Brownlow: Final Four meeting between UNC and Duke blurs beginnings, endings
Posted April 1, 2022 8:02 p.m. EDT
Mike Krzyzewski has not wanted to use the word 'last' most of this season.
But in New Orleans, you can't escape it.
'FINAL Four', banners everywhere remind fans gathering in the streets. "The road ends here", reads a huge sign in the Superdome entrance.
It's where seasons come to end. Careers, too, sometimes.
No matter what happens this weekend, Krzyzewski will coach his final game for Duke after 42 years.
And no matter what happens this weekend, Hubert Davis will be coaching in his first Final Four.
And every player on the court for Carolina or Duke will be in his first Final Four.
Former UNC head coach Roy Williams didn't have a year of lasts. The closest he came was kissing the Smith Center court after his final home game, a gesture that had meaning behind it he maybe didn't even know yet. Maybe he did. Either way, he didn't want to say goodbye yet.
A mere year ago today, Williams was out at Carolina and even though Krzyzewski hadn't followed yet, it was clear the beginning of the end of a lengthy era in the ACC and in the Triangle.
The weight of history has always been heavy upon the shoulders of Duke and Carolina basketball players. But they've been strong enough to rise up with the weight of it on them anyway. It's why they picked the schools that they did. These moments are not too big for them.
And history? They're used to it. They're as likely to be asked about how a random Final Four run or season or game in the 1990s was similar to the present than they are to be asked about the present.
Even if they aren't asked specifically, the comparisons always linger, ready to peek out from behind the curtain. But there are no previous examples, no past seasons to look back on now. How do you look up what Duke did when its legendary coach that built its program retired? That hasn't happened yet. It's about to. How do you find a precedent for what both of these teams face as they have to play against each other for the first time ever in the NCAA Tournament, two parts of one of the biggest rivalry in sports, with what's on the line? There IS. NO. PRECEDENT.
But the history? It's still there, an invisible burden that they carry with them always. The players took that burden up willingly when they chose which school they would attend to play college basketball, of course.
Not all of Duke's players knew how heavy their burden would be, even when they knew what lay ahead once Krzyzewski's decision and succession plan became final. But they've carried it willingly and without complaint all year, even as it has visibly worn on them at times.
Williams' retirement was striking not so much for the timing, which was somewhat unexpected, but also because of the nature of it. Williams is one of the most successful coaches of all time, and him admitting he felt he didn't have what it took anymore felt like the most human moment imaginable for a person who had accomplished things far beyond most humans.
Krzyzewski and Williams have always been different in that way. Krzyzewski's unsuccessful season a year ago with COVID and all kinds of other tumult swirling around the program feels like a decade ago now.
But you've seen the human side of Krzyzewski this year, too.
And the human in him is what has helped lead Duke here.
You can't do goodbyes over again. But they never go exactly the way that you planned.
North Carolina ruined his first chance to have a sweet goodbye at home. He has one more chance now.
But Duke didn't get here because it felt it had to win every game and a title to validate Krzyzewski's career, or to validate their season in general.
It got here because rather than carry the burden of Krzyzewski's goodbye, it decided goodbye was coming no matter what and all Duke could do is try its best to make it come as late as possible.
Strangely, Duke had to stare directly at the end of its season, study it, see what it would look like and decide it was not for them before it could keep going.
"I think (it's) everybody just understanding, like, this is it," Mark Williams said. "Michigan State, we were down five with five minutes left and we just huddled up and we were just like, 'we're going win this game.' Losing didn't cross anybody's mind. We're just going go out here and play hard and everything else will take care of itself.
"Most of us haven't played in the NCAA Tournament. But at the same time I think the games we played, we can definitely gain experience doing that."
Hubert Davis, making his first Final Four appearance as UNC's head coach, has been here before. As a player and as an assistant.
His team hasn't, though.
When his team walked out on the court for the first time at the Superdome, he told them to do one thing he usually asks them never to do — take their phones.
