Two longtime ACC rivals prepare for ‘gritty’ historic meeting in March Madness

For the first time ever, Duke and North Carolina will meet in the women’s NCAA Tournament.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A product of Durham’s Jordan High School, Sydney Barker grew up right between Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, basically within walking distance from both Cameron Indoor Stadium and Carmichael Arena.

She didn’t get a choice in who she was going to root for growing up. Both of her parents were UNC graduates and toted a young Sydney to countless games in Carmichael. Barker went to former UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell’s summer basketball camps. She’s seen Duke and UNC play – in person and on TV, in many sports – countless times. Her most vivid memory of the rivalry in women’s basketball is of watching Paris Kea score 36 points against the Blue Devils in an overtime victory at home for the Tar Heels in 2018.

Barker has even played in the rivalry too. A freshman walk-on last season — she joined her beloved Tar Heels instead of taking one of several offers from mid-major programs — Barker swished a crucial 3-pointer in a 63-59 win for UNC in the regular season finale in Chapel Hill.

But being a part of this chapter of the rivalry on this stage is something that Barker could have never imagined.

“It feels so special,” Barker told SB Nation. “Like, wow, we get to be a part of that. It’s just amazing. I can’t wait. I wish we could play today.”

Like their men’s basketball teams did at the Final Four in 2022, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will together write a new chapter of their storied rivalry in women’s basketball on Friday afternoon in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena when they face off in the Sweet 16. The winner will advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in more than a decade. UNC hasn’t been since 2014 and Duke not since 2013.

For either UNC’s Courtney Banghart or Duke’s Kara Lawson, it’s another opportunity for them to grab milestone victories. For the past half-decade, the coaches have been rebuilding two of the ACC’s signature programs just miles apart from each other on Tobacco Road, both chasing the success that Wes Moore has achieved at N.C. State. This year, for the first time since 2007, all three programs nestled in North Carolina’s Research Triangle are in the Sweet 16.

“These traditionally have been two of the heavyweights in the conference, right? That wasn’t Kara or I’s doing — we’re just in charge of it in this moment,” Banghart says. “There’s been a lot of coaches — or in our case one — who have come before us that have created the fact that these games matter because both teams are always good. That’s what makes these rivalries so special. I think the Duke-Carolina rivalry is so much bigger than me or this team.”

In women’s basketball, UNC’s rivalry with N.C. State began in the mid-1970s. When the Wolfpack made Kay Yow its full-time women’s basketball coach — instead of saddling her with extra responsibilities like teaching or coaching another team — they saw her win big almost immediately. N.C. State became regulars in the AIAW Tournament, and then started going to Sweet 16s in the 1980s when the NCAA launched its own women’s basketball tournament. UNC couldn’t be outdone by its rival in Raleigh, so they made its coach for the sport into a full-time position too, hiring Jennifer Alley away from High Point. She made the Tar Heels into a respectable program, taking them to four straight NCAA Tournaments before resigning in 1986.

If Alley built the car, then Hatchell dropped the engine into it. She coached a UNC-squad powered by Charlotte Smith and Marion Jones to a national championship in 1994, a run capped off by an iconic shot. She is still the only women’s basketball coach in the Triangle to win a national title.

But Gail Goestenkors came pretty close, several times. Duke finally got serious about women’s basketball in the 1990s and hired Goestenkors to take its program to the next level. She did just that. Under her 15-season watch, the Blue Devils won five ACC Tournaments and went to four Final Fours while producing all-time great players like Alana Beard.

And then, all three programs experienced a downswing in the 2010s.

At UNC, Hatchell never evolved as a coach and resigned amid a scandal. At Duke, things started well under Joanne P. McCallie with four consecutive trips to the Elite Eight, but her tenure fizzled out with too many misses in recruiting and talent evaluation. After Yow died in 2009, N.C. State replaced her with Kellie Harper — then an up-and-coming head coach out of Western Carolina. She was fired after missing the NCAA Tournament for three consecutive seasons and a former Yow assistant, Moore, was hired to rebuild the program.

Now, finally, all three programs are back in the elite tier of the sport. Each of them spent time ranked inside the top 10 of the AP Top 25 Poll this season. And now, each are just two wins away from going to the Final Four.

To get there, Duke and North Carolina have to go through each other in a game shaping up to be a low-scoring one. Both the Blue Devils and Tar Heels rank in the top 10 nationally in defensive rating. In each of the last seven meetings, the winning team hasn’t scored more than 68 points.

“I think it’s going to be cool to showcase on even a bigger stage what the Carolina-Duke rivalry is,” UNC fifth-year forward Alyssa Ustby said. “Obviously, it’s always a gritty game. So it’s something that’s going to be pretty cool to show the rest of the country.”

Around the Tar Heels on Thursday, the hype for Friday’s game was palpable.

For the Blue Devils, it was not.

Until a reporter told her, Lawson claimed she didn’t know it was the first meeting in the NCAA Tournament between Duke and UNC.

“I’m not really, like, moved either way by it. It’s not just another game,” Lawson said without a hint of sarcasm. “It’s an important game. It’s a game to get a step beyond where we were able to reach a year ago, and it’s a game to put yourself in position to play for a spot in the Final Four.”

It’s the 111th time Duke and UNC will play against each other, with the Tar Heels holding a narrow 56-54 advantage. In head-to-head meetings in this era of the rivalry, Banghart holds a 6-3 advantage against Lawson.

Even if Lawson isn’t all that amped about renewing the rivalry in the Sweet 16, her players are. At least a little bit.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say this, but we’re all super excited to play them again,” said Duke freshman Toby Fournier, the ACC Rookie of the Year. “They’re a great team, super competitive, offensively, defensively. I feel like it’s a great matchup for us. I think we’re both super prepared, and I think it’s going to be a great game.”

The game aims to be an incredibly special one for UNC point guard Reniya Kelly. She grew up less than 20 miles from here in Hoover, Alabama, where she scored a school-record 2,272 points. Her retired No. 10 jersey hangs in Hoover High School now after she guided the team to four state championships – each of them on the same floor that she’ll lead her Tar Heels onto against Duke on Friday.

Kelly is 4-1 in Legacy Arena. In front of friends and family, she wants to put another tally in the win column.

“I just love this place so much because I have so much experience, and the atmosphere is always good here,” Kelly said. “The main focus is to win. Obviously, this is a big rival, and I think the fans are going to love it.”