Tag: Duke UNC

Former UNC star Armando Bacot says he wanted Duke to beat NC State in the Elite Eight

In a new episode of the Run Your Race podcast, former Tar Heels star Armando Bacot said he wished Duke had beaten NC State in the Elite Eight.

Who would have thought Duke basketball would find an ally with [autotag]Armando Bacot[/autotag]?

The five-year North Carolina starter played against the Blue Devils 11 times, including devastating victories in [autotag]Mike Krzyzewski[/autotag]’s final home and the 2022 Final Four.

However, Bacot revealed on a Tuesday podcast episode that, during Duke’s Elite Eight battle against NC State this year, he was rooting for his bitter rival.

Bacot appeared on the Run Your Race podcast with fellow UNC legend Theo Pinson, and it sounded like both of them disliked the Wolfpack even more than the Blue Devils.

“I wanted Duke to go to the Final Four,” Bacot told Pinson. “They were good enough and like, maybe they beat Purdue, fine, they weren’t beating UConn…It would be remembered at Duke for maybe two-to-three years and after that, like, they didn’t win it all, so be it.”

“But NC State? They never going to let this go.”

Bacot said he blamed the Wolfpack’s Cinderella run on the Blue Devils for losing to NC State in the ACC Tournament.

Bacot also told Pinson in the same episode that he rooted for the Blue Devils growing up, listing Jahlil Okafor and Jabari Parker as his favorite childhood players.

Kyle Filipowski makes Summer League team for Utah Jazz alongside Armando Bacot

The Utah Jazz unveiled their 2024 Summer League squad on Tuesday, and Kyle Filipowski and Armando Bacot will need to play together.

Duke basketball fans will need to get used to a strange sight during the upcoming NBA Summer League season: [autotag]Kyle Filipowski[/autotag] and Armando Bacot sharing the basketball court in the same jersey.

The Utah Jazz, who drafted Filipowski with the second pick in the second round of the 2024 NBA draft, released their roster for the Salt Lake City Summer League on Tuesday, and their rookie 7-footer made the 16-player team.

Bacot, one of the most hated North Carolina players in Duke history, also made the squad after he signed with the team as an undrafted free agent.

According to ESPN Analytics, the former Blue Devil had more than a 70% chance to get drafted during the first round but instead needed a night’s sleep before he came off the board. He made the Second Team All-American squad last season.

Bacot and Filipowski played each other four times over the last two seasons in the Duke-UNC rivalry, splitting the record with two wins apiece.

Bacot also revealed on a Tuesday podcast episode that he grew up rooting for the Blue Devils, citing Jahlil Okafor and Jabari Parker as his favorite players growing up.

North Carolina basketball star Armando Bacot reveals that he rooted for Duke growing up

Armando Bacot, one of the most hated UNC basketball players in Duke history, recently revealed that he rooted for the Blue Devils growing up.

Former North Carolina basketball star Armando Bacot haunted Durham for five years.

The longtime Tar Heel played 11 games against the Blue Devils, most notably helping UNC defeat legendary Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in both his final home game and his final NCAA Tournament game with the program. He notably finished the infamous Final Four game in 2022 with 11 points and 21 rebounds to end Coach K’s career. He’s one of the most hated North Carolina basketball players in Duke history.

He also grew up rooting for the Blue Devils.

In a Tuesday episode of the Run Your Race podcast, Bacot revealed that he started his basketball lifetime on the other side of the Tobacco Road rivalry.

“I went to the Duke basketball camp,” Bacot said. “I grew up a Duke fan. I loved Jahlil Okafor, Jabari Parker, those were my two favorite college players.

Bacot said the idea of committing to North Carolina, whom he hated growing up, came out of nowhere during the recruiting process.

“I was a diehard Duke fan,” Bacot insisted. “I hated Carolina.”

Theo Pinson, one of the podcast hosts, revealed he also cheered for Duke growing up and shared a funny story about having to contain his excitement during Austin Rivers’ legendary game-winner in Chapel Hill during an official visit.

