But certainly, blood has been the one thing that people always pay attention to.
DTH: Years later, there was the Tyler Hansbrough incident, where he caught a hit from Gerald Henderson and he had the blood dripping down his face. You mentioned that a lot of people pay attention to the blood. Did you harken back at all to 1992 when you saw that happen or did you just figure that's just part of the game?
EM: Mine was more of the incidental contact that created that cut. Upon replay and at the time, we knew what it looked like when Hansbrough got his nose busted. But we didn't know exactly how bad it looked until we were able to watch the replay.
And my guess is that everybody wearing a Duke blue uniform would say that it's the emotion of the game, and you kind of lose yourself in it. Everybody in a Carolina blue uniform would call it a cheap shot.
You think about moments that are etched in your memory bank, of Duke-Carolina rivalries. And certainly, those are two of them.
DTH: Going back to your game in 1992, I found a quote from you after the game saying, "If I don't have a little blood somewhere, then I haven't played hard."
You were just talking about the emotions that come from that game. So hearing that quote now, do you feel like that was representative of the mentality that you all had going into those games when you were at UNC?
EM: When you said that, I said, "wow, what a great quote."
When you play in that game, every ounce of your heart and soul goes into it. You want so badly to be a part of it. You give it your all and you don't mind sacrificing your body in some ways to get through it.
You see all the time, guys twist an ankle in a game and some of them return, some of them don't. In that game, you never want to go out.
DTH: You all went on to win that game. Was there an added feeling about beating a Duke team that happened to be both No. 1 at that time and even the reigning national champions?
EM: Absolutely. We're seven miles down the road and they have bragging rights on Tobacco Road. And when they came into town our junior year, we also said, "Okay, guys, this is our time."
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We knew we were really good defensively. And we had a lot of good offensive pieces. But we also knew that they were still an exceptional team. And when you have two Hall of Fame coaches, and you've got the likes of Grant Hill and Laettner and (Bobby) Hurley and all that crowd along with our team, it couldn't help but have the bright lights attracted to that game.
But for something to be 30 years ago, I can see it, I can smell it. I can feel that emotion from that game. That's pretty incredible, that one moment can hold that kind of emotion. There are only a handful of dates in my life that hold that kind of emotion. And that's one of them.
DTH: Coincidentally, this year's first UNC-Duke game is actually going to be 30 years to the date. How surreal, if at all, is it to you that the rivalry still remains one of the most prominent if not the most prominent in college basketball today?
EM: It's a thrill to have been a part of it as a player. It's a thrill to still be able to be a part of it as a fan and as a broadcaster now.
I'm not necessarily surprised that it stays front and center for students, but the durable nature of that game and that rivalry, I think it just speaks to the institutions that represent these two teams. I think that when you look and you see that, over the years, so many of these games have been at nine o'clock at night so that the West Coast can watch them … that just tells you ... the national draw.
When you think of college basketball, you think of Carolina and Duke as a part of what defines the game of college basketball.
DTH: Another important aspect of that game, one of your teammates was Hubert Davis. He was a senior at that time and actually the leading scorer on that team. What do you remember about Hubert Davis as a teammate?
EM: Hubert was a wonderful teammate. He was 100 percent about the success of the team. It was always team first. And he was a scorer and he could have made it about himself. And at times, we probably wished he would have shot more because he was such a good scorer.
But there were so many really wonderful people that I played with as teammates at Carolina, and Hubert certainly falls into that bunch.
You want to create an atmosphere where you hold a bar really high for each other. And I'm talking about practice, I'm talking about running sprints in the offseason, running the preseason conditioning drills that we would do. Games were fun. Practices were where teams were made and individuals were made. And for us, Hubert just represented “team.”
DTH: How much are you looking forward to watching his first UNC-Duke game as a head coach at North Carolina?
EM: I hope he has a wonderful coaching game. I hope he empowers our players to go out and play to their maximum capacity. And I hope that they feel his enthusiasm for this rivalry and this moment in front of our home fans in the (Dean E.) Smith Center.
This game brings out the very best. It brings out the hardiest and the toughest and the greatest competitive spirits, and they perform on the nation's biggest stage.
I can tell you that I get asked more about what people call the "Bloody Montross" game than I do about the '93 National Championship win. Part of it is because the people that I'm around are in this geographic region and they remember that '92 game. But then at the same time you think, “well, they obviously also remember the national championship '93.”
But what they ask about is that Duke-Carolina game on Feb. 5 in 1992 and what that was like. That's what they want to know, that's what they want to crawl inside and understand and live through.
@jerem11ah
@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com
