An interesting placement — smack dab in the middle between the game at Cameron two weeks ago and the one in Chapel Hill on March 8 — for this special to air. Watching an hour of the history of college basketball’s greatest rivalry depicted, a few things stood out.

1) There was a lot of cursing. I liked that.

2) Both schools’ fans want the other fans, and the school in general, to, specifically, “go to hell.” This was brought up through song, sign and scowl at least 20 times during the program.

3) Duke still remains eminently more hateable than Carolina, and it’s mostly always been that way.

Even Peter Rosenberg, who is a Maryland grad and made this video, got an interview. Why not; that video is funny as hell and his disdain for the Dookies is quite identifiable.

The clips of Grant Hill’s flattop, Jordan’s short-shorts and Phil Ford’s ’fro were terrific. But the extended look inside the rivalry was, at times, a bit glossy. Still: it covered a lot of things that the casual, under-30 college basketball fan (like myself) needs to know (or be reminded of).

There was the turning point of Duke basketball — the 30-point beatdown by Vegas in ’90 (the game that got me into college basketball at age 9) — that put the school on the national radar; it coincided with the sport’s explosion on cable television.

—The early-days stuff — the teams first played in 1920, and UNC won 17 of the first 19 — was nice to see. It was also funny to see that football was once the true passion of the state of North Carolina. In fact, as the special points out, N.C. State was a large part of starting the Duke-Carolina rivalry. The Wolfpack’s dominance in the ACC started rolling the small snowball that would cause first UNC, then Duke, to get highly competitive in hoops.

—The first hateable Dookie, Art Heyman, who “helped set the rivalry ablaze” with the infamous UNC-Duke fight in ’61 that involved one Carolina player by the name of Larry Brown.

—The rehashing the Jordan shot in ’82 that gave Dean Smith his first title in his 21st year on the job was mandatory, of course.

I particularly liked the photos. There were some terrific shots of a young Jordan in his dorm room with an umbrella, singing with headphones on. And looking back at the Krzyzewski hire, which was called “underwhelming” at the time. In his first press conference, Young K was affable and likeable! We also learned he earned $4,000 in his first year coaching. And this was in the ’80s — after Duke had been relevant for nearly two decades.

It was nice to see some interviews with some must-interview subjects for this documentary — Smith, Larry Brown, Jordan, Coach K, Roy Williams, James Worthy. To see Jordan’s coy smile when saying, “It wasnt a rivalry because we killed them. There wasn’t even a comparison.” Was a reflection of the arrogant Carolina attitude and Jordan’s never-ceasing competitiveness/brutal, honest arrogance in regard to basketball.

Then, some irony: We saw how Coach K once thought there was a double standard when it came to Carolina’s benefits in terms of officiating. Funn now, with all the “Duke gets all the calls” cries that have been abundant for 15 years.

Nobody was more hateable than Christian ... La ... agh, it's hard to even say the whole thing.

And HBO didn’t let us down, reminding us of how appalling Christian Laettner was during his time in Durham.

“If Justin Timerblake were six-ten, had a jump shot and a pissy attitdue, he’d be Christian Laettner,” Duke alumus Seth Davis said. Laettner and Timberlake: on the same plane of appeal with tha ladies.

There was J.J. Redick recalling getting “junk” talked to him after a loss while getting a bagel on campus, and “Matt Doherty hit a shot out of his ass,” quip from Bilas about a Duke loss to Carolina in ’85 which put some nice personality on both interview subjects that we rarely get.

Through it all, we were shown, mainly, what most die-hard hoops fans already know.

“Duke fans are the minority, and it’s not ever going to come close to being a majority.  I don’t care if they win 15 national championships, that’s never going to change,” Bomani Jones, a Carolina-leaning radio host said.

Perhaps what was most intriguing (and what I would’ve liked to see more of) was the berth of the Cameron Crazies in the mid-’80s and Krzyzewskiville that served as their temple. The highlight of the show took an all-too-quick look at the Crazies with terrific snapshots of faces painted, body’s painted, Carolina players amid a sea of Crazies, etc. And it humorously showed both sides to the Crazies for what they are: aemphatic, iconic, nerdy and necessary element to the rivalry at is Duke vs. North Carolina.

The HBO schedule in the upcoming week:

Thursday, 1 p.m.
Friday, 12:30 a.m.
Friday, noon (HBO2)
Friday, 8 p.m. (HBO2)
Saturday, 10:30 a.m.

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