Saturday’s loss to North Carolina was a bitter pill for Duke as Mike Krzyzewski’s Cameron Indoor Stadium farewell party was spoiled by the rival Tar Heels.
In the immediate aftermath, Duke assistant Chris Carrawell was in no mood for postgame pleasantries. Carrawell, who played at Duke from 1996-2000, walked through the handshake line alongside the scorer’s table. When North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis extended his hand, Carrawell passed.
Davis, of course, took notice. He told reporters after the game that he didn’t know what prompted the snub.
“I don’t know what that’s about,” Davis said. “I didn’t play against him. I don’t know him personally.”
Davis, like Carrawell, is long familiar with the Tobacco Road rivalry, having played at North Carolina from 1988-92 before joining the coaching staff as a Roy Williams assistant in 2012.
The Raleigh News & Observer reached out to Carrawell for his side of the snub. He told the N&O that it was a retaliatory move.
Davis “did not shake our hands before the game,” Carrawell told the N&O via text.
Per the N&O, Davis and Krzyzewski exchanged handshakes at some point prior to the game. Davis wasn’t on the court for the traditional pregame handshakes when the Duke staff stepped onto the court amid the packed celebration for Krzyzewski.
This seems familiar
Whatever the explanation, the handshake refusal will go down in the annals of Duke-Carolina. It’s certainly not the first. Back in 2003 another pair of former players-turned coaches made news with a snub. This one involved Johnny Dawkins and Matt Doherty.
Dawkins was an assistant for Krzyzewski at the time. Doherty was in the third and final season of his ill-fated tenure as North Carolina’s head coach. The regular season finale between the two teams in Chapel Hill turned physical with players and coaches from both sides getting involved in a late-game sideline scuffle.
When the teams met again in the ACC tournament semifinals, Dawkins was not interested in Doherty’s pregame handshake.
Unlike Carrawell and Davis, Dawkins and Doherty did face off on the court as players in the early 1980s. Their personal rivalry dated back several years. But Dawkins’ snub had more to do with the fracas from the previous matchup.
While in-game contact between Duke’s Dahntay Jones and UNC’s Raymond Felton sparked the altercation, things escalated with Doherty and Duke assistant Chris Collins got in each other’s faces.
Dawkins, evidently, wasn’t ready to let bygones be bygones.
Long live petty. Long live Duke-UNC.