CBS Sports puts Duke below UNC, nearly out of top 10 in preseason basketball rankings

Despite the top-ranked recruiting class and presumed No. 1 pick in the country headed to Durham, CBS Sports has more faith in…UNC?

CBS Sports released an updated ranking for the 2024-25 college basketball season on Monday, and the Blue Devils continue dropping farther from the top.

After opening the betting cycle as the favorite to win the 2025 national championship, CBS Sports writer Gary Parrish had Duke all the way down in ninth.

Despite welcoming Cooper Flagg, the presumed No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA draft, and five other top-40 freshmen, Parrish said he can’t get over how much production Duke lost this offseason.

To add insult to injury, Parrish had the North Carolina Tar Heels all the way up in fourth despite them losing Armando Bacot, Harrison Ingram, and Cormac Ryan to the NBA. All-American RJ Davis and promising young guard Elliot Cadeau both come back to campus, but the Tar Heels lost three of their top five scorers while Duke lost four of its top six.

The Kansas Jayhawks, Alabama Crimson Tide, and Houston Cougars took the top three spots in order.

Parrish even had the Tar Heels above two-time defending champion Connecticut, who slotted in fifth.

Kyle Filipowski, former UNC rival Armando Bacot set to be NBA teammates

After taking former Duke basketball star Kyle Filipowski in the NBA draft, the Utah Jazz signed his UNC rival Armando Bacot.

After two years and four intense battles on opposite sides of the biggest rivalry in college basketball, [autotag]Kyle Filipowski[/autotag] and [autotag]Armando Bacot[/autotag] might need to learn to get along.

After the Utah Jazz took Filipowski in the second round of this week’s NBA draft, they reportedly signed Bacot, the former North Carolina center, to a contract as an undrafted free agent. The Athletic’s Tony Jones reported the deal.

Bacot spent five seasons with the Tar Heels and played 169 games for the program, including 10 regular-season battles with the Blue Devils. He also helped defeat Duke in the Final Four back in 2022, the last game of Mike Krzyzewski’s legendary career, when he pulled down 21 rebounds during a single game.

The run, combined with a victory in Coach K’s final home game, made him one of the most hated UNC players in rivalry history on Duke’s campus.

Filipowski only spent the last two years in Durham. He and the Blue Devils swept Bacot and the Tar Heels in 2022-23, the first year of the Jon Scheyer era, before UNC took both games last season.

Filipowski averaged 20.3 points and 8.0 rebounds in his four collegiate games against Bacot, including three 20-point performances and one double-double.

Duke baseball player Devin Obee’s home run got saved by…the UNC baseball team?

Duke baseball player Devin Obee’s double off the wall against NC State was called a home run after review thanks to the protest of some unlikely fans.

North Carolina helped Duke win a baseball game on Thursday night.

No, the Blue Devils didn’t need much assistance in an 8-1 drumming of NC State that clinched a spot in the conference tournament semifinals, but every little bit counts.

In the top of the sixth inning, centerfielder Devin Obee hit an absolute rocket into left-center that looked like it bounced off the very top of the wall, inches from a two-run homer. The ruling was later reversed when replay showed the ball hit the fencing on top of the wall, making it a home run.

Obee said after the game that some members of the Duke dugout overheard some fans insisting that the ball should have been ruled a homer, which prompted Duke to ask for a review. He couldn’t believe who was arguing in his defense.

“Once I got out there, I found out it was the UNC baseball team,” Obee said.

Duke head coach Chris Pollard shared his amusement at the circumstances.

“The Tobacco Road rivalry for you right there,” Pollard said. “An assist from the Carolina baseball team.”

The Blue Devils play Miami in the semifinals on Saturday.

Duke football slightly ahead of North Carolina in ESPN’s post-spring SP+ rankings

ESPN released its latest SP+ college football rankings on Tuesday, and the Blue Devils hold a slim advantage over their bitter rival.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly released an updated SP+ ranking of FBS college football teams on Tuesday, an update after spring practices.

In the 134-team rankings, the Blue Devils came in 47th. The ranking left Duke football three spots ahead of the North Carolina Tar Heels, who slotted in at 50th.

