It’s possible my insides actually hurt worse the day after the 1998-99 Duke basketball team lost to Connecticut in the final minute of the national championship game — as a high school senior at the time, I convinced my mom to let me stay home from school that day so I could deal with my sadness.
However, my sulking all day today seemed to set a personal record for any day following a defeat of the Blue Devils. After No. 1 Duke’s 88-72 home loss to No. 8 UNC on Wednesday night, which included the injury to freshman Zion Williamson that I worried would keep him from ever again playing for head coach Mike Krzyzewski, I went straight to bed and didn’t get up for about 12 hours — most of the time trying to just lay there and not sleep so as not to have to relive nightmares of Tar Heels grinning and Zion slipping.