Tag: Duke UNC

North Carolina football leads USA TODAY Sports Misery Index after James Madison loss

After allowing 53 first-half points to James Madison in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and head coach Mack Brown ended up atop the Misery Index.

The North Carolina Tar Heels became the talk of the college football world in an unfortunate way on Saturday, losing to James Madison 70-50 after allowing 53 first-half points within the friendly confines of Chapel Hill.

UNC head coach Mack Brown made headlines after the loss with reports of a strange postgame speech to his players, asking them if he should step aside due to the mistake-filled performance. While it doesn’t sound like the Tar Heels leader is actually on the brink of retirement, the instability and embarrassment ended up with UNC atop the USA TODAY Sports Misery Index.

As Dan Wolken wrote, the Tar Heels have a 41-28 record under the legendary coach so far. That’s despite having two NFL quarterbacks, Sam Howell and first-round pick Drake Maye, for a half-decade. UNC finished outside of the top 100 in the FBS in scoring defense in 2021 and 2022 before a “bounce-back season” in 2023 saw the Tar Heels allow 27.3 points per game, the 75th-best mark in the country.

“This isn’t sustainable,” Wolken wrote. “Has it been a disaster in the big picture? No, not at North Carolina, which has always been one of college football’s biggest underachievers. But has Mack’s second stint in Chapel Hill been a success? It would be disingenuous to say yes.”

The Tar Heels come to Durham next Saturday for the first conference game of the season, and Duke seems like it will have a good chance to beat UNC for the first time since 2018.

North Carolina coach Mack Brown asks team if he should step away in strange postgame speech

One week before heading to Durham, UNC coach Mack Brown made a bizarre comment about stepping away after a loss to James Madison on Saturday.

The North Carolina Tar Heels football team got embarrassed in Chapel Hill on Saturday, allowing 53 first-half points and more than 600 yards of offense in a 70-50 loss to James Madison. Based on one report, it sounds like the performance really affected UNC head coach Mack Brown.

According to 247Sports’ Adam Smith, Brown told his team that he would step away from the program if the Tar Heels felt like he was responsible for Saturday’s quality of play.

Smith’s report caught fire on social media after the game with fans misinterpreting the statement as a potential retirement, but Smith’s report said such conclusions were premature. It sounds more like Brown wanted answers for himself and from his players rather than making declarations about his future.

“Another source close to the situation emphasized that the 73-year-old College Football Hall of Famer, who long has taken losses hard in their immediate aftermath, isn’t resigning or quitting his coaching position,” Smith confirmed.

Smith reported that the players rallied around their head coach, but one comment in his story made it sound like Brown’s resignation was not entirely out of the question.

“Sources since have conveyed hope from UNC players that Brown will at least finish this season,” Smith wrote. “But if not, tight ends coach and run game coordinator Freddie Kitchens has player support to take an interim role.”

The stunning loss comes just seven days before Brown and his players come to Durham for the first ACC game of the season. Duke, for their part, handled business against Middle Tennessee for a 45-17 victory to improve to 4-0. The Blue Devils haven’t beaten UNC since 2018.

Former Duke football star pokes fun at North Carolina after historic upset in Chapel Hill

North Carolina lost in historic fashion in Chapel Hill on Saturday, and one former Blue Devil enjoyed watching the Tar Heels get beat.

The North Carolina Tar Heels lost in stunning and embarrassing fashion in Chapel Hill on Saturday, allowing 53 first-half points to James Madison en route to a 70-50 upset loss.

The Dukes ended with 611 yards of total offense thanks to seven total touchdowns from quarterback Alonza Barnett III, and former Duke football player [autotag]Ja’Mion Franklin[/autotag] made it clear on social media that he shed no tears for the Tar Heels.

“It’s a wonderful day,” Franklin wrote on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) in response to a post about James Madison’s first-half performance.

Franklin began his collegiate career with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but he transferred to Duke ahead of the 2021 season. He spent the next three years with the Blue Devils, finishing his time in Durham with 56 total tackles and four sacks.

He actually had one of his best games with the Blue Devils against his former school in 2023, picking up five total tackles and a sack against the Fighting Irish.

North Carolina comes to Durham next Saturday for the first conference game of the season. Duke, now 4-0 after a 45-17 win over Middle Tennessee, hopes to beat the Tar Heels for the first time since 2018.

Duke football will face North Carolina on national television in Week 5

The ACC released its broadcast schedule for Week 5 of the college football season on Monday, including a national network for Duke-UNC.

The Duke Blue Devils will face their archrival on national television in two weeks, the ACC announced on Monday.

