Normally, Virginia football is the winner over North Carolina. Virginia Tech made it to the title game in 2000. Virginia has never made it to a title game, but sometimes will pop up in the top 25 and in a good year, the top 10. Neither have ever won a championship, but James Madison did win the Division I-AA Title in 2004.
Virginia: Tiki and Ronde Barber, Thomas Jones, D'Brickashaw Ferguson
Virginia Tech: Michael Vick, DeAngelo Hall, Kevin Jones, Bruce Smith
(For sanity, we're using UNC-Chapel Hill. When we get to basketball, I can't promise I include all the schools)
In football, North Carolina has never really been a powerful state. They have a lot of talent coming in, and with a new coach named Butch Davis who coached Miami through some of its great years, I expect them to become great sometime soon. Duke on the other hand has been miserable the last decade or so. I read up and learned that they were great earlier in the last century, going to a few Rose Bowls but not winning either. I was shocked to learn that Steve Spurrier was the coach in the late 80s. NC State is respectable in football, having a few great years as of late. But, they haven't won an ACC Championship since 1979. Becuase I mentioned JMU's title, Appalachian State won the last two I-AA titles (I was surprised Appalachian State is in North Carolina). This year, Wake Forest won the ACC Title.
Notable Players:
UNC: Lawrence Taylor, Julius Peppers
Duke: Sonny Jurgenson.
NC State: Torry Holt, Phillip Rivers, Adrian Wilson, Mario Williams
Basketball is nitpicking. Football in Virginia only wins becuase of the players they have in the NFL, basketball in North Carolina is just better. Much better. Way better.
North Carolina is legendary. With a coach like Dean Smith, it goes way back. An NCAA champion four times, they are at the top of the list of basketball programs. They have been continually getting great players to come though since Roy Williams came back, and are ranked highly this year again.
Notable players: James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison
Duke is legendary. They are a 3 time champion. They have made the sweet 16 of the tourney for the last 9 years. They just had a streak of being ranked in the polls snapped at 200 weeks (since the 96 season). Their coach is even bigger, Krzyzewski. They're having a rough go of it this year, but hey, it can't last forever.
Notable players: Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Shelden Williams, JJ Redick
NC State has a rich history, starting with coach Jimmy V, but has not been this year. They've made the tournament the last 5 years, but that streak is likely to end this year. They have 2 championships.
Wake Forest is usually a competitive team, with a few stars on the NBA circuit. 2006/7 hasn't been great (they lost to UNC by nearly 40 points earlier this year).
Notable players: Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, Josh Howard
Virginia isn't a great basketball state minus being a pioneer in the women's game at ODU. The Cavaliers have made a few Final Fours, but haven't gotten as far since the early 80s. Coaches Rick Carlisle and Ralph Samson played there for the final four teams. They have two great guards who make up one of the best backcourts in the NCAAs: JJ Reynolds and Sean Singletary. Virginia Tech has been nothing in basketball since they made the tourney in the mid 90s. This year they have Zabian Dowdell to eye. George Mason made the Final Four last year but only to lose to the champs. This year, though, if any team were to make it out of the CAA in Virginia it would be Old Dominion.
This year has been different, though. Virginia has beaten NC State twice, beaten Wake once with one to go, beaten Duke, and the lone loss to UNC. They are 2nd in the ACC. Virginia Tech has beaten Wake and Duke once, and beaten UNC twice. Its kind of strange, Virginia lost to Appalachian State (who is in NC, by 11), beaten NC State twice (by a combined 18 points), and lost by 27 to Virginia Tech. Tech has beaten Appalachian State (by 32) and lost to NC State by a combined 36 points. Just thought I should let you know what kind of crazy things are going on in my mind here.
After all that writing (for about 2 hours give or take), I'm just saying its a strange strange thing we're seeing here. And I'm loving it.
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