It's the Tar Heels who played the spoiler on what was supposed to be a scripted send-off of a night for Coach K
This can happen when you try to plan a retirement ceremony with the tricky caveat of including a basketball game with 9,000 of your closest friends.
It was Mike Krzyzewski's night. Duke staged one of the grandest college games ever seen. It was nostalgic. It was wide. It was duke quintessentially. That is, a lot of people liked it and many people hated it. It means it was done perfectly. All this for a regular-season college basketball game, perhaps the biggest buildup ever.
And then the biggest rivalry in American sports added to its legend with another astonishing ups and downs in its 102-year history.
Unranked, bubble-team-supreme North Carolina 94, No. 4 Duke 81. Saturday Night Stunner at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Krzyzewski's home finale farewell was officially sabotaged by the troubled-minded Tar Heels of Hubert Davies. Well who were these people? Not the same group that was chipped at home 20 against Duke a month earlier. That team scored 67 and was absolutely embarrassed. Saturday night's squad averaged 1.25 points per possession and looked like the country's top-10 team. North Carolina, an 11.5-point underdog, not only defeated Duke, it fled the game and ruined Krzyzewski's recognition in proper fashion.
Rarely are there nights when these two immortal enemies come together and either team is considered heavy enough to defeat the other. Stupidly, most of us thought so.
UNC handed the K and L and snatched the W so sweet, it immediately rose to the top of the Tar Heels' biggest regular season win in the more than 100-year history of this proud program.
That's how you compete.
"Hate to use the word Navy," said Krzyzewski, a West Point grad. "But save one ship. Our ship was about to sink today, no matter what."
The post-game celebration in Cameroon was to be a celebration of a unique career. And they were, but that fate came with awkwardness. After the loss, the Duke players walked out, became depressed, and sat on the bench where UNC had been moments earlier. Krzyzewski reappeared with some understandable despair on his face. He held the hand of his beloved wife, Mickey, then leaned into a quick off-script commentary as they walked alone to the staged microphone on Center Court.
"It's not part of the program," he said. "It's by me all of a sudden. I'm sorry for this afternoon."
The place wanted to be happy despite the defeat. Krzyzewski didn't have it.
"Shut up everybody," he said. "All I have to say is, it's unacceptable. Today was unacceptable, but the season has been very acceptable. And let me tell you, the season isn't over."
Then came the cheers. He wanted everyone to see the person who needed to be seen in that moment. This is one he even saw at night, as Duke was on his heels in North Carolina and Krzyzewski was vintage in his rage and fire. He rode the referee and looked nothing like the man ready to walk away from the competition. It was Carolina, damn it. Afterwards, he had nothing but praise for Davis' players and paying program.
"His program, like ours, is built on great pride and he showed up here today," Krzyzewski said.
With Dirk Nowitzki, Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Silver, Kyler Murray and many other stalwarts in the building, it's fair to guess that Cameron Indoor Stadium was never full. The official capacity is 9,314, but it is more than likely to come to the arena. Cameron Indoor warmed up, stayed warm, and it added thickness to an environment that was already heavy as Cameron Crazy filed on Ricky's bleachers.
In contrast to him honored Duke basketball alumni—about 100 of them, about half of Krzyzewski's former players—packed the bleachers a few rows behind Duke benches, most of them standing for the entire game.
"It's been emotional but before the game you're thinking and you shed a little tear and then you say, 'Wow, I can't do this,'" Krzyzewski said. "And so you go on the court and then you feel it. Actually, when all the players were there, it was like, 'Wow, it wasn't as emotional as it was great.'
Christian Laettner, Grant Hill, Jay Williams, JJ Reddick, Shane Battier, Carlos Boozer, Steve Wojciechowski and his nearly 90 Brotherhood brother Duke stood behind the bench throughout the game. It was as if the varsity team was watching JV's opening tip. These guys wanted Carolina Crunching. They didn't want any drama. UNC-Duke game without tension, without theatrics. The kind of game he was rarely given.
Yes right
"The last few days have been really great and it's been like a celebration of our schedule and because I'm off coaching, it's kind of a celebration for me, which I don't like," Krzyzewski said. "So, basically we've been living in a penthouse for the past few days with room service and everyone saying nice things and we didn't play hungry today."
North Carolina was laser-focused, and it started within minutes of the Tar Heels' overtime win on Monday versus Syracuse. Davis went to the locker room and told the team that there was no time to celebrate. He had less than five days to prepare for the biggest match of the season. Duke was waiting. It was time to go to work and focus. Davis handled the situation well. North Carolina prepared effectively and practiced in obscurity throughout the week. In the build-up to Saturday's game it was reduced to a bit of a player, the game itself feeling secondary to Krzyzewski's departure.
