Behind the career-high 31 points from graduate sharpshooter Cormac Ryan, UNC basketball completed its regular-season sweep of archrival Duke via Saturday night's 84-79 win in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The program secured its first outright regular-season conference title since the eventual national champion Tar Heels did so in 2017.
As Ryan and the No. 7 Tar Heels (25-6, 17-3 ACC) were mockingly waving goodbye to the Cameron Crazies while dodging water bottles and allegedly other items, such as a gumball or two, second-year Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer was making his way over to the heart of the famed student section to issue an apology.
The 36-year-old Scheyer held one of the Cameron Crazies' hand. He apologized profusely for his No. 9 Blue Devils (24-7, 15-5 ACC) falling short and promised to right the ship.
"It's the best environment in college basketball," Scheyer told the media following the defeat. "And there's a part of you that feels like you let [the fans] down. And as a team, it's Senior Night, and I think we probably got caught up in some of that stuff."
While not quite as delightful to Tar Heel fans as the aftermath of UNC's epic 2022 win on Coach K Court in Duke legend Mike Krzyzewski's final home game, highlighted by the Hall of Famer's repeated use of the word "unacceptable" in his postgame apology to the crowd, Scheyer's sincere pain was clearly visible on the court and in his presser.
That makes sense. After all, Coach K was in the building, marking his first appearance at a Duke-UNC clash since UNC sent him into retirement at the 2022 Final Four. And so were dozens of his former players, albeit a count well short of the hundred or so on hand for his oh-so-humbling loss to the Tar Heels in Durham two years ago.
With the feel-good statement victory, third-year UNC basketball head coach Hubert Davis, who was in his first season at the helm in 2022, improved to 4-3 against Duke (2-2 against Scheyer) and has these Tar Heels well within reach of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They take a six-game winning streak into the ACC Tournament.
UNC, now looking to raise a second 2023-24 conference banner in the Dean E. Smith Center, plays at noon ET Thursday in Washington, D.C., against the winner of Wednesday afternoon's matchup between No. 8 seed Virginia Tech and No. 9 seed Florida State.
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