Which Duke/UNC Game Was It?

[PeteZaHut]

I went to a Duke-UNC basketball game when I was a kid and am trying to figure out which one it was. I don't remember much about it, but have narrowed it down to either the 2002 home game or the 2000 home game. My original thought was it being the 2002 home game because I vaguely remember Matt Christensen being a senior. But, looking at the box score, Jason Williams scored 37 points in that game, and I definitely don't remember seeing that. Does anyone remember which game it was that he scored, then immediately stole the ball off the inbounds and scored again because I don't think I was there to see that either. Duke won by 25 points that game - I don't remember seeing them win by that much.

So then I look at the 2000 game. Carawell would have been the lone senior there, and Duke's margin of victory seems more like what I remember. I just don't know. Does anyone remember any details about these 2 games?

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Matt Christiansen was a senior for about 8 years - will be tough to track down.

[jdk]

Does anyone remember which game it was that he scored, then immediately stole the ball off the inbounds and scored again because I don't think I was there to see that either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg30N_ZxIbM

Was in 2000.

[Natty_B]

That was a very underrated total whooping of UNC up there with the 2010 game at Cameron. Of course then Heels made the FF as a nine seed and Duke lost in the sweet 16 which was a very underrated horrible tournament.

[PeteZaHut]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg30N_ZxIbM

Was in 2000.

I don't think I was there to see that, so I must have been there for the 2002 game. That clip you posted - I've heard is one of the loudest moments ever in Cameron.

[wsb3]

I went to a Duke-UNC basketball game when I was a kid and am trying to figure out which one it was. I don't remember much about it, but have narrowed it down to either the 2002 home game or the 2000 home game. My original thought was it being the 2002 home game because I vaguely remember Matt Christensen being a senior. But, looking at the box score, Jason Williams scored 37 points in that game, and I definitely don't remember seeing that. Does anyone remember which game it was that he scored, then immediately stole the ball off the inbounds and scored again because I don't think I was there to see that either. Duke won by 25 points that game - I don't remember seeing them win by that much.

So then I look at the 2000 game. Carawell would have been the lone senior there, and Duke's margin of victory seems more like what I remember. I just don't know. Does anyone remember any details about these 2 games?

In case you don't know this site it is a wonderful site for Season & Player Database for all things Duke Basketball..

http://goduke.statsgeek.com/basketball-m/

[PeteZaHut]

I just read that there were 5 technical fouls called in the 2002 game, including one on each coach. I'm not sure how I would forget that and Jason Williams scoring 37 points. All I seem to remember is Matt Christensen getting a dunk. The records show he had 2 points on 1 FG that game, so I guess that could be it.

[wsb3]

Matt Christiansen was a senior for about 8 years - will be tough to track down.

Wanted to spork you for that..

[CDu]

I don't think I was there to see that, so I must have been there for the 2002 game. That clip you posted - I've heard is one of the loudest moments ever in Cameron.

Nah. The 1998 UNC game was louder. And I am sure there have been others. Probably 2005 tops it. And surely some older games too.

[Edouble]

Nah. The 1998 UNC game was louder. And I am sure there have been others. Probably 2005 tops it. And surely some older games too.

'98 was the loudest. White noise- like being in the inside of a jet engine.

[ricks68]

Nah. The 1998 UNC game was louder. And I am sure there have been others. Probably 2005 tops it. And surely some older games too.

Nah! The loudest is always the last one. That's the way I see it, as it's hard to hear much over the noise I am making, anyway.😉

ricks

[devildeac]

Nah! The loudest is always the last one. That's the way I see it, as it's hard to hear much over the noise I am making, anyway.😉

ricks

Gimme a break, man, you're too busy flossing.

:p

[jdk]

All I seem to remember is Matt Christensen getting a dunk. The records show he had 2 points on 1 FG that game, so I guess that could be it.

Thanks for giving me a reason to go back and watch both games.

Matt dunked in the 2002 game with 6:19 left in the second to go up 86-61. That was your game.

I only watch the NBA these days. Two things stand out: 1) Guard play was really, really physical back then and 2) It's hard to believe that Mike Dunleavy is the only guy left from these teams still playing.

[Tom B.]

