Saturday’s Duke-UNC basketball game will make the wrong kind of history

Steve Wiseman
·2 min read

With Duke and North Carolina still absent from the newest Associated Press Top 25, their first head-to-head clash of the season this Saturday becomes historic in a way neither would prefer.

For the first time since 1960, when Dwight Eisenhower was still in the White House, the longtime rivals will both be unranked when they play at 6 p.m. Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Two weeks ago, when Duke fell out of the poll for the first time since 2016, that day’s poll marked the first time Duke and UNC had been unranked at the same time since December 1982.

But their rivalry matchup had always included one or the other in the national rankings going back another two decades.

The last time they met as unranked teams was Feb. 27, 1960, when UNC beat Duke 75-50 at Cameron Indoor.

Those Tar Heels had been ranked No. 13 two weeks earlier when they beat Duke 84-58 at Woollen Gymnasium on Feb. 13, 1960. UNC fell to No. 19 in the next poll on Feb. 16 and was out of the top 20 posted on Feb. 23 after losing 85-81 to South Carolina on Feb. 20.

The lopsided loss to UNC on Feb. 27, 1960, dropped Duke to 12-10 overall in Vic Bubas’ first season as head coach. But the Blue Devils won their next five games, capturing their first ACC tournament championship after beating No. 16 UNC in the semifinals. They fell a win short of the 1960 Final Four.

Over the last 61 years, while consistently meeting with at least one of them ranked, UNC and Duke have combined for 10 NCAA tournament championships -- five each.

Currently, Duke and UNC are on an upswing after their meddling starts to the season dropped them from the national rankings.

The Blue Devils (7-5, 5-3 ACC), after splitting their first 10 games, have won two in a row entering Monday night at Miami.

UNC (11-5, 6-3 ACC) has won six of its last seven games, including three in a row. The Tar Heels play Clemson on Tuesday night before heading to Durham for Saturday’s 6 p.m. game against Duke.

Duke received no votes in this week’s poll, while three voters had UNC at No. 25.

This will be just the 15th time since the AP poll began in the 1948-49 season that Duke and UNC will play with both unranked. The teams, renowned for being evenly competitive, have split the first 14 games.

The first 13 unranked games between them all occurred between 1949-55.