UNC simply is not moving on. Or, at least former Tar Heel standout Tyler Hansbrough is not allowing his team's glory days to fully be lived down.
He hinted at as much when he recently served as an instructor for a youth golf clinic at Raleigh’s TriGolf, hosting a Q&A with the young attendees. During the session, Hansbrough was asked a question that he could not help but meet with some of the same snarkiness he has shown in the past.
The question was asking whether he would rather beat Duke again or get a hole-in-one. To that, Hansbrough responded that he would opt for the latter.
“I’ve beaten Duke enough, so I’ll take the hole-in-one," he said.
Hansbrough has indeed had his fair share of wins against the Blue Devils, even though it's been roughly two decades since he took the hardwood against the team. And, while he may say that he would opt for a hole-in-one, he would probably love the chance to have the opportunity to play Duke just one last time.
With the way the Tar Heels have fared against this particular opponent in recent history, they probably wish there was some trick that could be done to give Hansbrough some type of eligibility again.
Tyler Hansbrough taking a playful jab at Duke was not funny
Duke and UNC men's basketball have met a total of 267 times on the court, and there's no question it is one of the most heated rivalries in the sport. The latest meaning between the two ended with a bad taste in the mouth of the Tar Heels as the Blue Devils bested them, 76-61, driven by a 24-2 run in the second half. It marked revenge for Duke, which had fallen previously to UNC, 71-68, exactly one month before.
There's a separation between the two teams in the rankings that wasn't the case in the era of "Psycho T" that exists now. While UNC still holds the edge in the all-time series with an overall record of 146-121 against the Blue Devils, that gap is closing.
The two teams also do not sit anywhere near each other in the modern-day rankings. When ESPN's Jeff Borzello released his way-too-early college men's basketball rankings ahead of the 2026-27 season, he had Duke at No. 2.
The Blue Devils were second to only the Florida Gators, while the Tar Heels were not included in his list of 25 teams. They didn't even appear in his group of five teams that fell just short of the top-25, either, as Borzello named off the Iowa Hawkeyes, BYU Cougars, Ohio State Buckeyes, UCLA Bruins and Texas A&M Aggies instead.
Borzello noted that Duke's depth was one of its biggest strengths. "Unparalleled," even.
"Though Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans are moving on to the NBA, the Blue Devils return Patrick Ngongba II and Dame Sarr, and Caleb Foster and Cayden Boozer opted to stay in Durham," Borzello wrote. "That's on top of the arrival of Wisconsin transfer John Blackwell, the best guard to enter the portal, and an elite recruiting class featuring three top-25 talents.
Jon Scheyer's team has fallen short in heartbreaking fashion two years in a row, but the pieces are in place for Duke to make another deep run."
There truly was a time when UNC owned Duke, and Hansbrough is making sure to keep even the youth reminded of that. After all, the Tar Heels did once hold a 16-game winning streak against the Blue Devils. They also hold the largest margin of victory (53 points) in the all-time series... from a win back in 1921.
But a lot is going to have to be done for the Tar Heels to return to the stature Hansbrough remembers and still brags about now.
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