That was a very underrated total whooping of UNC up there with the 2010 game at Cameron. Of course then Heels made the FF as a nine seed and Duke lost in the sweet 16 which was a very underrated horrible tournament.

That 2000 UNC team making the Final Four was a crime against humanity. That was a down year for the ACC -- as the Tournament approached, it was pretty clear the ACC would only get three bids. Duke and Maryland had locked up two of them, and it was down to UNC and Virginia to fight for the third. Typical of Pete Gillen's Virginia teams, they faded down the stretch -- after starting the ACC season 5-2, they finished 4-5, including a couple of bad losses to weak teams from Georgia Tech and Florida State. UNC managed to do slightly better -- after starting the conference season 4-4, they finished 5-3. Both lost their first-round games in the ACC Tournament -- UNC to a middling Wake Forest team, and Virginia to a bad N.C. State team. Overall, Carolina had done marginally better than Virginia over the season, so they got the third ACC bid. (I remember there was a debate at the time as to whether the ACC even deserved three bids, but there was no way the Committee would only take two ACC teams.)

Then UNC got a gift of a draw in the Tournament. They were actually the #8 seed (not the #9) in the South, which was generous. They got Stanford as their #1 seed, probably the weakest of the four #1 seeds and the one against whom Carolina matched up best. So of course Carolina upset them in a low-scoring clankfest -- UNC won 60-53, as Stanford shot a whopping 34.5%.

The rest of Carolina's regional bracket couldn't have been more tailor-made for them. In the Sweet 16, they got an overseeded Tennessee (#4 in the region), one of the stupidest teams to ever walk the earth. It was a tight game, which Tennessee predictably frittered away with mental mistakes in the second half.

In the regional final, Carolina got #7 seed Tulsa. The #2 seed in that region had been Cincinnati, which had spent much of the year ranked #1 in the country -- until Kenyon Martin broke his leg in the C-USA Tournament. After that, Concinnati was ripe for an early Tournament exit, and they lost in the second round (their fourth consecutive second-round exit) to Bill Self's Tulsa team. Tulsa then beat #6 seed Miami (another second round upset winner, over Ohio State) to reach the regional final, which Carolina won in another plodding brick-o-rama. The final score was 59-55, with Tulsa shooting a scorching 37.3%.

Florida -- the same Florida team that had upset Duke in the Sweet 16 -- finally, and mercifully, ended Carolina's 1999-2000 season a week later.

[jdk]

Then UNC got a gift of a draw in the Tournament. They were actually the #8 seed (not the #9) in the South, which was generous.

If I recall correctly, UNC got into the tournament that year over a Matt Doherty coached Notre Dame team with an identical record. ND got sent to the NIT instead, where they lost to Wake Forest in the championship game.

A lot of beef about them making the FF was the argument that they shouldn't have even been in the tournament. Kind of like the past two seasons.

[Natty_B]

Then UNC got a gift of a draw in the Tournament. They were actually the #8 seed (not the #9) in the South, which was generous. They got Stanford as their #1 seed, probably the weakest of the four #1 seeds and the one against whom Carolina matched up best.

Yeah I remember the moment Stanford was the 1 seed in the Heels region it was trouble as both teams were big and plodding. Looking at the rosters it really was a big and plodding-o-rama!! Haywood, Lang (remember that goof), Collins twins and Madsen. Sheesh.

[throatybeard]

The main thing I remember about the 2002 game was me in a gorilla suit behind the south goal, lofted above Jackie Manuel's shooter's view at the line, waving a huge inflatable banana suggestively.

Graduate education at Duke University.

[Tom B.]

Yeah I remember the moment Stanford was the 1 seed in the Heels region it was trouble as both teams were big and plodding. Looking at the rosters it really was a big and plodding-o-rama!! Haywood, Lang (remember that goof), Collins twins and Madsen. Sheesh.

One other way Carolina benefited from that draw -- this was before the NCAA started assigning "pods" to subregional sites based on geography to favor (as much as possible) the best-seeded team in the pod. So even though Stanford was the #1 seed, because they were in the South region, they had to travel to Birmingham, Alabama for the first two rounds. So while Stanford had to fly 3/4 of the way across the country, the site was much more geographically friendly to Carolina -- just a little over two hours by car from Atlanta, where there's a big cluster of Carolina alums, and a six-hour drive or short flight from Charlotte.

