Fans of North Carolina and Duke are sorely mistaken-you are not the King of basketball. You have two of the top programs in the country, no doubt. But these are national programs that hardly rely on local talent to continue to live up to their billing.

In last Sunday's victory for North Carolina over Duke, players hailing from North Carolina combined to score zero points. In fact a quick glance of the Duke roster and you will not find one player that is from North Carolina.

So what gives? Who died and made the state of North Carolina boss? And since when is North Carolina/Duke the biggest rivalry in sports?

Ever heard of Army/Navy? What about Celtic/Rangers in Scottish soccer. Both clubs hail from Glasgow and have hundreds of years of religious tension involved. Now that is a rivalry.

Sure, North Carolina/Duke is a big deal in college basketball. But calling it the best rivalry in sports is as asinine as calling North Carolina the best state for basketball.

Duke has won three national championships under Coach Mike Krzyzewski-definitely an admirable feat. North Carolina has won four titles, surprisingly only two under Dean Smith and one under Roy Williams with Matt Doherty's players. Perhaps another subject for another day.

Let's take a gander, for example, at the Duke teams of 1991 and 1992. Without question, two of the best teams in the history of college basketball. In 1992, not one player came from North Carolina. Christian Laettner was from New York, Bobby Hurley from New Jersey, and Grant Hill from Virginia.

The 1982 National Champions, yes, had two outstanding players from North Carolina. Michael Jordan came from Wilmington, while James Worthy hailed from Gastonia. Pretty good players to claim as yours.

What about the 1993 North Carolina title winners? Donald Williams was from Garner, N.C. However, he was the only North Carolinian to contribute to the national championship.

The 2005 Matt Doherty All-Stars weren't overloaded with homegrown talent either. Only Reyshawn Terry and David Noel made significant contributions to this title effort.

Now you have Tyler Hansbrough, the 2008 winner of the Naismith Trophy. Great college player, absolutely no future in the NBA. Hansbrough will get pounded in the professional ranks by bigger and stronger players. He will ride an NBA bench for five years, and will be found living on his college star status in the North Carolina area a few years from now. Nothing wrong with that.

And since when was Roy Williams one of the best college basketball coaches of all-time? He had one of the greatest teams of all-time at Kansas, loaded with some guy named Paul Pierce, Raef LaFrentz, Jacque Vaughn, and Scot Pollard.

Williams proves that if you get coffee for the right person for a lot of years (Dean Smith)-or least game plan when Smith is passed out from his scotch-you too can get a job at one of the top five college basketball institutions at Kansas. Then he makes a lateral move to North Carolina, another one of the top programs ever.

Williams never had to earn his keep coaching at a small school. He was gift-wrapped a top-notch job at Kansas. And Kansas probably got a better coach in Bill Self-who earned his way at places such as Oral Roberts and Tulsa-and was the last coach since Larry Brown to deliver a national title to Rock Chalk county.

Williams had recruited one player of note in his only national title at North Carolina in 2005, Marvin Williams. Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Raymond Felton was recruited to Tarheel Country by Doherty.

Your three major schools that have won national titles, to include North Carolina State, have combined to win nine titles. Admirable, no doubt.

Kentucky has won seven by itself, while Indiana has claimed five.

Which state is best? Give me Indiana every single day and twice on Sunday. Because UCLA won 11 titles, with some Indiana native named John Wooden running the show.

And who was the last college basketball team not to lose a game? That's right, 1976 Indiana coached by Bobby Knight.

One of the best players of all-time is from North Carolina in Michael Jordan. Congratulations. But what about another Indiana grown player named Larry Bird. Bird was so good in college that he led Indiana State to the National Championship game by himself before losing to Michigan State in 1979.

In college basketball, yes. North Carolina is pretty good. But give me a break on this "best state for basketball" thing. 

After all, the movie "Hoosiers" was not based in North Carolina.