There’s no love lost between the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tar Heels, and Duke’s Kyle Filipowski reminded everyone of that fact today.
In the first half of the big Duke-UNC game with ACC supremacy, Filipowski was on the ground with UNC’s Harrison Ingram with the ball heading the other way. But as Ingram rose to pursue the ball he used Filipowski for leverage.
Filipowski didn’t seem to appreciate being used like that. So he lifted his leg backwards as Ingram was moving and tripped the UNC forward.
The ghost of Grayson Allen still haunts Durham. Filipowski trips a rival. pic.twitter.com/aXLyMvIrJu
— Jordan Dajani (@JordanDajani) March 10, 2024
Basketball fans are outraged that Filipowski would do something like that, particularly after he was at the center of a massive controversy for being tripped by a Wake Forest fan during a court-storming incident last month.
“The fact that he would do this after nearly losing his leg at Wake Forest is disgusting,” one user on X declared.
“more egregious than the court storming in Wake Forest tbh,” wrote another.
“Just set up a trip wire at midcourt in Cameron. It’ll be easier – save these poor Duke guys the trouble of having to lift a leg,” a third user joked.
It’s a rough look for Filipowski, but it’s also perhaps something we should expect in a rivalry like this with the stakes as high as they are.
The winner of this game will be the top seed in the ACC Tournament next week and win at least a share of the ACC regular season title.
More importantly, they’ll have a ton of momentum entering March Madness.