rankings are sliced.
But it doesn't stop there.
When considering the average finish of the two coaches' championship teams, Duke holds another clear advantage. Kryzewski's three championship teams had an average finish of 9.67 in the rankings; meanwhile, Williams' teams came in exactly three spots lower at 12.67. Even when you break the rankings down by average finish, Krzyzewski still holds the edge.
In a perfect world, these rankings would be enough to settle the debate once and for all. But it's unlikely to stop North Carolina fans from keeping it alive, even as Duke fans have long felt it was never much of a debate to begin with.
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