Why Duke Basketball is happy to turn the page after Saturday’s painful loss to North Carolina

DURHAM, NC – Mike Krzyzewski didn’t want it to end like this, but after Duke‘S 94-81 lose North Carolina In his final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, he seemed happy that it was done.

“It’s hard for me to believe this is over,” Krzyzewski told the crowd that would come – some spending $10,000 or more on a ticket – to say goodbye. “So I’ll just say the regular season is over.”

This season is long gone, and while Saturday is not the official finish, it is perhaps the end of his farewell tour, and for that, he is grateful.

Krzyzewski announced his retirement last June, a decision he said he made so he could have one final season to focus entirely on coaching – not recruiting, do not worry about the future, just one last time for the championship. But that plan never worked. The world of basketball isn’t simply about watching Krzyzewski, the most winning coach ever, go into the sunset. His career requires a dharma bridge.

And so, at each stop on this season’s schedule, the main story is Krzyzewski. At some stops, there were honors. At others, feelings reunite. In North Carolina, just a month ago, there was a consistent absence of fanfare, with only rival fans venting their fury on the enemy for one last time. Then, as an afterthought, they played basketball games, and in all but four, Duke won.

Then comes Saturday.

Blue Devils turned this around a month ago. It was a competitive game, of course, but they beat North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a claimed victory in a season in which Duke also beat Gonzaga and Kentucky. The match also did not have many problems in the rankings. The Blues, thanks to a seven-game winning streak, claimed the regular-season ACC title. No, Saturday was about this team writing its own chapter in Krzyzewski’s legacy, putting their coach in the right direction. Only, that didn’t happen.

“I would be lying if I said I didn’t know this day would come,” continued the star Paolo Banchero speak. “Everybody knows. It’s more than a normal game. It’s important. And it sucks that we lost.”

The funny thing is, Krzyzewski doesn’t seem to mind that much.

“I’m glad this is over,” Krzyzewski said. “Let’s just coach and see what happens in the tournament. It’s been a surreal few days.”

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In his final home game at Duke, Mike Krzyzewski stepped onto the pitch to a standing ovation from the former players he coached as well as the fans.

The whole ride is surreal – part documentary, part eulogy, part circus and, somewhere in the mix, basketball. After Saturday’s loss, before the post-game ceremony began, Krzyzewski apologized to the fans in attendance, which, in unison, refused to accept. They weren’t here to watch Duke win – not even against the obnoxious North Carolina. They were here for Krzyzewski, damn as a result.

This is uncharted territory at a place like Duke, for a trainer like Krzyzewski. Winning is always job No. 1. And maybe that’s what makes you feel so exhausted this season. There has been victory, but only in the context of how much it means to the larger story. And Saturday is the final curtain, the climax of the story that Krzyzewski began kicking off in June.

Banchero, like his coach, wanted to find some meaning in the loss. That is a lesson. That’s the driving force. It’s catharsis.

What it really is, however, is the ending the Duke has been waiting for – for better or for worse.

Of course, endings are followed by new beginnings, and that seemed to be the most important thing for Krzyzewski on Saturday. The same goes for his team.

His retirement story will continue to play out in the ACC and NCAA tournaments, but it will no longer be central. The camera will pan away from the coach, at least for a while, and focus on the team – a team that Krzyzewski truly believes is good enough to win them all.

Banchero noted that the worst moments of Duke’s season all came here, in Cameron, in front of the home fans, who turned out game by game to pay their respects during the countdown to coming. Saturday.

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Mike Krzyzewski sat down with Rece Davis to discuss his final home game at Duke.

No more house games, and that’s fine.

“On the way and everywhere else, we were hungry and we’re not going to compete in the NCAA here,” Banchero said. “We look forward to continuing on the path and making up for it.”

However, this is not an opportunity for redemption because it is an opportunity to turn the page, to look back, not the 42 years of Krzyzewski’s career before this final match.

Banchero is still one of the most dynamic giants in the land of fog. Wendell Moore Jr. still the veteran commanding the assault, the beating heart of the squad. Mark Williams, AJ Griffin, Jeremy Roach, Trevor Keels — they all seem to fit their roles exactly, as if this were the real story that Krzyzewski wanted to script for this season. And now, after a year of games it’s not just the final score, it’s the team that’s at the center of the stage.

That was the real ending that Krzyzewski wanted.

“I want this year to be a really good job as a coach, not a year of retirement and always being hungry,” he said. “I think I have, and I will. Until this is completed.”