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The Rivalry: Will It Ever Get Back to Greatness?

Yeah, North Carolina-Duke bothers me.

It is the best and most balanced rivalry in college basketball, but it has rarely been recognized as that here in Indiana. Here, it will always be Indiana-Purdue. For a long time our own rivalry had much of the national cachet of North Carolina-Duke, right up to Duke having not won a national championship until the early 90s. During the Gene Keady vs. Bobby Knight era Purdue and Indiana ran the Big Ten. The twice yearly meetings were like championship bouts, and split almost evenly as Gene finished with a slim 20-19 edge over Knight from 1981-2000.