Mike Krzyzewski is the greatest coach in college basketball history, a record-book fixture with rings on his fingers and fingerprints all over the game, a revered figure who’s won more games than anybody else in the sport — and on Saturday night in New Orleans, the North Carolina Tar Heels cared about none of that.
They cared not for the hype around a Final Four matchup for the ages, nor for the spotlights that illuminated it, nor the deafening noise that greeted it.
They beat their archrival, Duke, 81-77, and sent Coach K into retirement.
They had no regard for the storybook ending. And they, not the Blue Devils, will play Kansas for a national title on Monday night.
Caleb Love’s massive 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining propelled the Tar Heels over the finish line, and to victory. Love finished with 28 points, including two late free throws to put Carolina up four, and put its lead out of reach.
At the final buzzer, Krzyzewski walked stoically down the sideline, and shook the hand of first-year UNC coach Hubert Davis. Minutes later, with his face unmoved, and players crying behind him, he walked down a Superdome tunnel hand-in-hand with his wife.
Krzyzewski had surely dreamed of walking off into a proverbial sunset, his fingers awaiting another ring, championship tears in his eyes. Instead, he’ll step away into a dark New Orleans night, a sixth title two steps away but now unreachable.
He’ll leave behind an unrivaled legacy, one defined by 1,202 wins and hundreds of Duke basketball graduates, some of whom have become NBA All-Stars, many of whom speak glowingly about his impact on their lives.
But on this night, as on March 5, his chief rival sent him home with sourness prickling his face.
And this time, that chief rival is 40 more minutes from its own national title.