CHAPEL HILL – Perhaps nothing on the sports landscape this past year will more reflect the pandemic era than what people will witness Saturday evening in Durham, NC.
North Carolina-Duke isn’t just the greatest rivalry in college basketball, it might be in all of American sports.
The programs are regularly among the best in the nation, they have achieved amazing success, are eight miles down the road, have many storylines woven into each matchup, the games almost always deliver, and the atmospheres when they meet are generally second-to-none. Especially when the game is at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, site of this season’s first matchup.
But there is one giant caveat: there will not be any fans in the stands. The Cameron Crazies, nope. Crazy Towel Guy, nope. Cammy, the baby doll, nope. NOBODY.
Not even the media. Other than the teams, game essential personnel and ESPN’s broadcast crew, nobody else will be inside Duke’s fabled old hall. And that, probably more than anything, will just be plain weird.
“I don't know that it'll be any more weird than any of the other places because it's just weird, unusual, whatever terminology you want to use,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said Thursday. “But it's something that, by now, we've almost become used to, so it's not as weird anymore.
“But no, I think their crowd is fantastic. It is a smaller place, the sound in there is really difficult. It makes it difficult for you to communicate with your team, whether I yell louder or more often, usually it's dictated by how good they are and how well we're playing.”
UNC senior forward Garrison Brooks says one of the perks that go with playing for either program are these battles. The game will still be Duke versus UNC, but the associated elements that fascinate so many won’t be a part of things.
So, imparting that onto the younger Heels has been different than in years past. It is still the game, though, even if Brooks would rather the Crazies be there in all their splendor.
“Of course, it’s disappointing, it’s the biggest rivalry in all of sports,” he said Friday. “That’s something that you look forward to.
“I was talking to (UNC freshman) Kerwin Walton earlier this week and was like, ‘Man, that’s one of the games you really look forward to when you sign with Carolina. That atmosphere, just the buildup for that game is great.”
By ad large, the Tar Heels’ players appear to be taking this in stride. Perhaps they are getting used to playing in empty arenas and have conditioned themselves to it.
Consider, only road games at Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson had paying fans in attendance this season. Iowa had around 400 fans in the building, but it was mostly families, university employees and close friends. NC State allowed a few boosters and family members into PNC Arena in December.
Otherwise, aside from a few family members at most buildings, there have not been fans at UNCs games. Had the season been normal all along and this sprung up on them that nobody would be inside Cameron, perhaps that would generate a different response.
For the players, it’s Duke and Carolina, and in the end that’s all that matters.
“It will definitely be a little different,” junior Leaky Black said. “It’s a big-time game regardless, though. I just feel like we need to be ready to play whether there’s nobody in the stands or they allow them to sell out the place.”
What remains strange to onlookers has become a bit normal to the players. And their tunnel-visioned approach could serve them really well going in.
No fans, no electricity, and no typical Carolina-Duke atmosphere will be part of the storyline, but in the end it’s all about the game on the court.
“Honestly, I don't think the fans play that big of a role just in this game,” sophomore Armando Bacot said. “Specifically, because we're just so locked in at one to one, we're not worried about anything else.”
