Coach K on UNC-Duke: The Respect We Have For Each Other Overcomes Venom of Our Fans

Duke and North Carolina have the best rivalry in college basketball, if not all of sports. While the two teams exchange haymakers on the court, there’s not the level of animosity and hatred that many rival teams have for each other.

North Carolina and Duke fans don’t like each other very much, but the prolonged excellence that both programs have exhibited has created a feeling of mutual respect between the players and coaches at the two schools.

“Yeah, well I think,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

Coach K and UNC coach Roy Williams are both Hall of Famers and have been coaching against each other at least twice the respect that we have for each other overcomes the venom of our fans a year for more than 15 years.

“Look, Roy– I know him. We serve the game together, and we’re both very lucky to be in the positions we’re in,” Krzyzewski said, “but we also know how good the other guy is, the other team, the other program, and I think that’s healthy.”

The respect both men have for each other doesn’t mean that Krzyzewski and Williams don’t desperately want to win when the two teams square off.

“That doesn’t mean—look, we’ve had hellacious games, but we have not had the side shows,” Coach K said. “It’s really kind of been sport at the level you would hope it would be – the class, the dignity and the fervor to win, but still keeping all those other things in place. I think we’re in a good place with that.”