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Jay Williams dismisses claim that North Carolina-Duke rivalry is ‘increasingly irrelevant’
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Jay Williams played at Duke, and so his love and passion for the rivalry with North Carolina runs extremely deep.
He lived and breathed it, and the former Blue Devils point guard doesn’t like what’s being said about it lately. During a rant on College GameDay on Saturday morning from Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels will host Duke on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, Williams told the nation exactly what he believes regarding the rivalry.
“Some have said this rivalry is increasingly irrelevant. Some people’s brains just can’t comprehend the depth. But it doesn’t mean that it’s not there,” said Williams. “Yes, (College GameDay) could be at a lot of other places. But think about the opportunity here. North Carolina has a chance to knock Duke off the No. 1 (seeding) line potentially.”
Williams’ words were met with loud cheers from the North Carolina fans who filled the Dean Smith Center on Saturday morning for ESPN’s weekly pregame show, which once again chose to spotlight the Duke-UNC rivalry instead of being at, say, Auburn for the Tigers’ showdown against Alabama on Saturday.
Some, like USA Today’s Dan Wolken, believe the Duke-UNC rivalry just isn’t what it used to be. Wolken’s column on Saturday said so loudly. Wolken said that ESPN is clinging to the past by continually spotlighting the matchup, which No. 2 Duke dominated on Feb. 1 in an 87-70 victory in Durham that wasn’t even as close as the score indicated.
But Williams still fully believes in the rivalry, which will be on full display on Saturday night as the surging Tar Heels try to get some payback on the Blue Devils.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
