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You Tube Gold: The Airball Game

We’ve discussed this game recently but here’s the famous (or infamous) 1979 Duke-UNC game from Cameron.

There was no shot clock then so it’s a bit jarring to see UNC hold the ball for so long after Vince Taylor scored an early basket for Duke.

This is generally believed to be the game where the Airball! chant was born because Chick Yonaker takes a jumper from the left of the lane, maybe an 8-12 footer. It looks solid, his form is great, but he completely whiffed.

As it turned out, we learned later that UNC’s Dean Smith thought the Tar Heels could keep up for a half but he wasn’t sure they could do more, so he tried to neutralize the first half.