'Tis The Season To Hate North Carolina

‘Tis the holiday season, a time for festive celebrations, twinkling lights, cinnamon-spiced treats, the same five songs on the radio, last-minute shopping, and creating memories with loved ones that will last a lifetime.

Here in Kentucky, where you people are crazy, we also associate December with our favorite basketball team, for it is the time of the year that Kentucky often plays some of its highest-profile opponents, rivalry games like the annual showdown with Louisville around Christmas, or frequent run-ins with North Carolina.

On Saturday, Kentucky will play North Carolina for the 43rd time in their storied rivalry, marking the third such meeting in the last four Decembers, all part of the annual CBS Sports Classic event. Before the CBS Sports Classic, the blue-blooded rivals traded December home-and-homes for many years, plus four memorable NCAA Tournament games in 1977, 1995, 2011, and 2017.

With that longstanding history, there is animosity between Kentucky and North Carolina fans, stemming from school pride as the two powerhouses compete for the imaginary crown of college basketball’s top program. It’s a competition Kentucky currently leads UNC in every metric of importance, like all-time wins and national championships. Carolina is third in both categories.

Still, despite being the better program with a better history and brighter future, many Kentucky fans hate North Carolina for those times the Tar Heels got the best of the Wildcats head-to-head. As a matter of fact, Carolina leads all-time, 25-17, due to a lopsided start in the series.

Maybe BBN’s hatred for UNC started there, in 1924, when the Tar Heels sent Kentucky home from the Southern Conference Tournament. In their first-ever meeting, North Carolina won big, 41-20, powered by the unstoppable duo of Jack Cobb and Cartwright Carmichael, who combined for 31 points in Atlanta that day.

Eight years later, Kentucky and North Carolina again met in the 1932 Southern Conference Tournament in Atlanta, where Virgil stinkin’ Weathers hit a game-winner to give UNC a one-point victory. The Lexington Herald wrote, “Wildcats Lose Ding-Dong Battle When Tarheel Forward Fires Remarkable One-Armed Shot Into Basket.”

Could revenge for 1924 and the ding-dong battle of 1932 be on the Kentucky players’ minds this Saturday when Atlanta hosts its third-ever UK-UNC game? Will DJ Wagner play for Forest Sale, whose 20-point effort wasn’t enough in that 1932 loss? Will Antonio Reeves try to match what Cobb and Carmichael did to UK in that first meeting nearly 100 years ago?

Probably not, but several other generations of basketball gave us more reasons to hate North Carolina.

In 1961, UNC named Dean Smith its new head basketball coach, and he was a real problem for the Wildcats for the next several years. Like UK’s Adolph Rupp, Smith was a product of Kansas, who became one of the most iconic names in coaching. Against Kentucky, Smith won 13 games and lost three while handing UK two heartbreaking losses in the NCAA Tournament.

In the 1977 Big Dance, Kentucky ran into Smith’s Carolina in the East Regional Final in College Park, Maryland. A win for the Tar Heels, the loss ended Kentucky’s season and officially made Smith a villain to the Big Blue Nation. As the story goes, Smith called Kentucky’s Rick Robey “a cheap son of a bitch” after Robey committed a hard foul. Mark Story called the Dean Smith-Rick Robey feud the beginning of the UK-UNC rivalry. (Mark must’ve forgotten about Virgil Weathers.)

Nearly two decades later, Dean Smith and North Carolina ended another of Kentucky’s NCAA Tournament runs, winning 74-61 in the 1995 Elite Eight in Birmingham, Alabama, to advance to the Final Four. It was Smith’s last game against Kentucky.

Another reason to hate the Heels that day: Rasheed Wallace hit Kentucky’s Andre Riddick with a blatant elbow early in the game. Wallace then wore Riddick’s hands around his neck in retaliation.

Kentucky also left the NCAA Tournament at the hands of North Carolina in 2017, a wound that still hasn’t healed. You remember. The Wildcats clawed back from a late deficit, complete with a game-tying 3-pointer by Malik Monk with only seconds to go. And then Luke Maye happened. (A lawsuit happened, too.)

For those reasons and more, like Psycho T and fake classes, we hate North Carolina Basketball. And this holiday season, we hate North Carolina because the Tar Heels are again trying to ruin Big Blue Nation’s festive spirits in mid-December. One UNC already did enough damage this year.

So, on Saturday, rather than watch another Heel rise to villain status like the scrubs and bums we already mentioned, the BBN hopes we’re celebrating Kentucky’s first-ever win over UNC in Atlanta and a second straight win in the overall series.

One of the current Kentucky players may have the next unforgettable performance against UNC, say, a freshman, a la Malik Monk‘s 47-point game in Las Vegas in the 2016 CBS Sports Classic. Monk still has the single-game record for a freshman Wildcat against any opponent, and the most points scored in a single UK-UNC game.

Another freshman, Anthony Davis, left his mark on the UK-UNC rivalry with a single block in December 2011.

