Duke’s 63-57 win over North Carolina on Saturday clinched a season sweep for the Blue Devils and put the Tar Heels in a difficult spot. North Carolina presumably needs to make a serious run in the ACC tournament now just to get in the conversation to make the NCAA tournament, when a win over Duke may have launched them into the field.
The victory provided the Blue Devils with a bit of payback after North Carolina eliminated Duke in the Final Four last year. Even though some of Duke’s players from last year are no longer on the team, it’s clear they still got satisfaction from the win.
Paolo Banchero, the top player on Duke’s 2021-22 team and subsequent No. 1 NBA draft pick, tweeted a simple message in reaction to Saturday’s rivalry game.
“Them boys not gon make tha tournament,” he said.
This is now twice that Banchero has relished in North Carolina’s demise, as he expressed his excitement when Duke won the previous matchup between the two teams at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Entering Saturday’s game, SI’s Kevin Sweeney assessed UNC as one of the first four teams out of the NCAA tournament field, while Duke was sitting comfortably as a No. 6 seed. The gap in the projections between the two schools surely widened following Saturday’s result.
