Can Virginia break Duke’s grip on this key ACC series?

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Wins over Duke have been few and far between since 1983 when the Ralph Sampson-led Cavaliers routed the Blue Devils, 109-66, in the ACC Tournament. Mike Krzyzewski, who was under fire from the Iron Dukes, insisted that Virginia ran up the score. UVA coach Terry Holland called K’s comments nonsense.

Sampson and the Wahoos scored more than 100 points in all three meetings with Duke that season, the most devastating coming in Atlanta at the tournament.

The fable goes that at a subsequent dinner, someone from Duke raised a glass and said, “Here’s to forgetting,” in reference to the Blue Devils’ lopsided loss to the Cavaliers. At that point, Krzyzewski stood and raised a glass and proclaimed, “No, here’s to never forgetting.”

Ever since then, beating Duke has been an ordeal for Virginia, and pretty much everyone else. The Blue Devils have won 57 of the 71 meetings since then. That’s 14 collective wins by the Cavaliers through the end of Holland, Jeff Jones, Pete Gillen, Dave Leitao and Tony Bennett.

In fact, Duke has been a thorn in Bennett’s saddle during his 10-plus seasons at UVA. The Blue Devils are the only program  that Bennett has a losing record against.

Then again, does anyone have a winning record against Duke during the Krzyzewski era? After all, he is the winningest coach in major college basketball history, a record that will likely never be broken.

Fans might find it surprising that Bennett has a 3-11 record against Krzyzewski, and we’re betting that every UVA fan call easily recall all three.

The first was in 2013, and Bennett’s only win at John Paul Jones Arena. Joe Harris scored a career-high 36 points and drew raves from Krzyzewski after he helped gun down the third-ranked Blue Devils. It was the first time in 11 years that the Cavaliers had beaten a top-five team.

After Wahoo fans rushed the court, Krzyzewski complained that he couldn’t get his team off the court.

The other two wins were monumental as well, one for the ACC Championship in 2014 in Greensboro, ending a 38-year drought between the conference tournament championship for Virginia. The third and last as of this writing came at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where UVA had not won since 1995. Who will ever forget Ty Jerome’s deep 3-pointer that helped nail the coffin shut on the Blue Devils in a 65-63 win in 2018?

Tonight’s game could be a real thriller-diller as well. Duke is favored by between 2 and 4 points, depending on which odds maker you most trust.

We examined Bennett’s record against all of his ACC opponents up to date, and some of the numbers were surprising, some not at all.

One might be surprised that Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton is the only other ACC coach and program that doesn’t have a losing record against Bennett & UVA. The Cavaliers and Seminoles are all-square at 9-9.

Miami’s Jim Larrañaga is almost even, at 6-7. Three of those Hurricane wins came in overtime. Boston College is 6-9, with three of those losses coming early in Bennett’s career at Virginia. Bennett owns state rival Virginia Tech at 16-6, and three of Tech’s wins have come in overtime.

Check out the accompanying graphic that breaks down the record against each ACC team and Maryland before the Terps bolted to the Big 10: