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Tobacco Road Prepares for Basketball Nirvana — or Apocalypse

The rivalry between Duke and North Carolina, always fearsome, is reaching new levels as the two schools meet Saturday for a chance to play in the men’s national championship game.

Duke’s Paolo Banchero dribbled past North Carolina’s RJ Davis during Duke’s loss to North Carolina in March.Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times

The tobacco industrialist Washington Duke, whose fortune helped finance what became Duke University, made a final proclamation on his deathbed in 1905, according to Durham lore: “Go to hell, Carolina, go to hell.