The North Carolina Tar Heels, with players like Elliot Cadeau, settled for a semifinal finish in this season's ACC tournament earlier on Friday. They were defeated as the fifth seed of the conference by their longtime rivals in the top-seeded Duke Blue Devils, 74-71, after a hotly-contested fixture that went down the wire.
It was an all-out intense affair, as it went back-and-forth towards the tail end of the game after the Hubert Davis-coached team pulled off an awe-inspiring comeback to keep themselves within striking distance even after dropping down by 21 points, 45-24, at the end of the first half.
During the 8:42 mark, however, as the matchup got more heated, Cadeau was fouled by Blue Devils stalwart Pat Ngongba, causing him to tumble on the floor. As he was being helped up by his teammates, Cadeau seemingly let out a threat to the opposing big man.
"I'm 'bout to slap this b*tch," Cadeau said.
This prompted the Duke faithful to retaliate in defense all over X.
"Shut yo sorry *ss up," one user captioned.
"Crybaby Cadeau," another user posted with several crying emojis.
"I wish he would; see what happens," another said with a laughing emoji.
"Man, we all know Cadeau specifically would never try it," a user pointed out.
Other users opted to point out that Cadeau, who is in his second stint in college hoops, could trigger a long self-rivalry with the school.
"LOL, that’s why he could never play for DUKE, have class and I’m sitting here feeling bad for the poor kid that made a bad decision on the line. This kid is about to go thru hell from his fans, sad sad," one user shared.
"Duke had them boys crashing out lol," another user wrote.
"Next Duke villain," a user claimed.
In the loss, Cadeau posted 15 points on 4-of-8 overall shooting, to go along with two rebounds, two assists and a steal in 27 minutes of action.
North Carolina Tar Heels went 0-3 in the 2024-2025 season against the Duke Blue Devils
Elliot Cadeau & Co. lost 74-71 to the short-handed Duke Blue Devils in this year's ACC tournament quarterfinal, their third loss to a conference foe in the 2024-2025 season. Their first two losses came during the regular season, when they were defeated by 17 points (87-70) on February 1 and again by 13 points (82-69) on March 8.
With the North Carolina Tar Heels' campaign seemingly coming to a close as they may no longer qualify for the NCAA national tournament later this month, they finish the year with an overall record of 22-13, 13-7 during conference play.
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