NEW ORLEANS– Sometimes a year- long victory tour doesn’t end in a ticker tape celebration.
The University of North Carolina rained on Mike Krzyzewski’s parade, not once, but twice on his way to retirement. The Tar Heels defeated Duke, 94-81, in coach KI’s final regular season game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, then they ended his storied career with a 81-77 victory in the NCAA Tournament semi-finals Saturday night at the Superdome. After the obligatory hand- shake with North Carolina coach Hubert Davis, Krzyzewski made the slow sad walk off the elevated stage with his wife Mickie after a gut wrenching loss.
For Krzyzewski’s part, he was gracious in an emotional post- game press conference.
“It’s not about me, especially right now,” he said. “As a coach, I’m just concerned about these guys. I mean, they’ve already crying on the court. And I mean that’s the only thing you can think about. And then going to the locker room. I’ve said my entire career– and when I knew what the hell I was doing– that I wanted my seasons to end where my team was either crying tears of joy or tears of sorrow because then you knew they gave everything.
“And I had a locker room filled with guys who were crying. And it’s a beautiful sight. It’s not the sight that I would want. I’d want the other. But it’s a sight I really respect and makes me understand how good this group was.
And that’s what I’m concerned– I don’t want any of these guys to leave and say, I should have made that free throw. I should have made that one– we win and we lose together. And we’ve won 32 games and two championships together. That’s what I want them to realize.”
The 75-year- old Krzyzewski walks off the stage and into retirement with 1202 wins, 13 trips to the NCAA Final Four and five national championships.
He will generally be regarded as the greatest coach of college basketball’s modern era.
But he will almost have a hole in his resume and Carolina will have unexpected bragging rights over their neighborhood ACC rival.
This was classic Duke-North Carolina. The game delivered in epic style. There were 18 lead-changes and 12 ties, and the 158 meeting between these teams wasn’t decided until sophomore guard Caleb Love made a key three pointer and three late free throws in the final minute.
Carolina, an eighth seed that once looked like it was headed to the NIT in Davis’ first year as a head coach, now advances to play Kansas in search of a seventh national championship. Love, who led the Heels with 28 points and guard RJ Davis, who scored 18, will lead Carolina against the Jayhawks, who defeated Villanova, 81-65, earlier in the undercard.
“Dwelling on the two wins against Duke doesn’t help us against Kansas,” Hubert Davis said.
Love continued to be a difference maker for the Heels. He scored 27 points in the second half of a Sweet 16 win against UCLA. And he heated up again after a 0- for- 4 start against the Devils. “It means everything to me,” Love said after his critical three with 25 seconds to play gave Carolina a 78-74 lead. Love made three more free throws down the stretch, leaving Hubert Davis crying on the bench when the game ended.
“I felt like over the last two or three years, North Carolina wasn’t relevant,” Davis said. “North Carolina should never be irrelevant. It should be front and center,.with the spotlight on them.”
Freshman forward Paolo Banchero led the Devils with 20 points and freshman guard Trevor Keels had 19 while a third freshman AJ Giffin struggled with six. Banchero and Griffin are expected to declare for the NBA draft, the latest of Krzyzewski’s one and done players.
Carolina will face a Kansas team with size and skill. Powerful center David McCormick overwhelmed smaller Villanova with 25 points and 7 rebounds will likely be matched up against 6-9 Armondo Bacot, who finished with 11 points and 21 rebounds. Leaky Black, a 6-7 senior and Carolina’s best on the ball defender, will likely draw the assignment on Kansas’ All -American guard Oachi Abaji lit the Cats up for 21, most outside the three- point arc. Davis will have hope Bacot is healthy after he appeared to roll his ankle in the second half with 5:18 remaining but was able to return a minute later with limited effectiveness.
But Carolina is back, playing for glory for the first time since the 2017 title run and Duke is living with the agony of defeat.
“iWhen you’re in the arena, either you’re going to come out feeling great or feel agony, but you always feel great about being in the arena,” Krzyzewski said. “I was in the arena for a long time and these kids made my last time in the arena an amazing one.”
