In this most unusual season of constant interruptions, empty arenas and teams playing shorthanded because of something that most had never heard of a year ago (contact tracking), it is appropriate for millions of people to watch the most unusual duke with North Carolina in decades on Saturday.
May the best team win OK.
“We have some injuries,” said UNC coach Roy Williams on Thursday. And while he wasn’t necessarily speaking for his Tar Heels and Mike Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils, if you’re following this season, you know he might as well have.
Neither team was good.
Neither team is blocked from taking part in the NCAA Tournament.
If you look at a top 25 college basketball scoreboard and roll over to Saturday, you’ll see Iowa State-Oklahoma, Alabama-Missouri, Virginia Tech-Miami, Kansas-West Virginia, Florida-LSU, Drake-Valparaiso, Wisconsin-Illinois, Our Lady Lake-Houston, Texas-Oklahoma State, Texas Tech-Kansas State, Pitt-Virginia, Northwestern-Purdue, Creighton-Marquette, Tennessee-Kentucky and UCLA-USC. Add it all up and there are 15 games with at least one classified team involved scheduled to be played on Saturday. But North Carolina-Duke, widely regarded as the biggest rivalry in the sport, will not be one of them because both Tar Heels and Blue Devils are not qualified.
This is a rare event.
The last time this happened, in fact, was on February 27, 1960. Mike Krzyzewski was 13 years old. Roy Williams was 9 years old. North Carolina won the game 75-50. The Super Bowl did not exist.
So the obvious question is … why?
Why did Duke and UNC, both ranked in the top 20 in the pre-season AP Top 25 survey, fall in the same season for this grade for the first time in more than 60 years? Answer: COVID-19.
Because of the pandemic, most freshmen from coast to coast did not arrive on campus as soon as they normally would, and none of them received as many out-of-season instructions as usual. There were no friendly games or exhibitions to improve development. The schedules have been condensed. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too surprising that teams that depended heavily on freshmen have gone through a more difficult situation than teams that depended on players who were in the pre-pandemic program.
Which brings me back to Duke and UNC.
Three of Duke’s top four scorers are freshmen – DJ Steward, Jalen Johnson and Jeremy Roach. And four of North Carolina’s six top scorers are freshmen – Caleb Love, Day’Ron Sharpe, RJ Davis and Kerwin Walton. Now compare that to the top two teams in the country, Gonzaga and Baylor. Six of Gonzaga’s seven top scorers are not freshmen, four of whom were on the show last season. And each of Baylor’s seven top scorers are not freshmen who were on the show last season.
This is not a coincidence.
Teams with seasoned talent (like Gonzaga and Baylor) are doing well this season, while those that rely heavily on first-year players (like Duke and North Carolina, not to mention Kentucky) are struggling hard and the way the pandemic has impacted their development is the biggest reason.
“There is no doubt about it,” said ESPN college basketball analyst LaPhonso Ellis on Thursday. “They didn’t have the summer to exercise together, to build chemistry with each other. So the teams that depend … heavily on the newcomers were affected by COVID and the inability to have summer, fall and then exhibition games. to learn to play with each other, to build continuity … And I think that’s why we saw … these guys really fight, because they didn’t have that opportunity to gel. “
Given that theory, perhaps that is exactly what Duke and North Carolina need now, that is, a game against another team in difficulty, heavily dependent on ill-equipped freshmen. Because that’s exactly what Duke and North Carolina are now – teams that fight and depend heavily on ill-equipped freshmen.
Anyway, come on!
It will be North Carolina unrated vs. Duke unranked on Saturday.
May the best team win OK.