I'm a little curious as to which later Dean years you're referring to. Was it the '97 Final Four or the '95 Final Four?
Al Featherston had a series of articles posted here last year that were a fantastic comparison:
http://www.accsports.com/articles/20...--part-1--.php
Unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber to read them now, but he compared how long it took both Dean and K to get things started, and then spoke of critics claiming that the game had passed Smith by before 1993. It sounds a little familiar now. And Duke certainly had it's own Doherty-esque worse times. A coaching change can do that to a team.
What's great about this rivalry is its longevity. Once Carolina surpassed N.C. State as the premiere program in the ACC, no team could sustain a challenge. Of course there were down years or down stretches, and other teams had their moments (David Thompson, Ralph Sampson), but no other team could stay at, or near, the top spot for as long as Carolina has... except Duke. The hatred comes from many factors, but the rivalry comes from both programs' sustained excellence and the ability of both to bounce back from adversity.
From a purely objective (
) view, I am very curious to see what happens when Coach K retires... to see if Duke "bounces back" from the adversity of losing a Hall of Fame coach, or to see if the wins and the greatness were just a trend. A thirty (forty?) year trend, but a trend, none-the-less.