B/R CBB Community: What Is the Best Rivalry in Men's College Basketball?

Second only to the pandemonium of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, the best thing about men's college basketball is the rivalries.

Every sport has long-established rivals, of course. Yankees-Red Sox. Celtics-Lakers. Maple Leafs-Canadiens. The list goes on.

But only college rivalries can make someone's stomach turn every time they see a certain shade of blue, red or maize gold for an entire lifetime. 

On Tuesday, we asked the B/R app users to let us know what they think is the best rivalry in men's college basketball.

Here were the most popular responses.

            

Hoosier Daddy

Anonymous/Associated Press

@colewinner22: Purdue & IU

@BeatIU: Purdue IU hands down

This @BeatIU fella with a Purdue logo as his profile pic might be a little biased. However, there's no love lost between these Hoosier State foes, and this series has been incredibly balanced over the years with the two sides tied at 66 wins apiece dating back to February 1950.

But it takes more than just geography and a good give-and-take in the win column to create an embittered rivalry. One of the most important ingredients in laying the groundwork for a rivalry is a pair of long-tenured coaches battling each other year after year (and preferably multiple times per season).

Indiana and Purdue had just that from 1980-81 through 1999-2000 with Bob Knight leading the Hoosiers and Gene Keady coaching the Boilermakers.

Both teams were nationally relevant throughout that overlap. Purdue made the NCAA tournament in 16 of those 20 seasons. Indiana went dancing 19 times during that stretch. And en route to the lone exception to that rule (1984-85), it was Purdue's Steve Reid at the free-throw line when Knight famously launched a chair across the court.

Go back in time 20 years to ask this question, and maybe Indiana-Purdue gets some serious consideration for the top spot.

Unfortunately, for an entire generation of basketball fans outside of Indiana, this game just hasn't much mattered.

In the last 37 installments of this rivalry dating back to the start of the 2000-01 season, there have been 13 games played in which neither team was ranked and only two in which they were both ranked—and in neither of those games was either side ranked in the AP Top 10. The lone season in which Indiana was really good (2012-13), the Hoosiers annihilated unranked Purdue twice by a combined 65 points.

Basically, this rivalry hasn't been great since Nebraska was great in football. And just like the Cornhuskers, Indiana-Purdue always comes up when we talk about the all-time greats, even though it hasn't been the case for quite some time.

         

Gone But Not Forgotten

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

@todd_schlegel: Indiana vs. Kentucky, when the game is actually played

I just want to acknowledge that I love this answer and will always begrudge John Calipari for destroying what had been an annual tradition for more than four decades.

From 1969 to 2011, Indiana and Kentucky squared off each and every December, save for one season (1992-93) when the meeting occurred in early January instead. And there were quite a few big showdowns between these blue bloods along the way.

There were nine meetings in which both teams were ranked in the AP Top 10, including four consecutive (1979-82). In 36 of the 46 games played between 1969 and 2011, at least one of the two sides was ranked in the Top 10, and there were only four instances in which neither team was ranked. And on three occasions (1979, 1993 and 2011), the No. 1 team in the nation suffered a loss in this rivalry.

But 2011 was also the first year of the Champions Classic, and with Kentucky already committed to that event as well as annual nonconference games against Louisville and North Carolina, Calipari decided the schedule was already full enough and pulled the plug on this home-and-home with the Hoosiers.

           

Bluegrass State; White-Hot Hate

James Crisp/Associated Press

@KawhiKnot Louisville n Kentucky

@brentdecker21 Louisville-Kentucky

@nolancash: Duke & UNC no question, but Kentucky & Louisville are a close second

Our friend @nolancash hit the nail on the head here. Duke-North Carolina might be the best rivalry in any sport, but Kentucky-Louisville plays a mean second fiddle.

And I mean really mean, because these schools might despise each other even more than Duke and North Carolina do.

One unique element of this rivalry is a head coach who was remarkably successful with both programs. Rick Pitino spent eight years at Kentucky and 16 at Louisville, took each to three Final Fours and one national championship and never posted a losing season at either one.

The mutual success goes much deeper than just Pitino, though. Dating back to 1982, Louisville and Kentucky have combined for 15 Final Fours and five national championships (including those Louisville later vacated) while missing the NCAA tournament a combined 16 times. 2021 and 1991 are the only years they both missed the dance.

In other words, it's almost always a big game. In 19 of the last 42 installments, both teams were ranked.

One curiosity in this rivalry is its limited amount of last-second drama. The 1983 Elite Eight clash went to overtime, but the next dose of free basketball between these teams didn't come until 2019. And only 10 of the last 42 games were decided by four points or fewer.

That doesn't change the fact that this late-December/early-January tradition is one of the most anticipated games of every season. It still feels like we were robbed of something when this year's edition was canceled because of COVID-19.

              

Tobacco Road

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

@smbcta34: Duke vs. UNC no doubt

@Gfife56: Hands down-Duke vs UNC

@latoso23: Duke vs. UNC...no one else comes close

@delandsiv: Anyone who says anything other than Duke/UNC is an idiot.

Perhaps the biggest indication that this is the greatest rivalry in men's college basketball is how many Kentucky/Louisville fans go out of their way to let you know how disinterested they are in watching Duke-UNC and/or how sick and tired they are of ESPN trying to overhype the game.

It's such a weird, negative energy, and I feel sorry for those people who are unable to appreciate greatness.

Those comments above are merely a sampling of the overwhelming support for this Tobacco Road rivalry, which was the choice of at least 50 percent of the responders. And that's no surprise. Frankly, when we decided on this topic, I was a little worried there wouldn't be enough answers aside from Duke-UNC to justify doing the column.

When these teams met last February in the middle of equally disappointing campaigns, it snapped a streak of 153 consecutive games dating back to March 1960 in which at least one of the two sides was ranked. Both teams were ranked in the AP poll for 79 (51.6 percent) of those 153 games, including 44 (28.8 percent) in which they were both ranked in the AP Top 10.

It is staggering how often one (and often both) of these teams has been a legitimate championship contender for more than six decades.

There's a changing of the guard happening right now. North Carolina is struggling in its first season after Roy Williams retired, and we'll see what happens next year at Duke with Mike Krzyzewski out of the picture for the first time since 1980. Maybe this rivalry will take a back seat for a couple of years.

Or maybe Hubert Davis turns things around in a major way in Year 2, and maybe 34-year-old Jon Scheyer hits the ground running for what turns into a four-decade run of his own to keep this thing humming along with a "same song, different verse" type of feel.

Regardless of where things go after this season, Duke-UNC has been a must-watch affair at least twice a year for a long, long time. They don't always come right down to the wire, but it's always a trip when they do.