NEW ORLEANS — North Carolina versus Duke has long been one of college basketball’s premier rivalries, the teams’ histories so rich and their fans so fervently invested that even their regular-season meetings carry championship atmospheres.
It’s a rivalry so contentious that North Carolina joyously played spoiler in Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game as the pilot of this storied Duke program, soundly defeating the Blue Devils in their regular-season finale.
And, as if it had been scripted, North Carolina put a period on Krzyzewski’s college coaching career, hanging on after a dizzying multitude of lead changes to defeat Duke, 81-77, and denying Krzyzewski the chance to hoist championship hardware one last time on his way out of the sport.