Think you've experienced a true college rivalry? Not until you've lived through March Madness in the Triangle!
 

While their football teams have had mixed success, Duke, UNC and N.C. State are perennial powerhouses in NCAA basketball. The three are rivals in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and during basketball season, you'll see fans decked out in their true colors: dark blue/white (Duke), sky blue/white (Carolina) and red/black (State).
 

Perhaps the loudest are the "Cameron Crazies," the Duke fans who camp out for basketball tickets, then shake the rafters of the newly air-conditioned Cameron Indoor Stadium with their clever cheers. Dookies have reason to celebrate: Coach Mike Krzyzewski's men's team has won three national titles – most recently in 2001 – and always puts on a good show at the NCAA tournament. With 11-time national Coach of the Year Krzyzewski at the helm, Duke is a Final Four contender year after year. The women Blue Devils reached the Final Four in 2003 and have won four consecutive ACC tournament championships. Women’s basketball at Duke is led by Gail Goestenkors, who is in her 12th season and has won ACC Coach of the Year four times.
 

UNC Tar Heel fans have been cheering for new head basketball coach Roy Williams, who is eager to renew the program to its previous glory.
 

Women's athletics at UNC prove to be as strong as ever. Under women’s soccer Head Coach Anson Dorrance, the Tar Heels’ have earned more NCAA titles than any other women’s Division I sports program in the country. The Tar Heels women's field hockey team boasts four NCAA titles, six NCAA runner-up finishes, 14 ACC titles and 21 consecutive winning seasons.

N.C. State Wolfpack hoops loyalists have sold out the 19,500-seat Entertainment and Sports Arena since it was built three years ago. Coach Herb Sendek's 2002-03 men's squad reached the ACC Tournament Finals and back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament. The Wolfpack women, under the guidance of Coach Kay Yow, have made NCAA tournament appearance seven out of the past 11 seasons. Yow was a 2000 inductee into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and entered the 2003-04 season with 636 wins, only the fifth women's coach in history to win more than 600.
 

In his third season as coach of the State football team, Chuck Amato has helped the Pack achieve greatness, bringing the Pack to its first 11-win season in team history. In 2003, Quarterback Philip Rivers was named ACC Player of the Year.

Elsewhere in the Triangle, rivalries among the area's three Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) teams may get less media attention than the ACC rivals, but are just as intense. At North Carolina Central University, O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium hosts NCCU football action for a capacity crowd of 11,500 dedicated Eagle fans. Around November, McLendon-McDougald Gymnasium lights up with men's and women's basketball excitement. Head coach Phil Spence joined the Eagles in 2000, planning to take the men's team to the top of the CIAA Western Division.
 

St. Augustine's College, one of NCCU's fiercest basketball rivals, has a well-respected overall athletics program and ranked among the top 25 of the Sears Director's Cup Standings for 1999 and 2000. Falcon Pride is huge, especially on the baseball diamond and on the track. Three athletes from St. Augustine's College won gold medals in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, all members of the same 4x400-meter relay.
 

The maroon-and-white Shaw University Bears complete the local rivalry, not only in men's and women's basketball, but also in baseball, softball, track and tennis. CIAA competition hit close to home in 2001, when the CIAA basketball tournament came to Raleigh's RBC Center. 

At the professional level, hockey and baseball keep fans cheering in the Triangle. The NHL Carolina Hurricanes play at Raleigh’s RBC Center, and in 2002 made it to the Stanley Cup finals. Summertime is baseball time and both the Carolina Mudcats and the Durham Bulls (of the 1988 hit film “Bull Durham”) field lots of action. The Carolina Courage (women’s soccer) also take to the field each summer.

Before the air turns crisp, August brings thousands of national sports figures, celebrities and spectators to Prestonwood Country Club in Cary for the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic.