Rivalry Week heats up on ESPN

The Duke vs. North Carolina clash last week was ESPN's dream and a matchup that Dick Vitale surely had been salivating over for months. Therefore it should come as no surprise that the classic showdown was one of the featured games during ESPN's Rivalry Week. As Vitale would tell, although not quite so eloquently, these inter-conference rivalries are what college basketball fans look forward to all year long.

Rivalry Week allows the NCAA to showcase some of the great intra-conference rivalries that make college basketball so entertaining.

Duke and North Carolina is one such matchup that everyone would agree is one of the best rivalries in all of sports. ESPN markets this game as if it is "the Clash of the Titans." Ask Vitale why he likes this rivalry so much and you would be lucky to get a response in fewer than 500 words.

To summarize Dick's thoughts, the reason the rivalry has provided such great entertainment over so many years is because the two schools have two of the winningest programs in NCAA history led by two of the best coaches (before UNC's Dean Smith retired) in NCAA history. They are also schools that have been free of any legal controversies or recruiting scandals and place a great importance on academic standards as well as athletic success.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, in the past few years, the rivalry has become a little one sided as Duke has won the last five meetings. In rivalries as heated as this one, however, rankings or last year's results mean nothing.

Coming off three straight ACC road losses, Duke seemed on hard times, falling to number nine in the polls. North Carolina seemed to be recovering from its drop to mediocrity of the last few years, but the start of ACC play brought them right back to reality. With both teams in need of a major boost in confidence, this game took on even more importance.

Ultimately, it was Duke's upperclassmen that led the team to an 83-74 victory on Feb. 5. Preseason ACC player of the year Chris Duhon came off the bench (as a result of his poor play of late) to have his best game of the season, with 12 points and ten assists. Dahntay Jones also added 23 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Devils in both categories.

Last week was supposed to be a great week for the Florida Gators. Gainesville is football country, but for the first time in school history, the basketball team was ranked number one in the polls. However, on Feb. 4 the Gators faced rival Kentucky, who have given the Gators beatings for many years.

In their attempt at revenge, the Gators fell flat on their faces. In their first game ever as the nation's number one ranked team, the Gators were destroyed by seventh-ranked Kentucky. The Wildcats, playing at home in Lexington, led 45-22 at half time, which made the game very uncompetitive to start the second half. Kentucky won 70-55 in convincing fashion, proving the Wildcats are still the dominant program in the SEC.

In other good rivalries, the Maryland Terrapins lost two games in a row to ACC opponents. On Feb. 6 the No. 15 Terps were upset by the Virginia Cavaliers 86-78 and were later upset by the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 90-84 on Sunday. These two losses sent the Terps out of the top ten and leave Wake Forest at the top of the ACC with Maryland and Duke tied for second in the conference.

In the battle atop the Big East Conference, tenth ranked Notre Dame avenged an earlier loss to Pittsburgh by beating the Panthers 66-64 on Feb. 9. With 32 second left, Pittsburgh's All-American guard Brandin Knight hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 64-64. But only seconds later Notre Dame sophomore sensation Chris Thomas drove around Knight and spotted Torin Francis under the basket. Thomas passed to the wide-open Francis who scored with 0.6 seconds left. Once again, this rivalry and all of the others proved to be great theater, even if some of the matchups didn't produce the most competitive games.