As the Maryland upset win over Duke in the ACC Tournament dwindled down, the ACC Network announcers had some fun with an old, tired, trite angle – that Carolina fans hate Duke and vice versa.

Cory Alexander, color analyst, said, “The Carolina Blue faithful are standing up and cheering as hard as the Maryland fans.” Veteran play-by-play announcer Tim Brando chimed in laughing, “Be careful what you wish for Carolina fans.”

That’s cute and all but the problem is it just wasn’t true. The Carolina fans, while I’m sure they were enjoying the trouble Duke was having with Maryland, were not standing up, shouting and pumping fists like Terp fans. In fact, after Maryland’s Alex Len jammed in a dunk late in the game to put the Terrapins up by nine, while the Maryland fans were going nuts, viewers could see a solid bank of Carolina fans in the background who didn’t appear to move a muscle.

Besides, are they really going to cheer loudly for a team that is snubbing the ACC by leaving for the Big Ten?

Most Carolina fans, I’m convinced, wanted to play Duke again. After all, as Dean Smith always used to say, it’s difficult to beat a team three times in a season. The Tar Heels, had they hit free throws, would have beaten Duke in Durham. After the embarrassing loss on senior day a week ago, most Carolina wanted another crack at Duke.

It was lazy announcing to retread the conventional wisdom that Carolina fans always root against Duke (and vice versa). But they didn’t leave it at that. “A Carolina fan would tell you that they’d rather lose to Maryland than lose to Duke a third time,” Alexander said. “Absolutely,” Brando agreed. I don’t think Carolina fans are planning on losing to Maryland or Duke. That’s stinkin’ thinkin’ to be deciding who you’d rather lose to.

Carolina worked hard to defeat Maryland twice. The intangibles are with Maryland while intangibles would be with Carolina against Duke. In other words, Carolina would be more up to play Duke than they would be to play Maryland.