YouTube Gold: The Double Buzzer Beater In Chapel Hill

One of the truly classic Duke-UNC games thanks to Tre Jones and Wendell Moore

We thought given that Saturday is our day to welcome our esteemed frien - oh, never mind.

UNC is coming Saturday and that means that everyone in the Triangle, and beyond, is all geeked up.

There are so many great moments in this rivalry that it’s hard to pick even a few as the greatest highlights. However, from this Duke Blue chair, it’s hard to top what happened in 2020.

As you’ll recall, Wendell Moore was a freshman and Tre Jones was a sophomore, having stayed for one more year when his classmates, Cam Reddish, RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson left for the NBA.

Duke was still a very solid team at 19-3, but those were really significant players to lose.

When Duke went to Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils were down 13, 77-64 with 4:23 to play - and Vernon Carey fouled out.

Joey Baker hit a three to cut the lead to eight with 3:32 to go, then Alex O’Connell hit a three to cut it to 79-73.

Cassius Stanley cut it to five with 1:01 to go then Jones took it to the hole to cut it to 80-77 with 48.7 to go. He would soon cut it to 81-79 at the free throw line.

Jones drove coast to coast to cut it back to 83-81 with 15.8 to go

UNC went to the foul line with 6.1 to go still up 83-81. It’s worth mentioning how many shots the Heels missed at the line, and that so many of them weren’t just misses but positively dreadful misses.

Andrew Platek split, putting the Heels up 84-81 and thus set up Duke’s first buzzer beater.

The Tar Heels put Jones on the line with 4.4 to play where he made the first and then missed the second intentionally. And this is where we got an insight into the man who is now coaching the Blue Devils, because Jon Scheyer had not only prepped Jones for this specific situation, but he also told him where the ball was likely to go. Really, that’s just unbelievable.

Jones threw the ball at the rim and got it right back and then hit an amazing shot to put the game in OT.

You won't often see anyone play harder than Jones did that day, so it’s no surprise that he was tired at the end. He tied the game at the foul line with his first shot but missed the second. He again got the ball back because Moore tipped it out to Jordan Goldwire, to gave it to him. When Jones went up, the ball was well short of the basket but Moore did what any smart player would do: he went to the basket and the missed shot was basically an alley-oop.

The dog pile at the end is almost as amazing as the play itself. At the end, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski embraced each other and smiled, perhaps acknowledging that they were part of something incredibly special.