The North Carolina Tar Heels and NC State have taken their rivalry to new heights this season: trash talk has come from both sides.
The back and forth initially started during the football season when Drake Maye stated: “People who go to State just cannot get into Carolina.” The harmless remark ruffled feathers, resulting in Maye apologizing for the comment.
The saltiness carried over to the basketball program. NC State guard Terquavion Smith rocked shades while making this comment.
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“I feel like other colleges in NC feel like they are better than us because they wear blue, but I just want people to know that you can come here, too. … They do the same stuff we do; they just have different courses.”
Following UNC’s 80-69 win over NC State in January, the response was brief: Armando Bacot rocked shades in the postgame interview. Since then, both teams’ trajectories have looked different.
UNC has struggled, and those struggles continued with NC State evening the season series Sunday with a 77-69 win over North Carolina. However, despite being 1-1 on the season with UNC, that did not stop the Wolfpack from producing shirts mocking North Carolina.
Not one, but TWO new tees from @BreakingT for NC State fans today!
Get the “Not a Rivalry” merch to celebrate the weekend sweep over UNC!
🛒: https://t.co/0j96lNm5hp pic.twitter.com/JgneNKeMlB
— Pack Pride (@PackPride) February 20, 2023
North Carolina has claimed for the longest that NC State is not its rival, but after this year’s events, you wonder if that tune will change. Regardless the shirts put Twitter in a frenzy,
Let us look at Twitter’s reaction to the shirts: