Chansky’s Notebook: The Day After

Carolina basketball fans to any degree know of the day after.

If you’re old enough to drink, you’ve had at least three of them.

There was the euphoria of 2005, 2009 and 2017, when no matter how bad things were in the world, at school or in your job the day after felt perfect. You could not think of anything but Roy Williams’ first national championship, Tyler Hansbrough’s last glorious game, and the Redeem Team making up for how you felt just one year before.

If you are old enough to take social security, there were three more of those days after under the warm Carolina blue sky, no matter the real weather.

There was 1957, when the undefeated Tar Heels won UNC’s first NCAA title, 1982, when Dean Smith finally won his first and 1993, when Smith won what would be his last.

Those were days after to greet the team at RDU, Kenan Stadium and Franklin Street, crowds swelling each year into what has become one of the coolest victory party traditions for any college championship team.

Of course, if your school has been to the most Final Fours there are 14 other days after: nights you went to bed thinking the kids played hard and it was only a game, then next morning you woke with a hole in the pit of your stomach.

The worst for me was 1977. With the prospect of having to beat Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton gone, we thought Smith would finally get to cut down the last strip of net as long as his players had a chance to do so before him.

Or it was 1981 when a referee took James Worthy out of the game early in the second half, or 1991 when a referee ejected Smith late in the game, or ’95, ’97 and ’98 when cavernous dome stadiums turned off some of the best 3-point shooters in UNC history.

Into the 21st Century, there was 2000 and Bill Guthridge’s second Final Four in three years, 2008 when Kansas began its strange domination of Carolina in the Big Dance and 2016 and the gut punch from Kris Jenkins and Villanova.

Tuesday morning was another of those days after, with a couple of nice caveats.

A fourth straight loss to Dean Smith’s alma mater came only 48 hours after the Tar Heels defeated Duke in the Saturday semifinals and sent Coach K into retirement and one month after they ruined his all-about-me Senior Night — both historic results that will live on forever.

And Hubert Davis, in one season identifying himself as a coach unlike any other we’ve had, has a chance to give us more days after we will celebrate for many years after that.

Featured image via Todd Melet

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