Before Davis caused Rupp Arena to erupt, Tayshaun Prince did the same when he wrote his name in history with five consecutive 3-pointers in December 2001. The fifth is still one of Kentucky Basketball’s most iconic shots 20 years later.

DeAndre Liggins earned a kiss from John Calipari for his corner 3 that helped put Kentucky into the 2011 Final Four over UNC. A season earlier, John Wall burst onto the college basketball scene in the first marquee game of the John Calipari era. Wall grew up a UNC fan but turned Kentucky blue when given the cold shoulder on a visit to Chapel Hill.

Let’s give Sahvir Wheeler his flowers, too. Kentucky’s former point guard couldn’t be stopped in the December 2021 game in Las Vegas. Wheeler cooked UNC’s defense a week before Christmas, going off for 26 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the field with eight assists and four steals. It was the last time the two teams met. Kentucky won, 98-69.

As we count down to the 43rd meeting, we celebrate those Wildcats greats and put the painful UNC memories further behind us.

‘Tis the season to hate North Carolina.

Beat the Heels, and we’ll all have a Merry Christmas.

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All-TIME SERIES

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Date	Game	Result	Score
12/16/2023	(#14) Kentucky vs. (#9) North Carolina (CBS Sports Classic)	???	?????
12/18/2021	(#21) Kentucky vs. North Carolina (CBS Sports Classic)	W	98 – 69
12/19/2020	Kentucky vs. (#22) North Carolina (CBS Sports Classic)	L	63 – 75
12/22/2018	(#19) Kentucky vs. (#9) North Carolina (CBS Sports Classic)	W	80 – 72
3/26/2017	(#5) Kentucky vs. (#6) North Carolina (NCAA Elite Eight)	L	73 – 75
12/17/2016	(#6) Kentucky vs. (#7) North Carolina (CBS Sports Classic)	W	103 – 100
12/13/2014	(#21) North Carolina at (#1) Kentucky	W	84 – 70
12/14/2013	(#11) Kentucky at (#18) North Carolina	L	77 – 82
12/3/2011	(#5) North Carolina at (#1) Kentucky (NCAA Elite Eight)	W	73 – 72
3/27/2011	(#11) Kentucky vs. (#7) North Carolina	W	76 – 69
12/4/2010	(#10) Kentucky at North Carolina	L	73 – 75
12/5/2009	(#10) North Carolina at (#5) Kentucky	W	68 – 66
11/18/2008	Kentucky at (#1) North Carolina	L	58 – 77
12/1/2007	(#1) North Carolina at Kentucky	L	77 – 86
12/2/2006	Kentucky at (#7) North Carolina	L	63 – 75
12/3/2005	North Carolina at (#10) Kentucky	L	79 – 83
12/4/2004	(#8) Kentucky at (#9) North Carolina	L	78 – 91
1/3/2004	(#9) North Carolina at (#8) Kentucky	W	61 – 56
12/7/2002	(#18) Kentucky at (#12) North Carolina	W	98 – 81
12/8/2001	North Carolina at (#11) Kentucky	W	79 – 59
12/2/2000	Kentucky at (#6) North Carolina	W	93 – 76
3/25/1995	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#4) North Carolina (NCAA Elite Eight)	L	61 – 74
12/10/1990	(#25) Kentucky at (#10) North Carolina	L	81 – 84
12/27/1989	Kentucky vs. (#24) North Carolina	L	110 – 121
12/26/1981	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#1) North Carolina	L	69 – 82
3/19/1977	(#3) Kentucky vs. (#5) North Carolina (NCAA Elite Eight)	L	72 – 79
12/8/1975	(#7) Kentucky vs. (#4) North Carolina	L	77 – 90
12/9/1974	(#15) Kentucky vs. (#9) North Carolina	W	90 – 78
12/10/1973	(#10) Kentucky vs. (#5) North Carolina	L	84 – 101
12/11/1972	(#8) Kentucky vs. (#13) North Carolina	L	70 – 78
12/8/1969	(#2) Kentucky vs. (#7) North Carolina	W	94 – 87
12/7/1968	(#2) North Carolina at (#3) Kentucky	L	77 – 87
12/12/1967	(#4) Kentucky vs. (#7) North Carolina	L	77 – 84
12/13/1966	(#6) North Carolina at (#4) Kentucky	L	55 – 64
12/7/1964	(#11) Kentucky vs. (#13) North Carolina	L	67 – 82
12/9/1963	North Carolina at (#9) Kentucky	W	100 – 80
12/17/1962	North Carolina at Kentucky	L	66 – 68
12/13/1960	(#20) Kentucky vs. (#5) North Carolina	W	70 – 65
12/18/1959	North Carolina at Kentucky	W	76 – 70
1/9/1950	North Carolina at (#2) Kentucky	W	83 – 44
2/27/1932	Kentucky vs. North Carolina (Southern Conference Tournament)	L	42 – 43
1/4/1929	North Carolina at Kentucky	L	15 – 26
2/29/1924	Kentucky vs. North Carolina (Southern Conference Tournament)	L	20 – 41