One of college basketball’s preeminent rivalries is the Tobacco Road clash between North Carolina and Duke, two institutions of the sport and — recently — two programs in the early stages of new eras with relatively inexperienced coaches at the helm.
The Tar Heels and Blue Devils will play at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night for the first of two regular season meetings. Though they currently sit in seventh and sixth in the ACC, respectively, both teams are just two games in the loss column behind conference leaders Clemson. That being said, this matchup is about much more than conference standing.
This is the first meeting between North Carolina and Duke since the Tar Heels’ dramatic 81-77 win in the 2022 Final Four — the final game in the career of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski and the only time to date the rivals have met in the NCAA tournament.
How to watch North Carolina at Duke
Tip-off between UNC and Duke is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on ESPN (click or tap here to stream). Click or tap here for live scoring, play by play and statistics during the game.
SCOREBOARD: Click or tap here for a look at all of Saturday’s matchups
Recent history between Duke and North Carolina
- Overall, this will be the 259th all-time meeting between North Carolina and Duke, a series led 143-115 by the Tar Heels.
- UNC has won four of the last five meetings, including two straight at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Despite that, Duke still holds a historic advantage in Durham with a 46-39 record in home confines.
- The last time the Blue Devils won in front of the Cameron Crazies was on March 7, 2020, the regular-season finale of a campaign that would never be finished due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- This will be the first meeting between UNC’s second-year coach Hubert Davis and Duke’s rookie coach Jon Scheyer.
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| Date | Score | Location |
|---|---|---|
| April 2, 2022 | North Carolina 81, Duke 77 | New Orleans, LA* |
| March 5, 2022 | North Carolina 94, Duke 81 | Durham, NC |
| Feb. 5, 2022 | Duke 87, North Carolina 67 | Chapel Hill, NC |
| March 6, 2021 | Duke 73, North Carolina 91 | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Feb. 6, 2021 | North Carolina 91, Duke 87 | Durham, NC |
| March 7, 2020 | North Carolina 76, Duke 89 | Durham, NC |
| Feb. 8, 2020 | Duke 98, North Carolina 96 (OT) | Chapel Hill, NC |
| March 15, 2019 | Duke 74, North Carolina 73 | Charlotte, NC^ |
| March 9, 2019 | Duke 70, North Carolina 79 | Chapel Hill, NC |
| Feb. 20, 2019 | North Carolina 88, Duke 72 | Durham, NC |
*NCAA tournament game
^ACC Tournament game
Players to watch
North Carolina: The Tar Heels are led in minutes and scoring by largely the same group that led them to the national title game last year. Armando Bacot leads in both points and rebounds at 17 and 11 per game, along with 16 points per game by from the backcourt duo of Caleb Love and RJ Davis.
Duke: The Blue Devils are anchored in the middle by freshman center Kyle Flipowski, who leads the team in scoring and crashing the boards (15 points and nine rebounds per game). The seven-footer has formed a two-man game with guard Jeremy Roach, who averages 12 points and just over three assists per outing.
