Inside the Duke-North Carolina injury war: Cameron Crazies have explaining to do

The admonishing aphorism "two wrongs don't make a right" has been thrown out plenty in Duke-North Carolina X spaces this weekend, and while it may ring eternally true, it's been difficult to get either side to admit to more than one wrong being committed in the first place.

Reportedly just one full-speed practice away from returning for the ACC Tournament and March Madness, Carolina Tar Heels super freshman and likely top five NBA Draft pick Caleb Wilson, rehabbing from a broken left hand, busted his other thumb on a dunk attempt. Season-ending surgery rushed his Tar Heel tenure to an ahead-of-schedule close.

Naturally, Duke fans didn't hesitate to get their gameday shots in at Wilson's absence. Tensions have run high for the better part of the past month (a decade and counting without a national title will do that to the Crazies) after North Carolina's buzzer-beating win at the Dean Smith Center. After that game, Duke head coach Jon Scheyer claimed that his assistant coaches were injured in the resulting court storm (hardly becoming of a blue blood!). When pressed for evidence, and at the behest and scolding of a local district attorney (who couldn't find any), Scheyer fired back with some (fact-free) defense of his subordinates.

"I would like to focus on Syracuse, but I'll tell you that I know what I saw and I know what happened with our staff after the game -- and that's the bottom line," Scheyer told reporters. "I'm not going to circle back or get into -- I don't know what was said or wasn't said or what people want to claim. But I know what happened, and I'm always going to support our staff in those situations and, again, I could have even said more, but I'm not going to do that."

The rivalry boiled over once again ahead of Saturday's rematch in Durham, when UNC fans took exception to a few College Gameday signs that mocked Wilson's season-ending plight. "Thumb up, Caleb!" read one that was screengrabbed, and another fan called out the "classless" sign they spotted that read, "Need a hand, Caleb?" The Duke Cheer Sheet typically includes worse, and probably gave out Wilson's cell number so fans could contact him more directly.

But for every "classless" cry from the UNC faithful, Duke fans were ready with a "not so fast!" Didn't some little Chapel Hellians print up shirts "celebrating" Zion Williamson's knee injury suffered in a head-to-head matchup back in 2019?

Zion Williamson shirt from 2019 vs. Caleb Wilson College Gameday sign: Was UNC or Duke further out of bounds?

In my biased opinion, Carolina fans had a toe on the line seven (seven!!!) years ago, but Roger Ayers didn't see it. Duke? They dove into the UNC bench while holding the ball with both hands, leg extended Grayson Allen-style hoping to pull down some collateral along the way.

Yes, some local shirt company printed tees mocking Williamson's blown-out sneaker, which resulted in a twisted knee that knocked him out for a pre-tourney stretch. He returned at full strength for the ACC Tournament and March Madness, and dominated immediately, posting 29, 14 and five steals in his first game back against Syracuse. There haven't been many collegians like Williamson, who got a fair shake to advance to the Final Four but found his star-studded roster outfoxed by a real team in the Michigan State Spartans.

The shoe explosion was actually a pretty good metaphor for the past decade of Duke basketball: an overpriced and overhyped Nike product that popped under pressure.

Williamson's season didn't end on the shoe mishap; he returned and battered the competition. Wilson? He'll never be a Heel again.

There's a significant difference between mocking the ridiculous theater of the decade's most hyped recruit bowing out of the greatest rivalry in the country early because his shoe exploded, and rubbing salt in the wound of a superstar freshman's ballyhooed season ending abruptly. Duke fans see things differently, and saw Saturday night's home win as vindication for Scheyer and his coaches, ill-advised signs be damned. Certainly, mockery of both parties at least somewhat crossed a line.

But if you're the type of fan that's been harboring seven years of bad thoughts and awaiting karma's blow, you'd probably feel anything was justified, too.

Duke fans hoping that things would even out instantly were sorely mistaken, though. Those who mocked a Caleb injury were greeted with a Caleb injury: guard Caleb Foster, who will now be held out of the ACC Tournament, suffered a concerning malady of his own.