[Tom B.]

If I recall correctly, UNC got into the tournament that year over a Matt Doherty coached Notre Dame team with an identical record.

Close. Notre Dame was 18-14 after the regular season and conference tournaments, while Carolina was 18-13.

That was Doherty's one year at Notre Dame. Bill Guthridge retired from UNC after that season, and Carolina started a coaching search that dragged on and on. They wanted Roy Williams, but he turned them down and they didn't have a backup plan. They went after George Karl, Larry Brown, Eddie Fogler, and maybe one or two other guys I'm forgetting, before finally settling on Doherty. He was something like their fifth or sixth choice for the job.

He actually did well his first year at Carolina -- for the first 3/4 of the season. The wheels started to come off late, though. Carolina lost a few games down the stretch (including a bad road loss to a terrible Clemson team), got crushed by Duke in the ACC Tournament final, and was upset by Penn State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Doherty still managed to parlay his success through mid-February into an AP National Coach of the Year Award -- and in an even more egregious crime, Shane Battier had to share ACC Player of the Year with Joseph Forte.

[devildeac]

Close. Notre Dame was 18-14 after the regular season and conference tournaments, while Carolina was 18-13.

That was Doherty's one year at Notre Dame. Bill Guthridge retired from UNC after that season, and Carolina started a coaching search that dragged on and on. They wanted Roy Williams, but he turned them down and they didn't have a backup plan. They went after George Karl, Larry Brown, Eddie Fogler, and maybe one or two other guys I'm forgetting (*), before finally settling on Doherty. He was something like their fifth or sixth choice for the job.

He actually did well his first year at Carolina -- for the first 3/4 of the season. The wheels started to come off late, though. Carolina lost a few games down the stretch (including a bad road loss to a terrible Clemson team), got crushed by Duke in the ACC Tournament final, and was upset by Penn State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Doherty still managed to parlay his success through mid-February into an AP National Coach of the Year Award -- and in an even more egregious crime, Shane Battier had to share ACC Player of the Year with Joseph Forte.


(*Those other two guys were Elian Gonzalez and me. My DBR t-shirt sez so.:p)

[Natty_B]

He actually did well his first year at Carolina -- for the first 3/4 of the season.

Including winning at Cameron. As bad as 2000 ended 2001 was perfect. The reason I'll never let that 2000 Tournament go is that the regular season was one of may favorite ever for Duke - after the sting of the UConn loss, the mass defections (which back then weren't an annual tradition), and an 0-2 start the team reached no. 1 in the country and won the ACCT. Carrawell will always be one of my favorites. Fun fact Brett Nelson of Florida, who had a career game against Duke in the round of 16, is now an assistant for Wojo.

[Tom B.]

The reason I'll never let that 2000 Tournament go is that the regular season was one of may favorite ever for Duke - after the sting of the UConn loss, the mass defections (which back then weren't an annual tradition), and an 0-2 start the team reached no. 1 in the country and won the ACCT.

We also beat Carolina twice -- a four-point overtime win in Chapel Hill, and a 14-point win to close the regular season in Cameron.

That season also came in the middle of Duke's amazing 24-game streak of ACC road wins, which lasted from February of 1998 to February of 2001 -- basically three full ACC seasons without losing a road game.

If Dunleavy doesn't catch mono late in the season, we were probably a Final Four team that year. Not sure if we'd have won the whole thing -- that was Michigan State's year. But I think we at least would've beaten Florida and made the Final Four (where we would've met Carolina -- and I think we would've had a good chance to beat them for a third time that year).

[pfrduke]

Florida -- the same Florida team that had upset Duke in the Sweet 16 -- finally, and mercifully, ended Carolina's 1999-2000 season a week later.

Is this the only time a team has beat Duke and UNC in the same tournament? I was thinking about that in the context of South Carolina this year, which matchup obviously didn't happen. I know it hasn't happened since that game.

[pfrduke]

In self-researching my question, I noticed that UNC's prior two titles both involved them beating (in the Final Four) the team that beat Duke - Villanova in 2009 and Michigan State in 2005.