CHAPEL HILL – The consistent levels of greatness that personify Duke and North Carolina basketball don't usually offer many contrasting scenarios, as the similarities between these historic programs has been much more in sync than not over the last four decades.

On only a few occasions have the Blue Devils and Tar Heels met on the hardwood while headed in vastly different directions. Saturday night inside the Smith Center, however, was one of those times.

And it was eerily similar to what transpired 9,136 days earlier, on Feb. 3, 1995, when the teams met in what has gone down as one of the most memorable matchups of their iconic history together.

That night, second-ranked UNC traveled up the road to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face a Duke team wallowing in its own sudden and shocking misery. A year earlier, the Devils played for the national championship, losing to Arkansas, but they fell apart in January and their legendary coach, Mike Krzyzewski, left the team with a back injury. As a result, they appeared rudderless and racked up the losses.

The 2020 Tar Heels have carried the same look this season, most especially over the last five weeks. Ravaged by injuries, the Heels have not had a full healthy roster for a single game this season, and most of the time have missed a combination of three of what was supposed to be their top seven players. They, too, have lacked direction.

Duke was 10-10 overall and 1-7 in the ACC when Dean Smith brought Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis, Dante Calabria and Donald Williams into the sweltering hall in Durham. The Heels were supposed to win big, but it didn’t. Final: UNC 102, Duke 100 in double overtime.

On Saturday, No. 7 Duke was supposed to clobber a Carolina club that entered at 10-12 overall and 3-8 in the ACC. But it didn’t. Final: Duke 98, UNC 96 in overtime.

Following Saturday’s epic affair, THI reached out to three of the top sportswriters in North Carolina, each of whom covered both the 1995 game and Saturday night's thriller, to get their take on the similarities of the two games. First, a few more notes:

*This is UNC’s most injured team in program history. Duke without K for a few weeks to that point in 1995, was also in disarray. Neither team fielded as gifted a roster as had been the norm, either.

*Duke owned a 12-point lead with 9:56 left in regulation in 1995, on Saturday, UNC owned a 13-point lead with 3:56 to play.

*Wallace fouled out late in regulation 25 years ago, Duke’s Vernon Carey did Saturday.

*UNC’s Stackhouse scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in ’95, on Saturday, Carolina’s Cole Anthony had 24 and 11.

*And the last seconds of both games included failed inbound plays by the eventual losing teams. For Duke in 1995, Greg Newton’s inbounded a pass to Steve Wojciechowski but the ball was knocked loose by McInnis and the Tar Heels regained possession.

On Saturday, Garrison Brooks, inbounding the ball from Duke’s baseline, tried to pass to Andrew Platek, but Duke’s Wendell Moore knocked the ball loose and Duke regained possession.

*Duke had amazing shots in both games – Jeff Capel’s 35 footer as the first OT concluded – Tre Jones and Moore on Saturday night.

*Also, 1995 was Dean Smith’s 35th season and this is Roy Williams’ 32nd. That was Coach K’s 15th Duke team and this is Williams’ 17th UNC club. Note: Krzyzewski left the team in January and the games he missed are on the record of Pete Gaudet, the assigned acting coach in K's absence, so technically Krzyzewski's record was not charged with a loss that night.

So, how do three legendary sportswriters who covered both games put it into perspective? Here’s how:

*Note: Jacobs has covered the ACC since the late 1960s, has written several books and has long been one of the most respected writers covering the league.

“What I remember about that game was Carolina was in control most of the game, but made some dumb plays down the stretch and missed some free throws. And of course, there was a very famous shot by Jeff Capel, who wound up being one of the players blamed for them having a losing record and finishing in last place.

“He wound up feeling really hurt by the fans, but that was the pinnacle moment for him. And then to go on and lose was pretty crushing.

“But Carolina was dominating at the beginning of the game, it was like ‘How much is this last-place team going to get crushed by?’ And then all of a sudden, like what happens in these games, there was an extra current of emotion that somebody taps into. It’s there always, and sometimes it’s tapped into and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes they both tap into it.”