Duke’s first game on the conference schedule comes against the North Carolina Tar Heels on September 28, and that game will now be televised on ESPN2 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Both teams won their first three games of the season, and with Duke playing Middle Tennessee and the Tar Heels playing James Madison this week, it’s likely that the rivals will still be undefeated in Week 5.

The Blue Devils haven’t beaten UNC since 2018, but three of the five meetings since have been decided by three points or fewer.

Last year in Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns to overcome a 26-14 deficit and force overtime. Star wideout Jordan Moore finished the game with 88 yards and three touchdown receptions. However, a failed two-point conversion on the second extra possession gave the Tar Heels a thrilling 47-45 victory.

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UNC, without starting quarterback Max Johnson, gave up an opening touchdown drive to NC Central on Saturday. The Tar Heels promptly outscored the Eagles 45-3 over the rest of the game thanks to 210 yards and three touchdowns from star running back Omarion Hampton.

Duke women’s soccer defeats North Carolina at home for the first time ever

For the first time in program history, Duke women’s soccer took down North Carolina in Durham on Thursday night.

The Duke women’s soccer team made program history on Thursday night in the sweetest way possible, defeating the No. 2 North Carolina Tar Heels in Durham for the first time ever.

UNC entered the rivalry battle with a perfect 6-0 record this season, but after a nearly scoreless first half, the Blue Devils were the ones who struck first.

Duke defender Cameron Roller cleared the ball across the pitch with just under a minute to play in the half. Forwards Mia Minestrella and Maggie Graham waited down at the other end, but with a trio of Tar Heels defenders surrounding them, any chance at breaking the tie seemed unlikely.

In the kind of bounce that defines such a historic upset, Roller’s contested pass careened off of a UNC defender, bounced off Minestrella’s leg, and popped out of the crowd by Graham’s waiting feet with nothing but green grass between her and the goal.

Graham forged ahead with a North Carolina defender closing over her left shoulder and UNC goalkeeper Clare Gagne charging forward to meet her. Just before the two Tar Heels converged on her, Graham slipped her go-ahead effort toward the right corner of the goal.

Her shot found the net in what proved to be the only score of the evening.

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The Blue Devils kept their one-goal lead for the entire second half thanks to a perfect five-for-five game from keeper Leah Freeman. When the time ran out, for the first time in school history, Duke came out on top.

“I feel ecstatic,” Graham said in an interview after the game. “This has been the best game ever. To score the goal was something else, but just to see my team pull together and play the best we have all season, it’s just so inspiring.”

“It makes me believe we can really do something this year and hopefully win a national championship.”

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Duke, in what will be legendary head coach Robbie Church’s final season with the team, improves to 3-1-1 for the young season.

Duke vs. UNC is the best college basketball rivalry, one NCAA writer says

College basketball writer Andy Katz ranked the 10 best college basketball rivalries on Wednesday, and No. 1 shouldn’t surprise anyone.

As long as Duke and North Carolina play each other twice a year, there will never be an argument for the most intense rivalry in college basketball.

NCAA college basketball writer Andy Katz ranked the sport’s 10 best rivalries on Wednesday, and the Blue Devils and Tar Heels unsurprisingly took the top spot.

With 11 national championships between the two schools, nine of which have come since 1990, and some iconic scuffles and shots exchanged over the years, the entire sport stops when UNC comes to Cameron and Duke goes to Chapel Hill.

Duke and North Carolina split their four games over the last two seasons, with the Blue Devils sweeping UNC in Jon Scheyer’s first head-coaching season before the Tar Heels got the better of them twice in 2024.

However, Duke fans still remained scarred by the 2022 Final Four loss to North Carolina, coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final game at the helm. Caleb Love and Armando Bacot remain two of the most hated figures in program history for the upset.

No other ACC rivalry made Katz’s top 10, but Louisville versus Kentucky came in as the second-biggest battle in the sport.

Joe Lunardi puts Duke and North Carolina on 2-seed line in ESPN’s latest 2025 Bracketology

Duke opened as early favorites for the 2025 national championship, but ESPN’s Joe Lunardi now thinks the Tar Heels are on their same tier.

When ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi released his first projections for the 2025 NCAA Tournament, he listed Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils as the top overall seed.

In almost every successive update since, Duke has dropped a little lower.

After dropping them from the top spot in May, Lunardi slid the Blue Devils down to a No. 2 seed in June. Now, in another update on Tuesday, the ESPN analyst thinks North Carolina might be on Duke’s same footing in the ACC thanks to two big transfers and a few incoming freshmen.

