This Just In – The North Carolina Tar Heels will travel eight miles on Saturday from Chapel Hill to meet their great rival the University of New Jersey at Durham. You can keep your Super Bowl. After last season’s spectacular finish, this re-match is the ultimate in sports.
Who can forget the epic matchup when Tyler Hansborough took an elbow to the face (it was a PUNCH) and came up bleeding? The numerous overtimes, the students chanting and the occasional bench-clearing dispute over … whatever.
Last season, his last home game was scheduled as a GOAT coronation for Coach K. It was a star-studded event, impressive by any measure. The perfect set-up: Coach K would be retiring after a Hall of Fame career and he’d be facing Carolina’s first year coach, Hubert Davis … at Cameron, where Mike Krzyzewski controls the temperature and runs the game his way.
Hollywood wouldn’t create a more obvious moment of glory and tribute for the outgoing greatest-in-Duke-history coach. It was a lock.
But nobody told Davis this plan or if they did, he responded (respectfully) with … “nah.”
No, Davis took the approach with which (in the hypothetical) Krzyzewski would agree – play the game. Play hard, play fair, do everything you can to win.
In the cleanest Duke-Carolina game I’ve seen in more than 40 years of never missing one (on TV), with no controversial calls, shockingly few fouls, no fisticuffs, the very close game was hard-fought, exciting and ended with a win for the visiting team and its first-year coach.
Coming to the floor to listen to the videos and speeches paying tribute to his career, Coach K helped himself to the microphone and apologized, simply because UNC won the game. This was “unacceptable” he said.
I happen to be a big fan of apologizing. It can hold great power when done right because it can show the kind of humility and leadership that a person who is secure in their values can and should display when they’ve done something wrong.
There was no need for K’s apology. There was no basis for it. The suggestion that only one outcome of a fair and well-played game is acceptable is a bad message in college sports. There’s a reason to play the game. In a rivalry at this level, all rankings and win-loss records disappear. It’s all on the court that night for both teams.
Name any sport and its greatest rivals. It’s all that and more because of Chapel Hill and Durham’s close proximity. We crank about each other, we change our email signatures for a week, then our teams play the game.
On Saturday evening, the teams will meet again for the first time since Carolina’s win in the Final Four last spring. The Heels will be surrounded by Duke famous Cameron Crazies. I’m happy to acknowledge-Duke’s fans are second to none. Glorious.
Go Heels. Beat Dook!
(Photo via Associated Press/Chris Seward.)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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