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These Blue Bloods go back a long, long way.

Of the 42 prior games between Carolina and Kentucky, 20 have been played on neutral courts; if you consider Charlotte, Greensboro and Louisville neutral.

The 43rd game Saturday is in Atlanta, where their very first meeting took place in 1924 and the third eight years later, both victories for the Tar Heels, who own a 25-17 advantage in the overall series. Strangely, not one of the other 40 match-ups to follow was in the Georgia capitol. . . until now.

Dean Smith’s first significant win over the Baron of the Bluegrass was in 1962 in Lexington, where the Larry Brown and Billy Cunningham-led Heels upset the stunned Wildcats, 68-66.

Carolina played a version of Four Corners with Brown in the middle, but the real story was Yogi Poteet covering All-American Cotton Nash so closely that Nash spent most of the second half standing the corner, neutered.

Rupp and later Joe B. Hall agreed to play UNC 13 times between 1960 and 1975, never once in Chapel Hill. The Heels’ so-called home games were in Charlotte or Greensboro.

Their next big collision came in the 1977 NCAA East Regional final in College Park, Maryland. It remains a memorable game in Carolina lore for several reasons.

All-American point guard Phil Ford had injured his shooting elbow late against Notre Dame in the Sweet 16 two nights earlier. Tar Heels fans were already worried about Walter Davis, who had returned after missing the NCAA second-round win over Purdue in Raleigh with two fingers on his shooting hand taped together. In tribute, Carolina fans brought rolls of light blue ribbon to the game and gave out pieces so everyone could “play” with their fingers tied.

Ford tried to play but sat out most of the tense second half while John Kuester ran Four Corners to protect the lead in a dramatic 79-72 win for the 5th-ranked and Final Four-bound Tar Heels, who marched proudly on Atlanta a bit battered and bruised but still favored to win it all at the old Omni.

Fast forward to the pulsating 1995 Elite 8 win in Birmingham over Rick Pitino’s Wildcats; or the two last-second outcomes of the 2016-2017 season, Kentucky’s 103-100 win at the CBS Sports Classic in Las Vegas (Justin Jackson and Malik Monk combined for 84 points) and Maye-day in Memphis the following March on Luke’s buzzer-beater that bested the Cats and sent Ol’ Roy to his third NCAA title.

What will this 43rd Blue Blood battle bring?

Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.

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