The SP+ rankings include offensive and defensive metrics. The Blue Devils checked in a little below the median offensively with the 70th-best grade, but the 34th-ranked defense and a top-20 special teams unit pulled the average up.

The ranking made Duke the eighth-best team in the expanded ACC, according to the preseason math. Florida State, who went undefeated through the regular season en route to last year’s ACC title, came in with the highest grade at 12th overall.

However, even though they were ahead of the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils weren’t the best team in the state. The NC State Wolfpack came in 29th.

The first year of the Manny Diaz era starts on Friday, Aug. 30, against Elon.

Duke baseball tumbles in coaches poll after North Carolina series loss

The Blue Devils lost their last two games and seven of their last 13, dropping them a handful of spots in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll.

The Duke Blue Devils baseball team, according to the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, is freefalling.

In Monday’s new ranking, Duke came in as the 15th-ranked team in the country after back-to-back losses to North Carolina to end the regular season.

When the rankings were released on April 22, the Blue Devils were ranked sixth. They were 29-11 with 14 games left to play, the second-highest team in the ACC behind Clemson.

Duke lost seven of its last 13 games (one was canceled), including each of its last three conference series against Florida State, Georgia Tech, and the Tar Heels. They picked up a ranked win over East Carolina but dropped a midweek game against Campbell.

The stumble almost assured that Duke won’t host a regional in Durham after seeming like a sure bet for most of the season. D1Baseball released an updated postseason projection with Duke as a No. 2 seed last week, and the Blue Devils went 1-2 after those rankings dropped.

The Blue Devils’ ACC Tournament run begins on May 21 against Virginia Tech.

Duke baseball ends 35-18 regular season with back-to-back losses to UNC

The Blue Devils baseball team finished with a 35-18 record after losing seven of last 13 games, including two at the hands of the Tar Heels.

The Duke baseball team might have said goodbye to its chances at hosting a regional at home on Saturday.

The Blue Devils lost a second straight game to North Carolina at home, this time a sound 14-6 defeat, to end the season with a 35-18 record.

Duke took game one of the series, a rousing 5-3 win to give them the advantage in the series, but the Tar Heels outscored them 20-10 over the rest of the weekend.

With 14 games left on the regular season schedule, head coach Chris Pollard’s team stood 29-11. Duke finished 6-7 with one cancellation the rest of the way, losing its last three weekend series to Florida State, Georgia Tech, and the Tar Heels.

The closing stumbles almost assure Duke will be a No. 2 seed in whichever region they get assigned to. Despite being No. 11 in the most recent USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll and 16 teams getting the chance to host a region, D1Baseball projected the Blue Devils as a second seed even before the series loss to UNC.

The Blue Devils still have the ACC Tournament, which begins on May 21, to make a statement before the bracket gets released. They finish the regular season with a 16-14 record in conference play, the third-best record in the Coastal division and tied for the sixth-best record in the conference.

Duke and North Carolina set up for Saturday tiebreaker in baseball series

After a series-opening win on Thursday evening, the Blue Devils lost game two against UNC to set up a winner-take-all battle on Saturday.

Duke baseball’s Saturday game against No. 5 North Carolina will be for all the marbles.

After a 5-3 victory on Thursday during the series opener, the Blue Devils lost 6-4 on Friday to even the series.

Second baseman Zac Morris launched a three-run homer in the bottom of the third to give Duke an early lead. The advantage held until the top of the fifth when Blue Devils reliever Owen Proksch entered the game. He let four of his first six opponents reach base safely with three of them coming around to give the Tar Heels a 4-3 lead.

Logan Bravo mashed a solo shot in the following inning to tie the game again, but Duke closer Charlie Beilenson suffered from a rare off night to cough up the game.

UNC’s Vance Honeycutt led the inning off with a single before an error on the ensuing bunt gave the Tar Heels two in scoring position. A sacrifice fly and a double in the next two at-bats gave North Carolina all the runs it needed.

The Saturday tiebreaker game is set for noon at Jack Coombs Field, and the outcome could dramatically change Duke’s postseason plans. After being dropped as a projected regional host this week, a victory over the Tar Heels might be the last chance to host anybody in Durham.