By Andy Katz
FOX Sports College Basketball Analyst
DURHAM, N.C. — Mike Krzyzewski never wanted this season to be about him.
He didn’t want to cheat his final team — the 42nd of his career at Duke — of having his full attention and making their own moments.
On Saturday, the final game for Coach K at Cameron Indoor Stadium was planned and executed to be a celebration of his legendary career.
And it was.
It was a festive atmosphere akin to a major fall tailgate, with grad students, undergrads, boosters, alumni and more than 90 former players on hand to form a line of brotherhood as Coach K walked onto the court one final time.
Mike Krzyzewski takes the floor at Cameron Indoor for the last time in front of the Duke faithful
The problem for this Duke team was that North Carolina was not going to play along.
The Duke-Carolina rivalry almost never disappoints, and the last regular-season meeting of 2022 might never be forgotten. North Carolina won 94-81, stunning Duke, Coach K, his family, the former players, celebrities from Adam Silver to Jerry Seinfeld and millions watching at home.
The Tar Heels, who were humbled by Duke last month 87-67, won the game they needed to in order to silence any bracketologist and men’s basketball committee member who might have questioned their NCAA Tournament status.
Sure, this was only the Tar Heels’ second Quad 1 win among nine chances, but this win should put North Carolina comfortably in the field. Yes, they have 15 ACC wins, but the fact that there were so few Quad 1 opportunities shows the ACC was not a normal ACC with plenty of chances.
The Tar Heels have experience and an effective high-low tandem in Oklahoma transfer Brady Manek (20 points and 11 boards) and junior Armando Bacot (23 points and seven rebounds). They had four players top the 20-point mark on Saturday, as sophomore RJ Davis added 21 points, while Caleb Love poured in 22. Senior Leaky Black was steady throughout, dishing out three assists and not committing a turnover.
The Tar Heels trailed by two at the half and outscored the lottery-filled starting lineup of Duke by 15 in the second half.
The Blue Devils went only seven deep, with super freshman Paolo Banchero delivering a team-best 23 points and big man Mark Williams finishing with 16 points and 13 boards. But Duke couldn’t convert late when it mattered most. The Blue Devils didn’t rotate well and were simply knocked back by the Tar Heels’ resurgence.
Carolina coach Hubert Davis had the Tar Heels ready for this game and the moment.
"All week, we just talked about our competitive fight," Davis said in the postgame press conference, as reported by the Associated Press. "That we had to do three things: We had to plant our feet, we had to stand our ground, and we had to fight ... I just felt like, as the game went on, we started to just gain more and more confidence."
But there was nothing normal about this game. Basketball royalty from the Duke program was in attendance, from Grant Hill to Shane Battier to Christian Laettner to Carlos Boozer to Jay Williams to Danny Ferry, and players from beginning to end and in between.
Despite the outcome, no one left once the game was finished. Sure, some programs do senior night after the game, even following a loss (see Indiana). But this was something that hadn’t been seen before with pronouncements from Duke’s hierarchy. There were symbolic gifts, from a bench on campus to a framed painting, to a scholarship for five student-athletes at Duke to represent the five-member Krzyzewski family of his wife, Mickie, and daughters, Debbie Savarino, Lindy Frasher and Jamie Spatola.
Coach K thanked them for being by his side, supporting him and making sure that everyone in the crowd knew how much this program has been about his family as much as it has been about him and his players.
"I was able to jump in the deep end with our program," he told the crowd. "Because my family allowed it. They knew I loved it. And I love them. I never heard my [three] daughters say, 'you love basketball more than me.' Because it's not true. I love my family more than basketball ... but my family loves basketball."
Emotions flowed for everyone at Cameron Indoor Stadium, including Coach K, who choked up and shed a few tears. He said after that he was glad it was over, but he reminded everyone in attendance that the season isn't over.
This team, his final one, won the ACC regular-season title for the first time since 2010. He was disappointed in the performance and outcome Saturday, but he made it clear that they will learn from it and be better for it in the days and weeks ahead.
Duke won’t be a No. 1 seed after this loss, but solidifying a No. 2 is still more than doable. And reaching another Final Four and challenging for a sixth national title is plausible. The Blue Devils won’t be the favorites, but they are certainly contenders.
In the 30-plus years I’ve covered this sport, this was one of the most anticipated college basketball events in the regular season. The hype was real and deserved. The game could have had more dramatics. But the overall emotion didn’t disappoint.
Coach K deserved every bit of the adulation, the attention and the send-off. An era is over at Duke University. Jon Scheyer will be the new head coach, whenever the Blue Devils’ postseason ends.
We won’t see another coach win 1,196 games — or however many Coach K ends up with — anytime soon. We just won’t. So enjoy what we witnessed Saturday night. Whether you love or hate Duke, Coach K made this program special. You were in the presence of greatness every time his team stepped on the court.
There could be one final chapter to write in this postseason. We shall see if this loss was the latest motivational tool to catapult the Blue Devils to one more Coach K championship run.
Andy Katz is a longtime college basketball writer, analyst and host. He can be seen on FOX Sports and Big Ten Network platforms, as well as March Madness and NCAA.com, and he hosts the podcast "March Madness 365." Katz worked at ESPN for nearly two decades and, prior to that, in newspapers for nine years.
