It's Sad That We've Reached The Point Of People Trying To Hype Up And Convince Everyone A Duke/UNC Game Is Awesome
This isn't necessarily directed at a specific person or anything, but I've seen it enough. I've seen ESPN promote this game as 'it's still awesome.' Seriously. I've seen tweets like this:
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How the hell have we reached a point where you have to hype up Duke/UNC more than just saying the game is tonight. Shit, I've seen people say they didn't even know the game was tonight until a promo today. It makes no sense - for the most part. Sure it doesn't help both teams are whatever this year. UNC looks like UNC of last year. Not the team in March, the 8 seed, the team they were. Duke is all new faces and haven't really figured it out yet. They have the early win over Xavier and that's kind of it.
The other part of it is the rat face, mascot ass looking Coach K is gone. Hubert Davis vs Jon Scheyer? It doesn't have anything to it. At least not yet. No one truly hates either of these guys unless you went to said school. But for the first time since the 2nd year of Matt Doherty, this game doesn't have any juice or intrigue going into it. Does it matter? Sure. It's still Duke/UNC, but it's not the Duke/UNC we knew. That truly died the moment UNC ended Coach K's career.
We never needed to hype up Duke/UNC before. We never needed to list reasons it mattered. People just knew it was Duke/UNC. I know the viewing numbers will be fine. But it's hardly the best game of the day. It's arguably not even the best rivalry game of the day in terms of talent. IU/Purdue is more intriguing in a standalone game aspect. Obviously Duke/UNC fans will disagree, but from a national view that's how it is in this exact moment.
But this is the first time I've ever seen people justify a game within the rivalry. Don't get me wrong, I still hate both these programs with every bone in my body, because it's still laundry. Spare me the 'it's still Duke/UNC.' I get that. No one is arguing that it's not a rivalry. No one is taking away that aspect of it all. My point is, there's just something missing and the fact people are actively trying to go out of their way to hype it up shows as much.