While most of the world was watching election results, college basketball got underway in North Carolina. CIAA Champion Livingstone traveled to Durham to play the Duke Blue Devils. The results were predictable, as Duke ran away with a 115-58 win.
What was refreshing was to see the acknowledgement of the resource gap between the two schools, as eloquently explained by SB Nation’s JD King.
“Livingstone had trouble doing pretty much anything. The Blue Bears had 21 turnovers and shot just 24% in the first half. The defense let up in the second and Livingstone started hitting (52.8% for the second half), but when you’re down 50 or 60, it really doesn’t matter.
To be clear, Livingstone was not a great challenge. Anyone from Duke who might have been somehow traded would have immediately been Livingstone’s best player.
Plus the Blue Bears don’t have anywhere near Duke’s resources to train a team.
Duke has every advantage and Livingstone, an HBCU, has limited resources and must focus more on basics than Duke.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing; look at what happened to UNC.”
King went on to discuss the history of HBCU basketball in North Carolina. It’s a good read, one worth checking out.