Just what North Carolina wanted. Krzyzewski later admitted that he could feel it too.
"I was worried about some of the things going into the game," Krzyzewski said. "A: Them."
The intrigue came immediately. UNC - which never led the February 5 defeat to Duke - opened the game with a 9-2 lead. Duke did not take the lead until the 11:07 mark. The Heels overcame Duke's 14–0 run in the first half, and stabilized themselves enough to reduce the halftime deficit to two.
It was the first time this season that North Carolina would win a game despite losing in the half. In this case it was also historic: UNC had never played a game before in which the four Tar Heels scored at least 20 points. On Saturday, it happened: Armando Bacot 23, Caleb Love 22, RJ Davis 21 and Brady Manek 20.
Bacot was fantastic. The player Krzyzewski said was the best in the ACC this season, scoring 10 for 11 off the floor. He also had a big block of late that stopped the duke's bid to keep it close.
Saturday was also North Carolina's first win against an unranked team versus a top five-ranked Blue Devils team in Cameroon since 1990.
"They are a really good team and they played a lot better than they are today," Krzyzewski said.
It was Davis' 31st match as North Carolina coach. This was, by far, his best. It was North Carolina's most impressive performance of the season, without a close. Amazingly, Davis rode five of his irons throughout the second half. Bakot, Manek, Love, Davis and Black were never defeated. Late in the game, when you might have suspected another Duke push was coming, instead it was David and Manek over and over again. Trevor Kielce's 3-pointer with 2:58 remaining from the corner cut it into a 79-74 North Carolina lead. This is the last time the Duke will be expected to win. Manek answered with a 3-pointer from the opposite corner, putting the lead back to eight and Duke was put away.
UNC put Duke 21-10 on the final 5:12. Duke missed seven of his last 10 shots. Duke beat North Carolina 58.1% to 38.9% in the first half of the shoot. The second 20 minutes was a script-flip: UNC hit 59.4%; Duke withered with 42.1% shooting. Krzyzewski's moment was melting. Duke's shots stopped falling, and all of Cameron's faces twitched, squeezing behind a bench of tar heels for the probably-100 UNC fans, who began to giggle with joy. More than 9,000 people in this Gothic basketball cathedral, their time was coming. This was really going to happen.
This powerful scene in the locker room, after the game. Davis and Bacot hugged for more than a minute. Manek is also shedding tears.
UNC assistant Brad Frederick told CBS Sports, "He's had some tough times in Oklahoma, and it was huge for him to be able to experience this side."
Hubert Davis celebrating with his players postgame is everything 🙌 @UNC_Basketball pic.twitter.com/CmIX3xpOVp
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) March 6, 2022
Making matters even better for UNC, the win doubles as a key to its NCAA Tournament resume. It's hard to see how the NCAA tournament selection committee can keep this team off the field, no matter what happens in the ACC tournament. Must be on this team.
As the clock ran out, the Carolina players called on the court in joyous celebration. The mad were stunned. Luv bids them goodbye before coming back to the handshake line. (And then we got a little extra rivalry saltiness, as Duke assistant Chris Carravel didn't shake hands with Davis, lighting up message boards and social media in the process.)
It was Krzyzewski's day, then North Carolina's night. The North Carolina bus reached Franklin Street and stopped in front of police barricades around 9:30 p.m. Thousands of people were out in celebration. The players dropped out and joined the students of Carolina. He earned it. Even Davis was obliged to stick his head out and acknowledge the crowd. He had a good year and fans didn't always treat him that way. Maybe this night will change things for the better.
Now waiting for the ACC tournament. Krzyzewski admitted that over the past three or four days he had "been a little bit worse."
"I'm glad it's over," he said. "Let's just coach and see what happens in the tournament. It's been a surreal few days, and a big part of it happened, I think, because we already won (the ACC regular season title) You don't feel the pressure to win that game.
We learned that the best thing about Duke was to lose the game. The disappointment of this loss may never wash away (if there was one game in the regular season you couldn't lose, it was this one), but the blow to it will soon be over. Perhaps it will bring Duke the same kind of urgency and focus that North Carolina deployed on Saturday night, when the best-of-the-best rivalry in American sports twisted the plot again.
Given the construction and presumed nature of Duke's win, it is easily debatable whether it is the most gratifying – if not amusing – win over Duke for UNC fans. You get one chance to spoil Coach K's last home game. Carolina passed the exam. Its base would keep it loyal to the Duke forever. This is very bitter for the Duke, but it makes for a tremendous amount of rivalry. Down in Carolina, it'll be in the conversation forever, no matter what your favorite shade of blue is.