Coach K, Williams stoke Duke-UNC fire
Posted: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:05 PM
Filed Under:
Coaches, ACC, Duke-Carolina
The next Duke-North Carolina game isn’t until March 8. But there is plenty of fodder for hype in the meantime. And it’s all coach created.
If you missed Roy Williams’ jab at Mike Krzyzewki – a retort to a comment from Coach K about Carolina’s injuries – listen to the audio here. The best quote? Williams asking an unspecified person to “coach their own damn team, I’ll coach my team.” That person being Krzyzewski.
All of this has been building for a while, but came to a head on Sunday and Monday.
Krzyzewski, whose Duke team has flown under the radar most of the season (or been outright dismissed) wants more attention paid to the Devils’ 22-2 season, or at least compared to their Tobacco Road counterparts. UNC (24-2) entered the season as one of the heavy title favorites, but injuries have taken some of the shine off the Heels, which has resulted in more coverage.
So was it a comment during Williams’ radio show last week (comparing Duke’s eight McDonald’s All-Americans to the Heels’ three) or the Devils’ surprising loss to Wake Forest on Sunday that nudged Krzyzewski into his subtle jab at the Heels and their injury situation? Probably both.
From the AP: Noting that freshman Nolan Smith had been playing through a knee injury for a few weeks, Krzyzewski added, “unlike other schools we don’t release our injuries,” according to the Web site for radio station WRBZ-AM in Raleigh.
The next day, Williams said on his weekly radio show: “Regardless of what somebody else says about they have injuries too, which is a bunch of bunk, so I don’t give a crap what somebody else says, but coach their own damn team, I’ll coach my team — in case anybody has heard some statements about that.”
If all seems like two men simply sniping at each other for perceived slights, that’s exactly what it is.
But this is Carolina-Duke. Everything is magnified. That enmity is why these two schools remain the nation’s premier rivalry. It’s why posts like this and this are so fun to read and why we have entire features built around the two.
Is it all a little silly? Well, maybe. But if it makes for a fun few weeks before March 8, and makes the rematch an even better game, hoops fans should thank both coaches for extra push.