“It might be that North Carolina is the favorite when the ACC conducts its preseason poll in October,” Lunardi wrote.

In his latest full-field projection, both the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels finished on the 2-seed line. Lunardi paired Duke with No. 1 Alabama in the East Region, and UNC paired with No. 1 Kansas (the top overall seed in the tournament) in the Midwest Region.

Four other ACC teams made the bracket in Lunardi’s way-too-early Bracketology; Clemson (No. 8, South), Wake Forest (No. 9, Midwest), and Miami (No. 10, West). Pittsburgh finished in the First Four, battling Maryland for the No. 11 seed in the East.

ESPN shares feature on Duke basketball fan who attended UNC game for Make-A-Wish Foundation

ESPN released a feature on Tuesday showing Duke basketball fan Bradee Vance meeting the team and attending a rivalry game against UNC.

Countless people across the United States consider themselves die-hard Duke basketball fans, but few can measure up to West Virginia teenager Bradee Vance. Earlier this year, Vance experienced a one-of-a-kind Blue Devils journey to commemorate that fandom.

ESPN released a feature on Tuesday about Vance, a high schooler who was diagnosed with Alport syndrome at age 13. The disease, which attacks blood vessels in the kidney, required a transplant back in 2022. His aunt provided one of her kidneys for the replacement.

After the successful operation, the Make-A-Wish Foundation took Vance and his family to see the Blue Devils play North Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium earlier this spring. Vance and his family got to walk onto the court and sit in the team meeting rooms the night before the rivalry game, and head coach [autotag]Jon Scheyer[/autotag] embraced Vance and talked with him.

During a meeting with the team, senior captain Jeremy Roach presented Vance with a custom-made Blue Devils jersey bearing his last name.

He and his family also spent some time with five-time national champion [autotag]Mike Krzyzewski[/autotag] during the day of the game.

Duke fans can watch the full feature down below, an incredibly well-made tribute to his family and their journey.

Duke basketball freshman Kon Knueppel forces one-on-one airball from UNC star RJ Davis

A highlight reel of Kon Knueppel, a five-star Duke signee, shared on Wednesday showed him locking down All-American RJ Davis from UNC.

Duke basketball fans have felt great about the 2024 recruiting class ever since it formed, but the past few days have brought the hype to a crescendo.

After Cooper Flagg stood out against Team USA during Olympic training camp over the weekend, fellow five-star signee Kon Knueppel gained his own social media traction on Wednesday.

An NBA scout praised his performance at this year’s Tatum Elite Camp and shared a short highlight reel of Knueppel’s best moments, and one defensive moment shined above the rest.

Knueppel lined up against North Carolina star RJ Davis, an All-American who led the Tar Heels to an ACC regular-season title last season, for a one-on-one possession. Davis, who averaged 21.2 points per game last season, couldn’t shake the 18-year-old and ended up lofting up a 3-pointer that didn’t even find the rim.

One of four five-star members of Duke’s upcoming freshman class, Knueppel’s earned some 2025 NBA mock draft projections as a first-round pick. One writer from The Athletic said he might be the second-best player from Duke’s incoming class.

Check out our predictions for Knueppel’s 2024-25 statistics, along with every other member of the freshman class, here.

College Sports Wire puts Duke atop early ACC men’s basketball power rankings

College Sports Wire’s Andy Patton released an early ACC men’s basketball power rankings, and he thinks the Blue Devils are the team to beat.

College Sports Wire’s Andy Patton released an early power ranking for the 2024-25 ACC basketball teams on Monday, and he thinks no team is better suited to run the conference than the Blue Devils.

North Carolina swept the Blue Devils last season en route to a conference title, but Patton moved them down to second after Armando Bacot, Cormac Ryan, and Harrison Ingram headed to the NBA.

The Tar Heels added two big recruits in Ian Jackson and Drake Powell and Belmont transfer Cade Tyson, as well as retaining All-American RJ Davis. Compared to Duke adding [autotag]Cooper Flagg[/autotag], [autotag]Khaman Maluach[/autotag], [autotag]Sion James[/autotag], Mason Gillis, Maliq Brown, and multiple other elite freshmen, however, UNC’s additions feel less important to maintain a grip on the conference.

The Blue Devils opened the offseason as national championship favorites, so their position atop the ACC makes sense. But some recent power rankings dropped Duke from the top five due to their reliance on freshmen and moved UNC back above them.

Patton rounded out his top five with Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, and Miami. Some historical powers finished lower in his top 10 with Virginia in sixth, Syracuse in eighth, and Louisville in ninth.