Duke basketball

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.

Given the buildup and presumptive nature of a Duke win by plenty, it's easily arguable this is the most gratifying — if not amusing — win for UNC fans over Duke ever. This has kind of been a surreal few days, and a big part of it occurred, I think, because we had already won (the ACC regular-season title). You don't feel the pressure of we have to win that game." Perhaps that will bring Duke the same kind of urgency and focus that North Carolina deployed in Saturday night, when the best rivalry in American sports twisted the plot yet again. It was reduced to a bit player in the buildup to Saturday, the game itself feeling secondary to the Krzyzewski farewell. The player Krzyzewski said was the best in the ACC this season went 10 for 11 from the floor. It turned out to be the first time this season North Carolina would win a game despite losing at the half. Even Davis was obliged to pop his head out and acknowledge the crowd. UNC — which never led in its Feb. 5 loss to Duke — opened the game with a 9-2 lead. "I was worried about a few things going into the game," Krzyzewski said. "And so then you go on the court and then you feel it. Syracuse. Davis walked into the locker room and told the team there was no time to celebrate. He wanted everyone to see that's the guy who they needed to see in that moment.

Mike Krzyzewski walked Cameron Indoor Stadium's sideline for the last time as Duke's maestro. There was also a basketball game, which Duke lost.

“I’m glad this is over,” Krzyzewski, who capped his first regular season at Cameron by upsetting North Carolina in overtime, mused after the night’s ceremony. This weekend, at least, proved again that noise and pageantry will take any team and any coach only so far, especially when a Tobacco Road rival is in town. One young man, who was impossible to see through the thicket of signs and outstretched arms and stuffed animals, passed behind press row and apologetically choked out a question as basic as it was daunting: “My God, how am I going to get through here?” No Duke eyes — and the ones in attendance included people with surnames you will remember, like Brand, Hill, Laettner and Redick — ever seemed terribly far from him, though. We use cookies and similar methods to recognize visitors and remember their preferences. Saturday was the appointed time for the faithful to holler or croak whatever they could through the din. Everyone knew the outcome, though. And quiet sometimes started to encroach late. What came was an expulsion of emotions in surround sound, passions built up over 42 seasons that yielded some of the finest college basketball ever seen. The fans were already officiating. That is the only way to appreciate what happened. To celebrate each national championship cited in a pregame video.