In 1995, Duke took that current of emotion and went to a level it hadn’t really been at all season, on Saturday night, UNC did the same thing. Both teams were out of character when riding that emotional current.

“Yes, and Carolina did uncharacteristic things in that game. Pearce Landry, who was a very smart player, made a really bad decision right at the end of regulation that allowed Duke to come back.”

Jacob said he wasn’t thinking about the 1995 game as it neared the end of regulation, instead he was wondering who was going to be Austin Rivers, referring to the Duke freshman guard’s buzzer-beating winning shot in the Dean Dome in 2012.

“It had the feeling of an Austin Rivers game, it really did. I couldn’t really envision the scenario, but Duke was within a basket, so who’s going to make the shot to tie or to win it and then it happened. It was different, but it was an Austin Rivers moment.”

This isn’t any other game, it’s on such a different level. It’s a season unto itself, Jacobs agrees and explains.

“It’s tradition, it’s talent, and it’s coaches and the fact that it means a lot to win the game to everybody that’s involved. So it doesn’t matter what your record is – I mean, we always say that, but in this series it’s true.”

Note: Over his four-decade career, Hardin has spent the last 32 years with the Greensboro News & Record.

On if he at some point during the game thought of the 1995 classic:

“It did have that feel to it. There was an inevitability about this game that I didn’t feel that night. Even up 13 with, what, 3:55 to play, I just felt like they (UNC) were going to lose. I’ve never felt that way about any other team but this Carolina team.

“But that ’95 team, people forget the great shot (by Capel), they lost the game. It’s like it’s been lost to history. I didn’t think there was going to be that moment tonight.”

UNC, however, had opportunities to have that moment.

“I don’t think this is that team. I don’t think the players even know the plays, I don’t think they know what to do. At the end of the Boston College game, the best player on the team, Garrison Brooks, is supposed to come up and set that pick on the other side and Cole’s waving at him (to set the screen) and he never comes.”

On the extra current of emotion this rivalry has and how nights like this are regularly possible because they so often occur.

“Bacot said he was having an anxiety attack out there and they’re up 13. They’re scared to win. This team is scared. They’re a broken team. I don’t care what today’s outcome was, this is a broken team.”

On 1995 and Saturday night.

“That Duke team was (in the midst) of its own nightmare of a season. That was a broken team. That team even broke relationships on the coaching staff.”

*Note: Over his four-decade career covering the ACC and professional sports, Friedlander is currently with the North State Journal.

His initial thoughts:

“The thing that made me think Carolina was going to win this game was when they went to overtime, this is Clemson all over again and then they got behind and you figured they were done. But they went up. That was the thing, once Duke tried to give it away and (UNC) went up by five, ‘Okay, well this is their second chance, maybe they can take advantage of it.’

“Obviously, they didn’t, but it definitely reminded me of that game. That was the first thing I thought of.”

Duke was having a terrible year as Carolina is right now, suddenly the program’s name and aura isn’t helping it win games when it has in the past. Both 1995 Duke and 2020 UNC have lived and are living this. Isn’t that part of what makes this so similar?

“It’s similar in that both teams were/are going nowhere. Their souls had been crushed. If this is their one chance to make something of the season, to make it memorable – Duke had that opportunity when Capel makes that shot… There was no defining moment (for UNC) in this one but this was also Carolina’s one opportunity to give it something to hang it hat on this season and to give it something memorable and positive to remember it by and they let it slip away.

“And they did it under similar circumstances but they just didn’t have it in them to be able to make the plays that they needed to win.”

Generally, UNC-Duke games are unaffected by how either team has played leading up to it and the games don’t impact how each other players in the following games. But Friedlander believes that may not be the case this time around for UNC.

“I think that whatever was left in this team was left out on that court tonight. There’s not a whole lot of – and it’s not that, like Roy likes to say, it’s not the ‘want to’ it’s what do they have left? What do they have energy-wise. This was going to be their opportunity…

“This would have been their fourth Quad 1 victory, so there was still an opportunity to sneak into the postseason, but the fact that the realization there was still something there if they could have pulled this off and it’s not there anymore, I just don’t know how you get up from that.”