Art Chansky - Blue Blood: Duke-Carolina: Inside the Most Storied Rivalry in College Hoops

I have the greatest job in the world. I get paid money to talk about something I love, college basketball. Dont tell ESPN, but I would do it for free, baby!

Complete strangers approach me all the time to talk college hoops. How can I possibly say no? I could be eating at a restaurant, walking through an airport, or preparing for a broadcast. It doesnt matter where I am or what Im doingIll always talk roundball. My beautiful wife, Lorraine, will tell you Ill talk about it in my sleep! People want to discuss the odds of their favorite school winning it all. They want to argue about the greatest games and the best rivalries. And more often than not, they want to talk about two schools in particular: Duke and Carolina.

Theres absolutely no doubt in my mind, babyDuke-Carolina is the best rivalry in college basketball, and probably in all of athletics. Even a one-eyed broadcaster can see that!

Every time these two titans clash, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. If I had any on the top of my head, it would also be at attention, saluting the Dukies and the Tar Heels. There is no keener competition anywhere than between these two roundball giants. When one of them wins the ACC championship, it means theyre automatically a favorite for the national championship. Nothing else as great exists as in the eight mile radius covering Chapel Hill and Durham.

There are other great rivalriesKentucky-Louisville, Kansas-Missouri, Xavier-Cincinnatibut, let me tell you, theres nothing better than Duke-Carolina because its the only one that has all of what I call the three Ps: Power, Passion, and Proximity.

Power stands for the success these two juggernauts have achieved, winning a total of seven NCAA championships and being the cream of the college-hoops crop. Kentucky is the only Division I program that has won more games than UNC, and Duke is fourth all-time. Since 1977, Duke and Carolina have advanced to a combined twenty-one Final Fourstwenty-one times in twenty-eight years! Are you kidding me, America?

Passion is for the feelings these two stir in not just their students and alumni, but in all college basketball fans. At least twice a year, when they meet, everybody in the country watches. The best game I broadcast every year is the first regular-season Duke-Carolina matchup of the season we call on ESPN2. In those special years when these two power programs meet for a third time in the ACC Tournament, its icing on the cake, an ESPN Instant Classic, baby. I cant even imagine what it would be like if they ever met in the NCAA Tournament, or with the national championship on the line. It almost happened last seasontwo games away from the Final Four!

Proximity represents the short distance between the two schools. Just ten miles, baby! Id walk on my head from one school to the other if thats what it took to get a ticket inside Cameron Indoor Stadium or the Dean Dome. Being located so close to each other means theyre constantly trying to top what the other is doing. Theyre completely intertwinedyou cant possibly discuss one without bringing up the other. I mean, the players sometimes play pickup games together in the summer. They even go to the same barbershop!

I absolutely love this rivalry. Its everything thats pure and right about college athletics. You never hear a trace of an NCAA infraction with either program. The student-athletes donning both shades of blue not only play the game with class, they go to class. Superstars such as Michael Jordan and Vince Carter went back to Chapel Hill to get their degrees, while Christian Laettner and Grant Hill stayed all four years at Duke. All of them walked down the aisle during graduation.

It all starts at the top, baby. How about all of the amazing coaches who have patrolled the sidelines in Chapel Hill and Durham. Frank McGuire, Vic Bubas, Dean Smith, Bill Foster, Mike Krzyzewski, and, now, Roy Williams.

Coach K is the best in the business. How can you not respect the job Michael Krzyzewski has done since Tom Butters took a chance on him in 1980? Three national championships, ten Final Fours, the premiere program in the country. Duke has developed into what the Yankees were under Casey Stengel or the Packers under Vince Lombardi. This Blue Devil era is the closest weve come to a college basketball dynasty since the days when John Wooden, the Wizard of Westwood, held a rolled-up program on the UCLA bench.

Surprisingly, for the longest time K wasnt even considered the best coach in his own state. Back then, it was all Michelangelo, baby. Dean Edwards Smith was the king, and has been since taking Carolina to three straight Final Fours from 67 to 69. And to think, in his fourth season students hung him in effigy after a loss at Wake Forest.

Fortunately, Dean survived and held his throne for thirty-six years. I called him Michelangelo because the basketball court was his canvas. He innovated and inspired. Four Corners offense, pointing to the passer, huddling at the free-throw lineno wonder Dean is the all-time winningest coach!

If people think Im a Duke-lover now, they must have never heard me in Deans day. One time I went to my mailbox and there was a letter from his top lieutenant, Bill Guthridge, who led the Heels to two Final Fours in three years as a head coach. He said how flattered they were by all the attention I gave them, thanked me for what Ive done for them and then politely asked if I wouldnt toot their horns as much!

Hey, who am I to argue with two guys who have only about nine hundred more career wins than me? So instead, Ill brag about their protg, Roy Williams, who has returned to his alma mater and taken the Tar Heels back to the top in only two years!

Roy is the real deal. You dont win four hundred games in fifteen years at Kansas unless youre big time. What a job he did with his alma mater last seasonhe made me look brilliant as the Heels were my No. 1 pick back in October! When Roy cut the nets down in St. Louis, he sent a loud, clear message that Carolina basketball was back among the elite programs.

Now the Dukies are my No. 1 pick for this season.

Duke vs. Carolina. Coach K, the Hall of Famer, versus the future Hall of Famer, Roy Williams, just adds electricity to the hottest rivalry in all of college sports. Sorry, pigskin lovers who sing the praises of Michigan-Ohio State, there is nothing else quite like the Dukies and the Tar Heels!

A book chronicling the classic players, coaches, and contests that Carolina and Duke have produced is long overdue, and theres no one in America more qualified to write it than Art Chansky, whos lived and breathed this rivalry for the last thirty-five years. This book is awesome, baby, it tells the whole story!

Im proud to write this foreword for Art, but since Coach K wrote one for my latest book Im going to call upon Roy Williams to do it for my next book. No question, having Coach K and Roy will be Awesome, with a capital A! But, Roy, youre going to have to toot my horn a little bit, too!