So you think the rivalry is still ebbing and flowing, eh?

Duke has now won two national championships since Carolina’s last in 2009. After that 2009 season, Tar Heels could have said the same: we have won two national championships since Duke’s last in 2001.

Somehow, it seems a stretch to say (or believe) that Carolina will come back with an NCAA title or two before Duke strips the nets again. The Blue Devils have reinvented themselves with a one-and-done philosophy that hasn’t always worked but sure did this season, when four freshmen led them to a dramatic comeback win over slightly favored Wisconsin.

[Duke’s victory ties Carolina’s five NCAA championships won under three coaches — McGuire, Smith and Williams. But let’s look at the glass half full or half empty. Mike Krzyzewski could have easily won his eighth or ninth title Monday night, when you consider the last-minute losses to Louisville in 1986, Arkansas in 1994 and UConn in 1999. And don’t forget how the Blue Devils blew the 2004 semifinal game to UConn when winning would have meant facing a Georgia Tech team they had already beaten twice that season. Could you stand K now chasing John Wooden’s sacred 10?]

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In the last five years, Duke had a star that left after his freshman year and the Blue Devils went out in the Sweet Sixteen (2011, Kyrie Irving) and were bounced in the round of 64 (2012, Austin Rivers, and 2014, Jabari Parker). Their prior national championship in 2010 was won by a team of upperclassmen, seniors John Scheyer, Lance Thomas and Greg Zoubek and juniors Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler. But the Devils have pivoted since then, loading up with top 10 high school stars, the last three of whom may be gone within the month.

Carolina has stuck with the philosophy of building from the ground up and supplementing with players who might not stay four years. The Tar Heels’ Final Four team in 2008 and their champions of 2009 were built that way behind Tyler Hansborough, Danny Green, Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. Even their 2005 titlists had three seniors and three juniors among their top seven players: Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott; Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Rashad McCants (plus freshman Marvin Williams).

Sadly, maybe Carolina’s best team in the Roy Williams era was poised to challenge for the national championship that Kentucky won after John Henson and Kendall Marshall were injured in the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Henson, Marshall and Harrison Barnes turned pro early after that season and Tyler Zeller graduated. They are all in the NBA right now, along with fifth starter Reggie Bullock and then-freshmen P.J. Hairston and James Michael McAdoo.

Does any program in the country have seven guys in the NBA right now who played on the same college  team?

That was the tough luck year for the Tar Heels, who if healthy might have won Williams’ third national championship in eight years – almost twice as good a percentage as Krzyzewski winning five times in the last 24 seasons.

Yet, doesn’t the 68-year-old Coach K seem fresher, more inventive and ready to rumble well into his 70s compared to 64-year-old Williams who has been beaten down by personal losses, three relatively mediocre seasons and an ongoing NCAA probe that has all but killed his most recent recruiting efforts? It may be the white hair and glasses he takes off and on during games, but Ol’ Roy even looks a little older than the older coach down the road with the jet-black hair.

Their styles of play have become equally opposite. Duke is aggressive, almost confrontational down low and plays the pick-and-roll game from the perimeter with a pick-your-poison perfection. Of course, it helps when you have a Tyus Jones, who can slide through the lane like a ghost or stop and pop with deadly accuracy down the stretch.

Carolina remains soft in the paint and utilizes Dean Smith’s old passing game on the perimeter. Granted, Marcus Paige and Justin Jackson aren’t exactly slashers and there is no legitimate banger among their four post men. But the Tar Heels do return their top ten players next season and, rest assured, will be a Final Four pick of many prognosticators. They may be, and could even win the whole enchilada, if the summer improvement is markedly noticeable up and down the roster.

Duke, meanwhile, will have to do it the same way after Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and perhaps Jones enter the 2015 NBA draft. Along with Quinn Cook, who had a superb senior season, that would be replacing four starters and maybe all five depending on how Krzyzewski completes his recruiting class. The Blue Devils have signed 6-10 Chase Jeter, the fourth best prep center coming out of high school, and 6-5 Luke Kennard, the No. 6 shooting guard in the graduating class. They have reportedly offered four more scholarships, including one to 6-8 Brandon Ingram of Kinston, UNC’s top unsigned target.

Ingram is supposedly a lifelong Carolina fan who is close to UNC legend Jerry Stackhouse but is waiting to see if anything comes down concerning men’s basketball from the NCAA’s most recent investigation. There is also the issue of how many minutes Ingram would get with all five starters returning, including incumbent wings Jackson and J.P. Tokoto.

Duke, on the other hand, has Winslow’s spot WIDE open with only role players Matt Jones and Amile Jefferson to beat out. The Blue Devils can’t possibly be as good next year with their heavy losses and could get a lot better by signing Ingram this month.

So it’s the Tar Heels turn, right, to follow Duke’s national championship like they did in 1993 and like the Blue Devils returned the favor in 2010?

Does it feel that way to you?

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