The University of North Carolina put a crimp into Duke’s farewell celebration for Mike Krzyzewski Saturday night. defeating their blue blood rival Duke, 94-81, at sold out Cameron Coliseum.
I had no interest in being there.
I covered the Duke-North Carolina game home and road for 18 straight years when I worked for the New York Daily News. I get that is the best rivalry in college sports.
But it didn’t need an over- the top celebration with all the bells and whistles with one entitled fan paying $22,000 for a ticket to witness his final home game om the middle of a Russian bloody invasion of Ukraine. No one has to validate Coach K. who has won just under 1200 career games and five national championships, is one of the great coaches in the history of team sports and should arguably placed on the top of any Mt. Rushmore of college basketball coaches.
The whole thing, with Krzyzewski looking down from his tower at Krzyzewski tent city in an ESPN video, was a bit too much.
There have been other great coaches like Dean Smith, John Wooden, Roy Williams, John Thompson Jr. and Bob Knight who simply walked away instead of turning their last season into a yearlong victory tour. Some did it in a more low key way so they would not upstage the players. There were no fireworks, no papal coronations.
Wooden told his team he was retiring in the locker room after a semi-final victory at the 1975 NCAA tournament. Smith, Thompson and Williams both announced in the off season . Knight left at mid-season.
I know, the 75-year- old Krzyzewski said he made his announcement a year early so as not to affect recruiting so he wouldn’t have to lie when the parents of prospects asked him how long he was going to coach on home visits. But his successor assistant John Scheyer, who spent the year as a coach in waiting. has done pretty well in that area, signing the No. 1 class in the country with three McDonald’s All Americans and three members of the Nike Hoop Summit team
The run up to this game seemed like three quarters ESPN media hype and pageantry and one day of game prep. the players certainly appeared washed out by the torrent of emotion and magnified attention. .
North Carolina, which lost to Duke by 20 at the Smith Center in February, dominated this game. They were better at every position, much to the disappointment of the fans who waved Mike Ktzyzewski paddles or the 96 former players. The Duke players seemed tight down the stretch, worn out by the experience.
After the final buzzer, Krzyzewski had to bite his lip and face the adoring, teary eyed crowd in a post game tribute that lasted a prolonged 20 minutes.
“I’m sorry about this afternoon,” he said. “It’s unacceptable Today was unacceptable.”
The season is not over. Duke still has the ACC tournament in Brooklyn and the NCAA tournament, where the Devils should be a 2 seed.
No one should ever forget what Krzyzewski gave to college basketball. But he seemed personally glad the regular season was over.
