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Who Wins? Duke 2001 vs UNC 2009

What Would Jesus Do?

Devils Illustrated Hall of Famer
Nov 28, 2010
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On another site Jay Bilas listed the 10 best teams of his broadcast career and those 2 topped his list.

Who do you think would win the matchup, and why?

Here are a couple of links for stats.


 
Interesting comparison. I assume Hansbrough is allowed to travel all over the place? He would be a tough guy to guard. Other than that, Duke is stronger at other positions although that was a tough Cheater team.
 
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Might come down to a question of who takes a good lead first. While both teams had the ability to come back, by the end of the season, if you let UNC take much of a lead, you could pretty much kiss it goodbye.
 
I loved that 2001 team, but that is just the type of team to give us trouble. I'll pick us, maybe.
 
All of the extra practice time that UNCheat "student-athletes" had due to no-show classses might be the difference maker.
 
Obviously I'm a Duke guy, so right off the bat I'll admit the bias.

That being said, I genuinely do think it is Duke, and honestly clearly so. That 2001 team had an (literally) unrivaled resume:
- Two different national players of the year
- Five future pros who played a combined 51 years in the NBA (and that is including Jason Williams' career that was cut short by over a decade after his accident)
- ACC POY
- National Defensive Player of the Year
- Preseason Tournament Champions
- Conference Regular Season Champs
- Conference Tournament Champs
- National Champions
- Won every NCAA Tournament game by double figures

There are several other teams in history that can check two or three of those boxes, but that Duke team is the only one in the 64-team era to boast all of those things.
 
Duke and to me it’s not close. Battier and Dunleavy against Green/Ellington. I’ll take that match up all day and JWill destroys Lawson .

Same. We may have had trouble with Hansbrough... hard to say. I think we could've held him in check to some extent with Battier helping, as he was one of the best on-ball and off-ball defenders in the last quarter century.

But they WOULD NOT be able to contain our offense in any way. Given that they liked to play with pace, we score 85+, and probably break 90.

In all fairness, I will say J Will and Lawson would've been a good battle but I still think JWill was better.

Final score 92-78.
 
Duke would have the two best players on the court Before even tipping off and they could not have complemented each other better. Duke would be favored, should win. UNC had more depth. Hanstravel would foul Casey sanders our before the first tV time out. But Boozer would destroy him down low.
 
Duke would have the two best players on the court Before even tipping off and they could not have complemented each other better. Duke would be favored, should win. UNC had more depth. Hanstravel would foul Casey sanders our before the first tV time out. But Boozer would destroy him down low.


Absolutely on Boozer. I meant to add that Hansgump could not guard Boozer. Hard not to be overshadowed to some extent by Battier and Williams but Boozer was an adept post scorer. He was quicker than Hans and had a number of moves that he couldn't handle.

They were a solid squad but we would've been a bad matchup for them.
 
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The thing that makes me wonder is we got down 23 to Maryland. As good as that team was they could be up and down. Especially when Williams was off. But I would still take us. But there's no point in asking the question if you're going to always pick Duke ha. But yes, Battier and Boozer would be too much. I think Dunleavy benefited from so much attention given to the other guys defensively.
 
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Chris, I disagree about Dunleavy. He was very skinny, but he grew to be a very long small forward with guard skills. I remember they ran some out of bounds plays for him that couldn't be stopped because of his length over the guy guarding him.
 
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Oh I loved Dunleavy. My point was that it was a pick your poison, and he was the 3rd or 4th option for us.
 
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I don't remember the '01 team because I was 4 but, I do remember that UNC team pretty well. They were damn good at pretty much every position but their bench wasn't particularly impressive. Though other than Duhon I don't guess that Duke teams was either.

Think Duke would pull it out by virtue of being able to spell Jay with Duhon and Jay being better overall than Lawson anyway.
 
Where do these trolls keep coming from? Year after year they pop up. He must be a buddy of gary-7 and that ain't tar on his heels it's ram poop from stepping in it all the time. OFC
 
You all really are like our little brothers - cry cheaters when you lose and cry troll to the mods when someone hurts your feelings. Almost as bad as State fans...
 
Obviously I'm a Duke guy, so right off the bat I'll admit the bias.

That being said, I genuinely do think it is Duke, and honestly clearly so. That 2001 team had an (literally) unrivaled resume:
- Two different national players of the year
- Five future pros who played a combined 51 years in the NBA (and that is including Jason Williams' career that was cut short by over a decade after his accident)
- ACC POY
- National Defensive Player of the Year
- Preseason Tournament Champions
- Conference Regular Season Champs
- Conference Tournament Champs
- National Champions
- Won every NCAA Tournament game by double figures

There are several other teams in history that can check two or three of those boxes, but that Duke team is the only one in the 64-team era to boast all of those things.

ACC CO-POY...Shared ACC Regular Season...but carry on. Say it louder for the folks in the back - how they'd dominate our '09 team lol. You guys are funny.
 
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ACC CO-POY...Shared ACC Regular Season...but carry on. Say it louder for the folks in the back - how they'd dominate our '09 team lol. You guys are funny.
No one said they'd dominate. But you are on a Duke message board so you can't reasonably expect completely unbiased answers, and it's not a stretch to say that they could dominate that UNC team, as that Duke team was capable of blowing anyone out, just as that UNC team was.
 
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No one said they'd dominate. But you are on a Duke message board so you can't reasonably expect completely unbiased answers, and it's not a stretch to say that they could dominate that UNC team, as that Duke team was capable of blowing anyone out, just as that UNC team was.

Yeah they did and it would probably be a stretch. But, hey, just good natured ribbing, friendly banter, that's all. I take it about as seriously as your football program.
 
ACC CO-POY...Shared ACC Regular Season...but carry on. Say it louder for the folks in the back - how they'd dominate our '09 team lol. You guys are funny.
One more thing, that Duke team had 2 absolute superstars at the college level to go along with a phenomenal supporting group( I mean Dunleavy was a good NBA player for a long time and Boozer was a 2 time All-Star with several 20 and 10 seasons, far better than anyone from that UNC team). So objectively, there is definitely a few reasons this Duke team took the top spot over that UNC squad.
 
I wouldn't say "dominate," but I genuinely don't see one reasonable are logical argument that doesn't say that Duke team was better. I'm all ears if there is one.
 
One more thing, that Duke team had 2 absolute superstars at the college level to go along with a phenomenal supporting group( I mean Dunleavy was a good NBA player for a long time and Boozer was a 2 time All-Star with several 20 and 10 seasons, far better than anyone from that UNC team). So objectively, there is definitely a few reasons this Duke team took the top spot over that UNC squad.

I see...But they couldn't win the regular season outright and debatable whether they had the best player in the conference. Makes more sense now that they'd be better than our '09 team.
 
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debatable whether they had the best player in the conference.
With what transpired then, everything since, and a shred a basketball knowledge, that wouldn't be much of a debate. Joe Forte? Stop. Battier had a significantly better college career, and an infinitely better pro career.

In no uncertain terms, I want you to definitively state you think Forte is/was Battier's equal. Just for my amusement.
 
With what transpired then, everything since, and a shred a basketball knowledge, that wouldn't be much of a debate. Joe Forte? Stop. Battier had a significantly better college career, and an infinitely better pro career.

In no uncertain terms, I want you to definitively state you think Forte is/was Battier's equal. Just for my amusement.

No argument there, but that is a fine straw man.
 
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