In 80 minutes of action this season versus the North Carolina Tar Heels, the Duke Blue Devils have led for all of sixteen seconds. That’s just .003% of the available 4,800 seconds played in those two games that Duke has held a lead over Carolina. Now North Carolina is a very good team. They’re the outright regular season champions of the ACC, a projected #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and one of the favorites to cut down the nets in Glendale on April 8th. Even still, it was a loss that prompted Duke head coach (and former Blue Devils starter) Jon Scheyer to apologize to the Cameron Crazies after the game.
“I’m sorry,” Scheyer told the front row of the Cameron Crazies after the game, per ESPN News Services. “We’re going to keep going. We’re going to get this right.”
Have you ever heard of the game Two truths and a Lie? Here’s the gist of it: someone makes three statements, two that are truthful, one that isn’t. Then it’s the job of the other players in the game to determine which statement is the lie. Easy enough, right?
Well, on Saturday night Duke forward Kyle Filipowski played a game of two truths and a lie after the Blue Devils lost to Carolina.
“We didn’t play our best basketball overall. We’re still one of the best teams in the country. Our season’s not defined by UNC,” Filipowski said after the game, per ESPN News Services.
TRUTH: No, the Blue Devils did not play their best basketball. They shot well below (43% versus the Tar Heels) their season average of 48% from the field and allowed Carolina to shoot 50% for the game. The were out rebounded by 11 and were facing a 21-6 deficit quicker than you could say Tyler Hansbrough is a Crybaby.
TRUTH: I actually buy this, and I’ll be honest, I haven’t necessarily felt this way all year long. But Duke does feel like a team that, with the right matchups along the way, can absolutely make a run to the Final Four.
FALSE: This actually feels more like a half-truth than it does an outright lie. If Duke were to win the National Title, or even if they were to win the ACC Tournament this year, I don’t think anyone in Durham would be talking about the two regular season losses to Carolina. There is one hangup here: In Duke’s five National Championship winning seasons (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015) they’ve never lost the season series to North Carolina.
2015 – 2-0
2010 – 2-0
2001 – 2-1
1992 – 2-1
1991 – 2-1
So, maybe in the long run, Duke’s season will be defined by the sweep at the hands of North Carolina.
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