North Carolina spoiled Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s home farewell bid at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night as the Tar Heels upset the No. 4 Blue Devils, 94–81.
But Sunday’s game isn’t the most recent matchup that’s turning some heads. What gained attention on Monday is the two programs' previous contest in Chapel Hill in February.
North Carolina elected not to honor Coach K in his final game at the “Dean Dome,” spurning efforts made by other rival schools in the ACC that elected to do so in Coach K’s final season with the Blue Devils. The lack of gesture from North Carolina reportedly upset some associated with the Duke basketball program.
“Duke entered its toughest stretch of the season, four games in eight days, five in 12. Those became coded mantras—4-in-8, 5-in 12—and the whole program hunkered in battle mode, like a warship that sounds general quarters and turns on red lights,” ESPN’s Wright Thompson wrote. “Duke won that first game against Carolina—folks inside the program bristled that the Tar Heels didn’t honor Krzyzewski during the game—and then turned around and lost to Virginia, a well-coached team that gives Duke fits.”
While it may be a little surprising that Coach K was not honored in Chapel Hill, it’s understandable how the heated rivalry between the two schools made UNC hesitant to honor him.
If those associated with the Duke program are as upset about the lack of gesture by North Carolina as the piece suggests, it’s likely that they could only be even madder now as the Tar Heels spoiled Coach K’s final home game on Saturday.
