UNC Basketball: 7 reasons that North Carolina fans hate Duke

Keeping It Heel has compiled a list of seven reasons that UNC basketball fans (and everyone else) hate the Duke Blue Devils.

The heated rivalry between Duke and North Carolina dates back more than 100 years to a January 24, 1920 matchup that saw the Tar Heels beat the Blue Devils by a final score of 36-25. And while the game of basketball has certainly changed in the century since, the competition between the two programs on the court has not. Neither has the hatred between the two fan bases, which are separated by just a few minutes and a few miles down Tobacco Road.

Duke fans obviously view the rivalry differently than their opposition in a lighter shade of blue. And it’s safe to say that they’ve got their own set of reasons to despise the Tar Heels and their fans. Among them are legendary head coach Dean Smith and his protégé Roy Williams, who have combined to win better than 1,300 games in the Atlantic Coast Conference over a span of 53 years. The names Rasheed Wallace, Jerry Stackhouse, and Tyler Hansbrough are just a few of the former players that come to mind when Duke fans are directing their ire at North Carolina. And, no doubt, the six NCAA Tournament Championships — and three in the past 15 years — are a good reason for them to hate their neighbors that are just a hop, skip and a jump away from the Blue Devils’ campus in Durham.

But the focus of this piece is less about the Blue Devils’ disgust for the Tar Heels, and more about the other way around. Why have the fires of hatred been equally as hot in Chapel Hill for the past hundred years, and what’s kept them burning so strong over the last several decades? We’ll dive into seven of the biggest reasons why North Carolina fans — and just about everyone else — hate the Duke Blue Devils.