Durham, North Carolina. Here’s what can happen when you’re trying to plan a retirement ceremony with 9,000 of your closest friends, with a sly caveat, including a basketball game.
It was supposed to be Mike Krzyzewski’s night. Duke gave one of the biggest send-offs college sports have ever seen. It was nostalgic. This has been carefully considered. It was a typical duke. This means that many people loved him and many people hated him. Which means it’s well done. All of this created the biggest build-up, possibly ever, to a regular season college basketball game.
And then the greatest rivalry in American sports added to his legend one of the most surprising defeats in his entire 102-year history.
Unranked, Top Bubble Team NC 94, No. 4 Duke 81. Stunning Saturday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski’s farewell in the home final was officially sabotaged by Hubert Davies’ Tar Heels upsets. By the way, who were these guys? This is not the group that lost 20 at home against Duke a month ago. This team scored 67 points and was extremely embarrassed. The Saturday night team averaged 1.25 points per possession and looked like one of the top 10 teams in the country. North Carolina, an 11.5-point underdog, didn’t just beat Duke, they ran away with the game and appropriately ruined Krzyzewski’s farewell speech.
There are rarely nights when these two immortal enemies get together, and it is believed that one of the teams defeats the other. Foolishly, most of us thought that.
UNC handed a K and an L and drew a W so sweetly that it immediately placed first on the list of the Tar Heels’ greatest regular season wins in the proud program’s 100+ year history.
That’s your rivalry.
“I hate using the Navy term,” said Krzyzewski, a West Point graduate. “But keep the ship afloat. Our ship will go down today, no matter what.”
The celebration after the Cameron game was to be a celebration of an unprecedented career. And they were, but this holiday was accompanied by awkwardness. After the defeat, the Duke players came out sullen and ended up on the bench, where UNC had been sitting moments before. Krzhizhevsky reappeared with some understandable disappointment on his face. He held the hand of his beloved wife, Miki, and then made a quick off-script comment as he approached the microphone set up in the central courtyard alone.
“It is not included in the program,” he said. “This is my impromptu. I regret today.”
The place wanted to cheer despite the loss. Krzhizhevsky did not have this.
“Everyone shut up,” he said. “Let me say that this is unacceptable. Today was unacceptable, but the season was very acceptable. And I’ll tell you that the season is not over yet.”
Then came the applause. He wanted everyone to see that this was the guy they needed to see at the moment. They saw that too most of the night, because Duke was on the heels of North Carolina and Krzyzewski was old-fashioned in his anger and fire. He saddled the judges and did not at all look like a man ready to retire from the competition. It was Carolina, damn it. After that, he had nothing to say other than complimenting the players and Davis’ program.
“Their program, like ours, is built on a lot of pride, and today they showed it by coming here,” Krzyszewski said.
With Dirk Nowitzki, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Silver, Kyler Murray and many other luminaries in the building, it’s fair to assume that Cameron’s indoor stadium has never been so packed. The official capacity is 9,314 people, but most likely more got into the arena. Cameron Indore got hot, stayed hot, and it added density to an environment that was already heavy once the Cameron Madmen lined up in the rickety stands.
Across from them were respected alumni of Duke’s basketball team—nearly 100 people, almost half of Krzyzewski’s former players—filled the bleachers a few rows behind Duke’s bench, and most of them stood for the entire game.
“It was emotional, but before the game you think and your eyes get a little watery and then you’re like, ‘Wow, I can’t do this,’” Krzyszewski said. “So, when you step on the court, you feel it. In fact, when all the players were there, it was just wow, it was not as emotional as it was great.
Christian Lettner, Grant Hill, Jay Williams, JJ Redick, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Steve Wojciechowski and almost 90 of their brothers in the Brotherhood stood behind Duke’s bench all game. It was like the varsity team was watching an early SP council. These guys wanted Carolina to crunch. They didn’t want any drama. Playing UNC-Duke without theatrics, without tension. Such a game that they rarely allowed themselves.
Yes, right.
“The last few days have been really good and it’s been like celebrating our program and since I stop training it’s kind of a celebration of me, which I don’t like,” Krzyzewski said. “So basically we’ve been living in a penthouse for the last few days with room service and everyone is saying nice things and we didn’t play hungry today.”
North Carolina was focused on the laser, and it started minutes after the Tar Heels’ overtime win on Monday against Syracuse. Davis entered the locker room and told the team that there was no time to celebrate. They had less than five days to prepare for the most important game of the season. Duke was waiting. It’s time to get to work and focus. Davis played the situation perfectly. North Carolina has been effectively preparing and training in obscurity all week. In the run-up to Saturday’s game, he became a minor player, and the game itself seemed minor compared to the farewell to Krzyzewski.
