Duke Beat UNC Three Times This Season, But The Rivalry Has Only Gotten Stronger

And you can thank Cooper Flagg’s mom and Kon Knueppel for juicing things up.

The game between Duke and UNC in the ACC Tournament should have quelled the issue but some people have argued that America’s best sports rivalry has faded. Not really: what has faded is UNC’s ability to compete in said rivalry. Duke’s talent is far better, but the spirit in Chapel Hill has not gone entirely out. Far from it.

In all three games this year, the Tar Heels showed a flicker of competitiveness. In Durham, they mounted a late comeback that had the Cameron crowd slightly anxious. The game in Chapel Hill was much better, with the the Heels coming back from a 15-point deficit to build a seven-point lead before Duke roared back to claim a 13-point win.

And of course in Charlotte this past weekend, the Tar Heels shaved 23 points off of a 24 point Duke halftime lead to nearly knock off the Flagg-less Devils in the second half before Jae’Lyn Withers was called for a lane violation as Ven-Allen Lubin was about to tie the game with :04 left.

UNC fans are understandably frustrated and more so with a bit of smack talking from their Triangle betters (it won’t be like this forever but it sure is at the moment).

Cooper Flagg’s mother, Kelly kicked off hostilities when she called the Dean Dome crowd...well, here’s most of what she posted:

“It was a very intense situation we were put into and we were taken aback by the crudeness of the UNC fans as we made our way into the arena. They continued to harass us with much worse being spewed in our direction as well as at our 18-year-old son and his teammates throughout the entirety of the game.

“The celebration was a moment of being so proud of our kid. Also a big F-you to the entire Carolina fan base for being classless a-holes. If you are a UNC fan and didn’t like it… tough ! Better luck next time! Go Duke ”

Duke fans liked Cooper’s parents a lot before she went there, but now? She’s a pagan goddess for Blue Devil fans. Just point us to the volcano, Kelly. We’ll jump right in.

Of course, that wound up a lot of people, including Raymond Felton, the former UNC point guard who reminded her what this rivalry is about:

“When you put yourself out there like this on social meed, you gotta understand what may come back to you. I would tell my mom, my dad, I would tell my wife, anybody who’s a family member, once you put something out there like that, you’ve gotta take (what) comes back to you. By her making that tweet, you’re probably gonna get some nasty comments back to you, talking about Carolina fans and how bad we are … let’s talk about your fans.

“I’ve played in Cameron [Indoor] Stadium. I’ve heard some nasty words. I’ve heard some racial slurs, let’s be real. Your son’s gonna get that. He’s gonna get a lot of nasty words said about him. He’s gonna get nasty things said about you to your son. You can’t protect him. This is the world he’s in. He’s a high-level basketball player that everybody is looking at, all the time. For you to just come out at Carolina fans like that, it ain’t gonna end well for you, ma’am.”

Well, fair enough, Rotund Raymond, although it sounds less like complaining when you win. Which brings us to the latest bit of smack talk, this time from the normally verbally cautious Kon Knueppel, who said this after hitting the free throws that put the final nail in UNC’s coffin in the ACC Tournament:

“Coach told me to go get the ball. Pretty good free-throw shooter. I told Pat [Ngongba] not to do anything stupid, like get a lane violation.”

Unsurprisingly, UNC fans are not happy about the crack and for our part, we said it’s best to leave Withers alone after his disastrous foray into the lane. Why Duke should fans pile on when a guy is already miserable and catching it from his own base?

It’s a bit different for players to talk smack though and it’s a relatively mild crack at that, said right after it happened and in obvious disbelief that Withers could do something so foolish at a key point in a game of that magnitude.

Is it worth getting your panties in a wad over?

Not really, and like Mrs. Flagg’s comments, it will ultimately serve to fuel the rivalry, so it’s not the worst thing in the world when you look at it like that.

It’s best to be kind, obviously, but we think Felton should have the last word here:” [t]his is the world he’s in. He’s a high-level basketball player that everybody is looking at, all the time.“

That said, we honestly feel for Withers. Being in the middle of a media/social media firestorm is not easy for anyone and when you strip the rivalry away and are fair about it, he’s a young guy who is catching hell and mockery from all corners. The past few days can’t have been easy for him. And by the way, we greatly admire Hubert Davis for standing up for his player the way he did.

The best thing that Withers can do now is to play great this week, and for however long UNC is in the NCAA Tournament. That’s the best and only answer to being mocked for a play that will live in ACC infamy for years to come.

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