How Duke basketball regained its edge, found highest gear, to rout rival North Carolina
No one in a Duke uniform, except for Tyrese Proctor, had played against North Carolina in the noisy cauldron that is Cameron Indoor Stadium when the two rivals met Saturday.
Oh, they’d heard about it. They’d witnessed it as recruits. Caleb Foster played against UNC in Chapel Hill, but was injured for the rematch in Durham last March.
But Saturday, the first Duke-UNC matchup of the season, was new to almost the entire roster.
“There were 2,000 students in the gym before I even tied my shoes,” said Duke forward Sion James, who played at Tulane the past four seasons. “That’s not regular. It doesn’t happen.”
So how would this group, which is on a winning streak no one else in college basketball can currently match, handle the newness of the moment?
With the cut-throat viciousness that left no doubt which team was better, that’s how.
The final scoreboard showed No. 2 Duke beat North Carolina, 87-70. No one who witnessed it felt the game was even that competitive, not after the Blue Devils led 23-6 and 40-13 before taking a 47-25 halftime lead.
Not after Duke pushed its lead to as many as 32 points in the second half.
“The team that has an edge has really won this game,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “And that’s something we just kept talking about. Our edge. Our focus. These guys had it, and that’s really what it was about.”
This one-sided game not only displayed the widening gulf that exists between the highly competitive rivals, but reminded everyone how good Duke has been for long stretches this season.
The Blue Devils (19-2, 11-0 ACC) are on a 15-game winning streak and, if they keep playing like they did Saturday night, the end of that streak won’t come for a long, long time.
“I thought we had great intensity and I thought we were more together than they were,” Proctor said. “I think it just goes to show our preparation, obviously this week, but this year.”
That’s different from how the Blue Devils looked in their last two games prior to facing the Tar Heels.
Yes, Duke beat Wake Forest, 63-56, a week earlier before toppling N.C. State, 74-64, on Monday night. But the Blue Devils weren’t at their best in either game. Not when they committed more turnovers than they collected assists over the two games and failed to shoot 40% in either.
That changed against UNC as Duke’s offense looked far more like the one that strung together seven consecutive games shooting 50% or better.
The Blue Devils shot 52.6%, hitting 10 of 20 3-pointers and finished with 20 assists against just eight turnovers.
“I thought we got too stagnant in those other games and I can’t let that happen,” Scheyer said. “Our guys really executed well, the passes that we made. We had 20 assists, of course, but I thought we just had some great connecting, sharing plays. And obviously, when you can get out in transition, that’s a big deal. But I thought our half court offense, to manufacture some easy looks, was night and day a lot better.”
Duke’s defense was its usually suffocating self. UNC turned the ball over 14 times with seven of those coming in the game’s first 12 minutes when the Blue Devils took control for good. The Tar Heels shot just 29.6% in the first half and were getting run out of the gym.
Duke scored 16 consecutive points during one stretch of the first half and then added another 11-0 run later prior to halftime.
As UNC’s Seth Trimble said, “They whupped us. They kicked us.”
The Blue Devils received points from up and down their lineup, with the expected greatness of Cooper Flagg (21 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) to his roommate Kon Knueppel pouring in 22 points while Proctor scored 17 and James 13.
This was certainly more like what Duke has shown during most of its 15-game winning streak. Saturday marked the 12th time in those games Duke won by 10 points or more.
Though the ACC is not packed with great teams as it used to be, Duke’s final 10 games of the regular season do present a couple of challenges.
Traveling south to play at Clemson (18-4, 10-1 ACC) on Saturday looks like Duke’s toughest remaining ACC game and it’s a doozy. When Duke plays its last nonconference game of the regular season Feb. 22 against Illinois at New York’s Madison Square Garden, they’ll need to play like they did Saturday night against UNC to win.
Of course, the final regular-season game, against the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill, represents its own special challenge no matter how poorly UNC looks these days.
Other than that, Duke will be heavy favorites to win out heading into the ACC Tournament. According to KenPom.com, Duke has a 42.3% chance of going 10 for 10 to close out the regular season and carrying a 25-game winning streak to Charlotte for the postseason.
Those are heady things to mull for Duke. But that’s what’s possible after the Blue Devils put all aspects of their talents together to blow UNC away.
This story was originally published February 2, 2025 at 6:00 AM.