Just what North Carolina wanted. Later, Krzhizhevsky admitted that he also felt the approach of this event.
“There were a few things that bothered me about the game,” Krzyzewski said. “One: they.”
The intrigue appeared immediately. UNC, who never lost to Duke on February 5, started the game with a 9-2 lead. Duke didn’t take the lead until the 11:07 mark. The Hills went 14-0 through Duke’s first-half streak, stabilizing enough to cut the halftime deficit to two.
It turned out that North Carolina won the game for the first time this season despite losing in the half. It was also historic in that regard: never before had UNC played a game in which four Tar Heels scored at least 20 points. On Saturday it happened: Armando Backot 23, Caleb Love 22, RJ Davis 21 and Brady Manek 20.
Bucket was great. The player whom Krzyzewski called the best in the ACC this season scored 10 of 11 from the floor. He also had a big tardiness, which prevented the Duke from keeping him around.
Saturday also marked North Carolina’s first win as an unranked team against the top five Blue Devils in Cameron since 1990.
“It’s a really good team and they played a lot better than we did today,” Krzyszewski said.
It was Davis’ 31st game as North Carolina coach. It was by far his best. It was North Carolina’s most impressive performance of the season, without second place. Surprisingly, the whole second half, Davis rode on his iron five. Backot, Manek, Love, Davis and Black were never replaced. At the end of the game, when you might have suspected another Duke push, it was David and Manek again and again instead. Trevor Keels’ three-pointer from a corner cut North Carolina’s lead to 79-74 with 2:58 left. This is the last time Duke hopes to win. Manek fired a three-pointer from the opposite corner, extending the lead to eight and keeping Duke at bay.
UNC beat Duke 21–10 in the final match at 5:12. Duke missed seven of his last 10 shots. Duke outscored North Carolina with 58.1% to 38.9% on shooting in the first half. The second 20 minutes changed the scenario: UNC scored 59.4%; Duke faded with 42.1% of hits. Krzhizhevsky’s moment was fading away. Duke’s shots stopped falling and all of Cameron’s faces began to fall, in stark contrast to the approximately 100 UNC fans crammed behind the Tar Heels bench, who began to crackle with joy. Their time at this gothic basketball cathedral outnumbered over 9,000. It really had to happen.
After the game, that powerful dressing room scene. Davis and Backot hug for over a minute. Manek is also in tears.
“He’s had a tough time in Oklahoma and it’s been a huge opportunity for him to experience that side of it,” UNC aide Brad Frederick told CBS Sports.
Even better for UNC, this win is also critical to her NCAA Tournament resume. It’s hard to see how the NCAA tournament selection committee could keep this team off the field, no matter what happens in the ACC tournament. This command must be inside.
When time was up, the Carolina players gathered on the court in blissful celebration. The madmen were stunned. Love waved them goodbye before curling up in line for handshakes. (And then we got a little extra savory rivalry like Duke’s aide Chris Carrawell didn’t shake hands with Davislighting up message boards and social media in the process.)
It was Krzyzewski day, then North Carolina night. A bus from North Carolina pulled up to Franklin Street and stopped at a police barricade around 9:30 p.m. Thousands of people turned out to celebrate. The players came out and joined Karolina’s students. They have earned it. Even Davis was forced to stick his head out and acknowledge the crowd. He had a good year and the fans didn’t always treat him that way. Perhaps this night will change the situation for the better.
Now the ACC tournament awaits. Krzyzewski admitted that he had been “a little tired” over the last three or four days.
“I’m glad it’s over,” he said. “Let’s just practice and see what the hell is going on in the tournament. Those were some surreal days and I think a lot of it was because we already won (ACC regular season title). I don’t feel pressure that we have to win this game.”
We might conclude that it would be best for Duke to lose this game. The disappointment of this defeat will probably never go away (if there was one game in the regular season that could not be lost, it is this one), but the shock of it will soon pass. Perhaps this will draw Duke to the same urgency and focus that North Carolina did on Saturday night, when the best rivalry in American sports once again twisted the plot.
Given the escalation and perceived nature of Duke’s victory by a wide margin, it’s easy to argue that this is the most satisfying – if not fun – UNC fan victory over Duke ever. You have one chance to ruin Coach K’s last home game. Carolina passed the test. Its foundation will keep it over faithful to the Duke forever. This is so bittersweet for the Duke, but it makes his rivalry huge. In Carolina, this will be talked about forever, regardless of their favorite shade of blue.