UNC turned Duke’s ‘magical’ sendoff for Coach K sour. Blue Devils aim to reverse that
Four weeks ago, pride sat on one side of Duke’s emotional dichotomy, while helplessness overwhelmed it.
March 5. Cameron Indoor Stadium. Nearly 100 former Duke players in attendance, sitting behind the Blue Devils bench, most wearing white commemorative T-shirts conspicuously visible among the sea of blue.
They’d gathered to celebrate retiring coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game. They did that in a pregame, on-court gathering for a group photo.
But then they watched the current Blue Devils, who had whipped rival North Carolina by 20 points earlier at Chapel Hill, melt down in the second half to lose, 94-81.
“It was tough, man,” said Carlos Boozer, a Duke center from 1999-2002 before his 13-year NBA career. “I mean, I wanted to jump in my uniform and go help these kids out.”
Andre Dawkins, a Duke guard from 2009-14, concurred, saying, “We all did.”
Alas, the former stars — from Gene Banks of the early 80s to Christian Laettner and Grant Hill from the 1990s, to Jay Williams and JJ Redick in the 2000s, to Ryan Kelly and Grayson Allen of the past decade — were left helpless to watch the unfolding, rivalry-altering loss.
But now, with Duke and UNC playing the Final Four on Saturday night, the former players have hope once again that the March 5 loss won’t be the lasting stain on bragging rights.
“Nobody told North Carolina to read the script, follow this script,” former Duke center Shelden Williams said, laughing. “Like we had it laid out. You follow the script, and they wouldn’t listen to that. But I mean, obviously, I’ll trade that loss for Saturday’s win anytime so I’m fine with it.”
Loss sours Coach K’s moment
From all corners of the country, the former players returned to campus earlier this month. Though Krzyzewski knew they would be attending, they surprised him by forming a human tunnel to lead him to the court prior to the pregame photo. The 75-year-old coach was clearly emotional during the national anthem as he fought back tears.
“Everything was magical,” said Banks, a Duke forward from 1977-81 who played in the NBA and is now athletics director at Gaston College. “Everything was fantastic. All the things around the city and around campus, everything was perfect. Except for the loss.”
Yes, that loss, itself a stark contrast to Duke’s 87-67 win over UNC at the Smith Center on Feb. 5. At Cameron, Duke led by as many as seven points in the second half only to see the Tar Heels shred their defense and walk off the court with a double-digit win of their own.
Duke’s players left the court to the locker room before returning for the post-game celebration of Krzyzewski’s goodbye to Cameron.
They walked on to the court and, with Krzyzewski’s grandchildren now occupying the home bench, walked to the visiting bench to sit, reflect and watch.
Prior to his planned post-game farewell speech to the gathered crowd at Cameron, Krzyzewski grabbed the microphone for an impromptu opening statement, calling the performance “unacceptable” while reminding everyone that the season was not over.
On March 25, during a news conference in San Francisco the day before Duke beat Arkansas, 78-69, to win the West Regional and reach the Final Four, Krzyzewski clarified what he meant.
“When we lost at my whatever you want to call that day and I looked and I saw my team, I felt really bad for them,” Krzyzewski said. “I felt really bad that we lost. When I said unacceptable, it wasn’t that they were unacceptable. It was the result was unacceptable.”
Either way, he and the team later shared their feelings about it all as a way of moving on, they hoped, to bigger and better things in the NCAA tournament.
“I wanted to make sure that that was not misconstrued by them,” Krzyzewski said, “and so we’ve kind of — it’s part of growing together, growing up, and I take responsibility for that.”
Hearing those words from their coach in such a public setting that day wasn’t easy for the players, of course. But they don’t deny the criticism was warranted.
“We were upset for the most part and disappointed with the way we had played in that game,” Duke freshman Paolo Banchero said. “Just looking back on the film of that game, we as a team just feel like we didn’t show up how we should have.”
Later that night, the former players gathered with Krzyzewski, his family and other Duke dignitaries and administrators for a gala dinner.
At some point during the night, Shelden Williams and Shane Battier — two guys with their jerseys retired to Cameron’s rafters — were lamenting the loss. That’s when Battier pointed to the 2001 NCAA championship on his finger and told the story about how the 2000-01 team lost its final home game to Maryland before going on to win the NCAA tournament.
His point? This, too, can pass with bigger achievements.
‘This is remarkable’
At the time, the chances of Duke and UNC playing again were strong, but in the ACC tournament. The top-seeded Blue Devils and No. 3 seed UNC both made the semifinals in Brooklyn. But, after Duke beat Miami, 80-76, in the first semifinal on March 11, UNC lost, 72-59, to Virginia Tech in the following game at Barclays Center.
Though Duke was a No. 2 seed in the West and UNC a No. 8 seed in the East, they each won four NCAA tournament games over the past two weeks to reach the Final Four and set up the first NCAA tournament game in the rivalry’s storied history.
Both teams are playing their best basketball, with Duke having raised its level of play compared to its loss to UNC at Cameron.
“Thinking back to that game, obviously everybody was disappointed,” Banchero said. “Coach obviously was too. But I feel like we’re a different team and we have a much better group about us right now.”
Seeing a Final Four rematch is just fine with some of the former Duke players who endured that prideful, but painful, night in Durham four weeks ago. Even an ACC championship game win over the Tar Heels might not have eased that pain.
“To me, playing them in the ACC tournament wasn’t gonna do anything, if that makes sense,” Dawkins said. “That’s kind of a big deal losing to them in Cameron. I wasn’t sure there was a way to get that back. But I think a win in the Final Four could do that for sure.”
Said Boozer, “Now we get the match that we wanted. How cool is it to be in the Final Four?”
Once again, former Duke players are making their way to a Duke-UNC game. This time, it’s in New Orleans at the cavernous Superdome, where seven times as many people as Cameron Indoor holds can attend.
There’s either going to be a huge celebration or the ultimate double-down on a downer of a loss.
“Whoever loses, it’ll be the ultimate loss,” said Hill, who will help broadcast the Final Four on TBS this weekend. “It’s tough enough to lose in the Final Four semifinals, but to lose it to them, and I think both teams would say that, I think it will be the ultimate low.”
Still, just getting another shot at history, a chance to ease the sting of the March 5 loss, is special to Duke’s former star players.
“This is remarkable,” Banks said. “And you can say it was set up or whatever, but the players have to win, put themselves in that position. But this is for Duke and Carolina. This even puts more on the legacy of the rivalry, something like this to be NCAA. That never happened before.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2022 at 2:26 PM.