North Carolina Sibling Rivalry

The College Basketball Closer is written by the gang at Storming the Floor.

If you watched last night's ACC matchup, you probably heard a lot about how UNC and NC State are bitter rivals and how one school has the all-time edge over the other in head-to-head matchups. You may have even reflected briefly on the relative merits of one university-sponsored sports team over the other.

Stop. Collaborate and listen: technically, they're the same school.

North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill are both members of the University of North Carolina System. The System's website calls it a multi-campus university. All told, there are sixteen schools in the system, and twelve of them play Division I basketball, often against one another. They are scattered across seven conferences, with one currently playing as a DI independent. The following is a list of each UNC division with season records as of Wednesday.

Appalachian State (SoCon): 16-10 East Carolina (C-USA): 8-15 North Carolina A&T (MEAC): 13-12 North Carolina Central (Independent): 3-24 North Carolina State (ACC): 17-11 UNC-Asheville (Big South): 18-7 UNC-Chapel Hill (ACC): 25-2 UNC-Charlotte (Atlantic 10): 14-10 UNC-Greensboro (SoCon): 14-11 UNC-Wilmington (CAA): 17-10 Western Carolina (SoCon): 8-17 Winston-Salem State (MEAC): 9-15

Overall: 162-144

Obviously, this is one of those huge families that fights a lot. Like the Baldwins or Arquettes. It will be interesting to see how many of the UNCs make the tournament this year. It's all so incestuous.

The Dadgum Curse of Roy Williams. Miami (FL) 96-Duke 95. Hmm... maybe somebody should stop worrying about the injury report and coach his own damn team. This is the second straight puzzling loss for the Dookies, as the slumping Hurricanes evened out the lopsided haircut Wake Forest gave them over the weekend. Coach K is still three victories away from landmark victory No. 800, with five left to play in the regular season.

K-State is All Kinds of Nutty. Nebraska 71-Kansas State 64. Strange tic of the night: Michael Beasley kept sucking on his forearm throughout the final 2:00 of this game, with nary a lime or tequila shot in sight. Whatever it takes to match Carmelo Anthony on the freshman double-double list, right? But the crucial late rebounds fell to Nebraska's Aleks Maric in the end, as the Huskers put K-State a full game back of Kansas and Texas in the Big 12 race. Nebraska moved into a tie for fifth place in the conference, so, of course, the students stormed the floor. Bad form, Huskers.

When Did Alabama Get an NBA Franchise? UAB 101-Houston 99. When you see Blazers over Houston by this score, you might think you're reading the NBA Closer, but this is what happens when the frustration of being unable to beat Memphis boils over. Houston's Rob McKiver had a robust 41 point, 6 rebound, 7 assist kind of evening in a losing effort. A surprisingly low 13 total turnovers were committed in this roller-coaster-ride of a conference game that left the participants tied for second place behind Memphis, each with an 8-3 conference mark.

Tonight's Big Games

First One to Twenty Wins... um... Wins! Pitt (19-6) at Notre Dame (19-5). Pitt has won the last five in this series, but the Irish have a potent inside-outside game going this season. Plus, a school-record 35-game home win streak is on the line for the Domers. Levance Fields is back for the Panthers, so this should be more of a game than I'm letting on.

The Wild, Wild West. Arizona State (16-8) at Washington State (20-5). The Sun Devils have five more games remaining to state whatever case they might have for an NCAA tournament bid. At 6-6 in the Pac-10, they need to win at least three. Washington State would be a good start, after which they'll have their shots at both L.A. schools and both Oregon schools. Washington State has to remember their strengths, and use defensive toughness to contain Pendergraph and Harden.

Eric Angevine writes about college basketball at Storming the Floor, and CAAZone. He can be reached at [email protected]