Who's Blue?

The greatest rivalry in college basketball history met in a game for the ages the other night. While I am usually agnostic when it comes to sports – or at least rooting for a particular team – this time our home was a House Divided as Duke and UNC faced off in the NCAA Final Four. 

This game was epic for so many reasons. The two schools are less than 15 miles apart and have been rivals for decades. The each had the same number of tournament wins heading into the game. Each had served the other a humiliating loss on the other’s home court during the regular season. The teams had never met in Tournament play before. One coach was in his first year as the Head Coach. The other coach, the winningest coach in men’s college basketball, was in his last year. The winner would go on to the Final Game and the loser would go back to North Carolina. 

Lisa is a Duke fan. She was even more of Duke fan this year because Coach Krzyzewski was retiring. She even had the audacity to say that UNC should have let Duke win in Coach K’s last home game in Cameron Stadium just because it would make everyone feel good.  I am a UNC fan if only because Samantha went there and it gives Lisa a rival in the household.  By the way, the boys are also UNC fans (for now).  While I do not advocate nor support the “I Hate” crowd, I do appreciate the true essence of the rivalry.  One is a private school while the other is a large public school. They are located literally one town over from each other. Incredible games have been played between them over the past decades. As rivalries go, this is one of the biggest, ranking up there with the New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox, or Dallas Cowboys versus Washington. And as a side note, Lisa and I have been fortunate enough to attend games at both the Smith Center and Cameron Stadium.     

All day on Saturday, I tried to get Lisa to go out during the game and watch the game somewhere. She made it clear that the only way she was watching the game was at home, on the couch, with no distractions.  And that’s how we did it. 

While it might not have been the greatest game ever played it certainly was a great game.  Eighteen lead changes, zero foul outs, exceptional play by both teams.  The outcome was never certain until about the last minute of play when UNC hit a three pointer that nothing short of a miracle was required for Duke to come back.  I think one of the commentators summed it up best that neither team lost that game, they just ran out of time. No one persons action or inaction contributed to a loss and each team could say that they left it all on the court.

Sometime, eleven months from now, March Madness will hit our house again. However, nothing will compare to that game the other night. 

We woke up on Sunday and took Lucie for a walk.  The sky was a beautiful shade of Carolina Blue. I didn't mention it to Lisa.