When Duke head coach Glen Lanham left his assistant coaching position at North Carolina in 2007, little did he or Tar Heel head coach C.D. Mock know what was coming years down the road. In his first year with the Blue Devils, Lanham will view Mock as a rival for the first time, when Duke (7-6, 0-3 in the ACC) faces North Carolina (6-6, 1-3) Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. in Card Gymnasium.
“It’s going to be a tight match,” Duke head coach Lanham said. “They have a few toss-ups—we do too. They have a few favorites—so do we. It’s going to be tough.”
The Tar Heels’ roster is young, with just one junior—who doesn’t start—and no seniors. Redshirt sophomore Antonio Giorgio will be sidelined due to injury. Because of the shortage of upperclassmen, the roster features a high number of true freshmen, Mock said.
“We couldn’t afford to redshirt our freshmen, because we wouldn’t have a team if we did,” he said. “It puts a lot of pressure on the younger guys, but I think we have the right guys in the right positions now, and we seem to be heading in the right direction.”
The Blue Devils and Tar Heels share four opponents in common—No. 11 Virginia, No. 7 Virginia Tech, Maryland and Virginia Military Institute. Both Duke and North Carolina defeated VMI and fell to the other three opponents. The Blue Devils’ 38-3 loss to Maryland Saturday snapped their five-match winning streak.
The Tar Heels will focus on getting their first takedowns and winning matches on their feet. The Blue Devils, who also prefer to wrestle on their feet, share similar goals, with the additional focus of not getting ridden out on bottom.
Duke and North Carolina both look forward to kicking off rivalry week, but Lanham acknowledged that the wrestling rivalry is one-sided. The Blue Devils haven’t knocked off the Tar Heels since 2004.
“It’s a rivalry more on our side than theirs,” Lanham said. “They pretty much own the series right now. Our guys want to prove that they can beat UNC.”
Looming large on the schedules for both teams is the ACC tournament, which takes place in early March. As the date draws near, both coaches are more concerned about preparing their wrestlers for the conference tournament than anything else.
“We’re excited to wrestle Duke, but more than anything we view [the upcoming matchup] as more preparation for the ACCs,” Mock said.
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