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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Andy Nesbitt

What a storybook ending for Duke and all of the Duke haters

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Imagine if you were sitting in a writers room in Hollywood and your mission was to come up with an idea for how Mike Krzyzewski’s final season as head coach of the Duke Blue Devils would go.

Sure, that would be a weird project to work on, but let’s just go with it. It’s a Monday morning, some weird stuff happened last night at the Oscars and I just want to get a bit goofy here.

OK, so you’re in that room and you raise your hand and you say this – how about Coach K loses his final home game of his career to his bitter rival North Carolina… but then gets to face those same Tar Heels in the Final Four with a trip to the championship game on the line?

Chances are you’d be laughed out of the room because something like that happening seems way to forced and nobody would buy it and everyone would be mad at you for being so dumb for even bringing it up. Duke and UNC have never even faced each other in the NCAA tournament and now you think they should do that in the Final Four? You’re nuts!

But guess what…. it’s really happening! Duke and North Carolina will face off next Saturday night in New Orleans and it’s just the most perfect situation for the Blue Devils and it’s also a perfect situation for all the people who hate the Blue Devils.

Duke fans would like nothing more than to see their beloved coach get some revenge over North Carolina for what the Tar Heels did earlier this month in Coach K’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke fans love any win over UNC but a win over UNC in the Final Four would make them feel really happy for a very long time.

Duke haters, meanwhile, would love nothing more than to see Coach K suffer another crushing defeat against his biggest rival, a defeat that would be the final moment of his career and something that would stick with him for the rest of time. I mean, Twitter will be a crazy place if UNC is able to beat Duke.

Coach K’s team advanced to the Final Four with a win over Arkansas on Saturday night. Following the victory he appeared to blush when one of his players called him the GOAT during a postgame interview. It was a sweet moment that capped off a memorable night for Coach K and his guys.

Now they get to move on to arguably the biggest game of Krzyzewski’s career (I know he’s been in and won a bunch of national title games but the stakes for this one are even bigger than that since this could be his last game) and it just so happens to be against UNC.

You couldn’t come up with a more perfect ending if you tried.

Though Duke fans hope the real ending will be pushed to next Monday night.

Quick hits: Will Smith slaps Chris Rock at the Oscars… Scottie Scheffler’s sweet moment with his dad after win… Pitbull’s great response to a photo with Antonio Brown… And more. 

Associated Press

– The Oscars are generally an unwatchable awards show but that wasn’t the case last night when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on live TV over a joke.

– Scottie Scheffler’s dad said the sweetest thing to him after his victory at the WGC Match Play Championship.

– Pitbull had a great response after someone who kind of looked like him got a photo with Antonio Brown, who thought he was taking a photo with Pitbull.

– Peyton Manning had jokes about the retirement gifts he gave Tom Brady… and how he wants them back.

– You need to sign up for our new daily NBA newsletter Layup Lines. It gets you ready every afternoon for the big games coming up at night and more. Signing up for it is quick and easy to do right here. You’re going to want this in your basketball lives.

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