Since 2010, PNC Arena — or the RBC Center until 2012 — has proven to be a house of horrors for NC State when it plays North Carolina in basketball. The Wolfpack’s fortune has not been much better at home against ranked opponents in general.
However, one consistently ranked conference opponent has regularly been victim to NC State’s scarce success against elite competition at home the past 11 seasons — Duke.
Since the 2009-10 season, the second-to-last campaign of Sydney Lowe’s tenure, NC State has gone 11-22 when facing a ranked opponent at home. Of those wins, five have been against Duke.
In the last 11 years, NC State is 5-2 against Duke in PNC Arena. Against rival North Carolina, NC State has gone a dreadful 1-10. Both programs have achieved an equal amount of national success in that stretch. Duke has been ranked each of the last seven times it’s visited NC State, while North Carolina has been listed in the top 25 in eight of the past 11 matchups in Raleigh.
It’s as though NC State has made a deal with the Devils when playing its local rivals. For all of the struggles the Wolfpack has had against Roy Williams in the 2010s, it's been compensated for with success against Mike Krzyzewski-coached teams.
In the five NC State wins in the last seven home matchups versus Duke, the Blue Devils have been outscored by 13.4 points per game and were ranked at least seventh in each meeting. Of the previous two national championship teams at Duke, 2010 and 2015, both lost to NC State at home by a combined total of 26 points.
The polarizing difference in results is not unique to the Pack’s struggles with North Carolina when compared to its recent success against Duke. NC State is 6-12 in ranked home matchups against teams not named UNC or Duke since 2010.
The third-most recurring ranked opponent in PNC Arena in the same time period has been Virginia. The Cavaliers have been ranked in four of six matchups, but the Cavaliers have not dropped a game in Raleigh since 2009, the season before Tony Bennett was hired.
The Wolfpack can credit strong point guard play for the success against its conference rival from Durham. NC State’s modern-era guards have displayed a track record of putting on signature performances against the Blue Devils.
In Wednesday night’s 88-66 victory over Duke, senior point guard Markell Johnson had arguably the best game of his career. He scored a career-high 28 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had four assists despite facing one of the top defenders in the country in Duke’s sophomore guard Tre Jones. Last season, when Johnson faced Jones for the first time in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Johnson had a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists.
In 2017, Dennis Smith Jr. had the signature game of his tenure when he threw down a slam-dunk exclamation point to an NC State road win versus Duke in the final season of the Mark Gottfried era. Smith had a career-high 32 points, six assists and four rebounds.
In the “Cat Barber season” of 2016, the point guard faced Duke three times as a junior in his last season with the Wolfpack. In those games, Barber averaged 24.7 points and 5.3 assists, including a 29-point performance against Duke in the ACC Tournament.
Even at the beginning of the decade, Lorenzo Brown had great success against the Blue Devils. As a starter, Brown averaged 15.3 points and 8.0 assists in three games. The most memorable came in 2013 when the Wolfpack knocked off a No. 1-ranked Duke team 84-76 in PNC Arena. Brown had a double-double with 12 points and 13 assists.
With NC State’s victory Wednesday night at the expense of the Blue Devils, the Wolfpack’s NCAA Tournament hopes are still alive. The Wolfpack received a tournament bid the last three times it’s beaten Duke in Raleigh (2013, 2015, 2018). The two teams will meet again in Durham less than two weeks from now on Monday, March 2.
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