Last evening, the University of North Carolina and Duke University contested a bit of sport on the Cameron Indoor Stadium basketball court in the Southern redbrick mecca that is Duke University, a school on Tobacco Road built by tobacco money.
Cameron Indoor Stadium defines home court advantage with its Crazies making it like the game is played in a dorm room under a flashlight. It is a horrific environment if you are a visiting team.
The Duke Blue Devils were favored by the punters, the smart money, by 12 points at game time, but here was much more at stake. The Duke v Tarheels basketball rivalry is the best in all of college sports. It is huuuuuuuuge.
The coach, the game, the coronation
The game was the last home game of the 42-year story book Duke career of Coach Mike Krzyzewski, a fierce competitor.
Coach K and his calm demeanor.
Coach K had delivered:
5 National Championships
12 Final Four trips
15 ACC Tournament Championships
13 ACC Regular Season Championships
3 Olympic gold medals
What better way to end that storied career than a sound drubbing of arch rival UNC? Why wouldn’t #4 Duke wipe the floor with the Heels?
The victory lap
Coach K has been taking a victory lap of the Atlantic Coast Conference all season with the #4 ranked Blue Devils. Last night was to be the coronation of King K. [Sure it smells like a gigantic ego buffet, but “it’s all about the kids.”]
It did not turn out according to script as the unranked and favored to lose by 12 Tarheels administered a cheeky thrashing of their own in the inner sanctum of Duke basketball.
The final score was a convincing 94 – 81, but Duke lost its mojo with three minutest left and embarrassed themselves with their inability to compete down the stretch. I have it on good report that the Duke cheerleaders partied on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill with the Heels. One of them said, “We wanted to party with real men for a change.” Boom!
Unranked and unheralded North Carolina beat Duke at home on the eve of the coronation like a rented mule on the last day of the month when last month’s check had bounced.
For first year Carolina coach Hubert Davis and his players, the rest of their basketball careers will be on the downslope from that improbable ending.
It is possibly the best Carolina victory at Cameron in history. We will have to marinate that idea for some time, but it was gigantic.
So what, Big Red Car?
So, what, dear reader is this — in the game of life there are times that you make an extraordinary effort and the outcome will surprise even you. The gods are fickle and they will support the cheeky competitor who believes in himself even when they are rebelling against the king or #4 Duke and Coach K.
This is why we play the game.
