- Duke and North Carolina are set to meet in the Final Four this Saturday.
- It's the first time the two rivals have met in the NCAA Tournament after a century of playing against each other.
Lisa Ruth knew she hated Duke before she knew she was going to attend North Carolina.
"We joke that the hatred of Duke seems to just be pumped into the water system in Chapel Hill," Ruth told Insider.
Ruth's family moved to Chapel Hill when she was still in high school. While she would go on to graduate from UNC with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and American studies, and later with a master's degree in library science, she says that her detestment of the Blue Devils existed long before her love of the Tar Heels.
"Even though I wasn't 100% sure I was going to go to Carolina, I knew that I hated Duke," she reiterates.
And yet, love finds a way.
"The first day of classes, I thought he was cute," Ruth says of the first time she met her future husband. "Then you go around and everybody introduces themselves, and he said he had gone to Duke. I was like, 'Oh forget about it. There's no way.'"
A group project eventually brought them together, and now Ruth and her husband, Jim, stand as one of the couples standing in the middle of the greatest rivalry in college
Duke and North Carolina's basketball teams have met 256 times in a rivalry that spans a literal century. But this weekend, they will meet in the NCAA Tournament for the very first time. It's a matchup that's out of a dream for those watching from afar. But for those with ties to both schools, it's closer to a nightmare.
"We're both so terrified going into this that tensions are very high," Ruth said. "One of the things that makes the rivalry so beautiful is that there's no real answer to who is best. We are so evenly matched. But this is bragging rights forever.
"This has the potential to shut it all down," she said. "We're terrified."
Despite her best efforts, Ruth is now the last remaining Carolina supporter in her family, with both of her children eventually finding within them a love of Duke basketball.
Her son, Joseph, has worn a Duke shirt every single day for more than five years. It started out as a challenge, of sorts, when a Tar Heels fan in one of his classes said that she was going to wear a Carolina shirt every day for a month.
"He was like, 'Well I'll beat that,'" Ruth said. "Here we are, five years later."
Ruth's daughter, initially a holdout with her mother and the Tar Heels, has also recently switched allegiances after attending a few games at Duke's famed Cameron Indoor Stadium.
"She's gone to the dark side," Ruth told Insider. "She's trying to straddle the line. You ask her, she says, 'Well, it's complicated.' No, it's not complicated. There is dark, and there is light."
With less than 10 miles separating the two basketball powerhouses, the Ruths aren't the only ones caught in the middle.
Lisa's brother-in-law, Aaron Kirschenfeld, graduated from Duke with a degree in History in 2007.
When we speak on the phone, he corrects my language — I had referred to the upcoming "UNC-Duke game." "It's actually Duke-Carolina," Kirschenfeld kindly reminded me.
Kirschenfeld, of course, has some built-in bias; he was in fact one of the
"I teach a law class," Kirschenfeld told Insider. "Usually on the first day of class I'll tell everyone that I root for Duke. It's law school, so some of them came from Duke undergrad. But I let them get everything out from the outset.
"I usually don't share that I'm the mascot. But I don't deny it."
Kirschenfeld has attended Duke-Carolina games as both the mascot and a fan. According to him, they're unlike anything else in sports.
"The floor is vibrating, to the point where you wonder how they are dribbling the basketball properly," Kirschenfeld said. "I know it's cliché to say that you throw out all the records, but the energy in the building is so weird.
"It's just… it's like it exists outside of time," Kirschenfeld said. "I've been into mindfulness meditation for awhile. I guess the feeling is not dissimilar — where it's like, Oh, I guess sports does this. It's able to take your normal, everyday consciousness, and you can kind of forget about it for awhile.
"It just always feels like there's no air in the room or something. And it's so loud."
Kirschenfeld is a die-hard Duke fan and can rattle off specifics of the match-up problem North Carolina presents the Blue Devils in their upcoming Final Four showdown. But while his heart clearly lies with Duke, he recognizes Carolina as a worthy rival.
"There's always something for each side to celebrate at some point," Kirschenfeld said. "The reality is you live with these people, you work with these people. I try not to antagonize because they'll have a great moment later. I don't see the point in being mean-spirited about it."
Asked where he will be watching the big game, Kirschenfeld offered a hesitant laugh.
"I…haven't decided if I'm going to watch yet," he said. "I don't think I could. It's too stressful."
Regardless of whether or not he's watching the game as it happens, Kirschenfeld will be following the score through a group chat with some old Duke buddies.
"I'm not denying that it's happening," Kirschenfeld said of his potential decision to stay away from the television. "I wish I was a stronger person and could say, 'Yeah I'm really excited about watching the game. Whatever happens happens.' I'm just not…. It's a lot of stress."
But not everyone caught in the middle of the rivalry suffers from the same stressors. Mackenzie Warren is a sophomore at Duke — and also a sophomore at UNC. See, she is a member of the Robertson Scholars Program.
As a part of the program's Campus Switch, Robertson Scholars spend their second semester of sophomore year living at their sister institution. Thus, Warren is currently boarding at North Carolina.
"Truthfully, I'm really, really loving it," Warren told Insider of her time in Chapel Hill. "It's kind of sad to think about how the semester is already coming to an end."
Warren assured me that the program did not leave her feeling like she was behind enemy lines, though some students were less up-front about revealing their status as a Blue Devil than others.
"Us Robertsons go about it in different ways. Some of us prefer to keep it on the down-low, that we're coming from Duke. I don't really care," she said. "It's kind of like, If they want to be my friend, they'll want to be my friend, regardless of the school I'm coming from."
Warren said that she is not a huge basketball fan but has kept up with the action heading into this weekend's matchup. While she has an affinity for both schools, she'll be rooting for Duke to advance to the national championship game.
Conveniently, the Robertson Scholars are hosting a watch party for students of both schools on Saturday as part of a weekend that will be spent welcoming the Class of 2026 Robertson Scholars to the program. While the watch party will take place on Duke's campus, in the event of a North Carolina victory, there will be buses that will take those who wish to go join the party eight miles away.
"If UNC wins, I'm definitely hopping on that bus," Warren said. "I don't know how other Robertsons are going to feel. But I especially think that us Duke students that are on Campus Switch right now… there is an affinity that at least I have for UNC.
"If Duke wins, I'll definitely stay around for the post-watch party madness."
Warren was the only person I spoke with for this story that did not express "dread" or "stress" with regard to the upcoming game, instead radiating positivity over the phone. There was empathy for those on both sides of the battle lines that had been drawn.
Warren will clearly be rooting for the winner of Saturday's game to take home the national championship, but the support of both schools does not hold across everyone whose fandom is split.
Lisa Ruth is thankful that her husband and son are going to go watch the Final Four live in New Orleans.
"I keep telling everybody, It's a good damn thing that there will be several states separating us," Ruth said. "Because I don't think we could be in the same house."
Should Duke win, Ruth said that her allegiance would not change. While her husband and son would be staying in New Orleans to watch the national championship, would she hold her nose and root for the Blue Devils for the sake of her family coming home happy? Or hope they are crushed in the final?
"Crushed. Crushed," Ruth said.
"There's no switching over."