Duke is one of the top ten teams in America. North Carolina is likely going to the NCAA Tournament, but the team has largely been nothing special. The ACC’s annual college basketball finale probably wouldn’t have had the same fanfare without the added element of it being the last game Mike Krzyzewski would coach in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The history and hype surrounding the event was enough to drive viewers to ESPN. The game scored just under 4 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched college basketball game on the network since 2019. The previous high also featured Duke. It was the 2019 ACC Tournament Final against Florida State.
The Coach K farewell tour paid dividends for ESPN this season. All three of the network’s most-watched games included Duke. The first meeting with North Carolina, which happened just one month earlier in Chapel Hill, was number three on the list.
Saturday was a big day for college basketball on ESPN in general. In addition to the success of UNC vs Duke, the network also scored big with Kansas’s overtime victory against Texas. Just under 2 million people tuned in for that game. That is enough to make it number 5 on the list of ESPN’s most-watched games this season. It certainly justifies the decision to stick with the game until the end rather than cut to the pregame ceremony in Durham.
ESPN has a few more chances to cash in on Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K and the Blue Devils are in the ACC Tournament this week. Could another meeting with UNC or even a championship game appearance be enough to drive viewers to their TVs to take in the nostalgia?
After that, Duke, along with the other top 67 teams in the country, shift to the Turner networks and CBS for the NCAA Tournament. It will be interesting to see what kind of effect Coach K has on the ratings when every game could be his last.