They seemed confused.
"Just do it," he told his team.
Following Davis' advice has worked well for the Tar Heels for the last month or so. So they did.
And their eyes got big and their mouths dropped open as they looked at the massive size of it stretching out before them, looking at the rows and rows of multicolored Mardi Gras-style seats.
"It was just like when my little kids came down for Christmas," Davis said, "They were just so filled with joy that they were geting a chance to be a part of this. And it was great. It was awesome."
"Is every seat going to be filled for our game?" Caleb Love asked Davis, seemingly in awe.
Davis told him yes.
Love asked him if people would watch the Tar Heels' open practice. Davis again said yes.
Love asked again if every seat would REALLY be filled for the game.
"Yes," Davis said he told his sophomore guard.
"Is that OK? Because I'm looking for you to play a lot of minutes. Are you OK here?"
Love told him yes, but it's a big moment. For all of them players, and on both teams.
Nearly a year ago today, Carolina was slightly removed from a blowout loss to Wisconsin, the first time a Roy Williams team ever lost in the first round. And it lost an 8-9 game. Lost it emphatically.
A few weeks later, Davis was experiencing another first. A job interview.
"Going through the process to decide who was going to be the next head coach, it was interesting," Davis said. "That was the first time in my life that I interviewed for a job."
ESPN chose Davis as an analyst. Williams chose Davis as an assistant, just as he'd advocated for Dean Smith to let Davis walk on to the team nearly 30 years earlier. "The strangest part was interviewing for a job and at 51 years old, you were doing something for the first time that you had never done before," Davis said.
The Carolina-Duke game to close out the regular season was a first for North Carolina, too. It was the first time in decades, and maybe ever, that they were a complete afterthought going into a Carolina-Duke game.
That didn't last long, of course. And as the Tar Heels wrapped up their second day of media, they'd probably answered questions from triple the number of media members that they'd faced even after the shocking win at Duke. Their press conference was in front of a crowd of fewer than 10, which is a crowd you'd see at most road games in another state, not down the road in Durham.
They've had the media hype this week. And so has Duke.
But the Blue Devils are used to getting a lot of questions about this being Mike Krzyzewski's final season.
That's not exactly how they choose to look at it, and understandably so.
"I mean, obviously, the added pressure comes on from everywhere now because it's always Coach K's last something. I think really we've been taking it as not only Coach K's last season, but this is our last season together as a group," Wendell Moore Jr. said.
"We haven't thought about this being coaches last season or our last time playing together. I'm enjoying every moment that we've had together."
Don't mistake that for a lack of urgency, though. They came to play for Krzyzewski in part because of their reverence for him. They want to send him out the right way.
"He's one of the most influential figures in my life. There has been times where I haven't believed in myself and he's been the only one believing in me," Moore said. "So if it wasn't for a guy like that, I wouldn't be the position I am today. To be able to send him out the right way, that's what we all want to do."
It's relatable to want something too much, though. And Duke has dealt with that all year.
"Sometimes you want it too much and you kind of go crazy thinking of it, get a little nervous, things like that," Moore said. "But all the guys been playing so loosely and playing so confident. Everybody's playing with that chip on their shoulder, which has allowed us to get some of these big game wins."
Krzyzewski has deftly avoided addressing most of the talk about 'last' all year. But even he slips up sometimes.
And he sees it. It's hard not to. Regardless of what happens, the longest his season can go on will be Monday night. There are 48 hours left. He can see the end.
Before, he didn't know where and when it would come. Now, no matter how or when it comes, it's much more clear.
When it came time for Krzyzewski's turn at the media podium on the Blue Devils' second day of media on Friday afternoon, Krzyzewski stopped after a quick answer to an unrelated question.
He would go on a lengthy explanation of his issues with the NCAA that he started with yesterday, but that's not important.
He sees the end.
"One thing, before answering anything," Krzyzewski said. "I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to talk to all of you again."
Krzyzewski saw the end a few weeks ago in Greenville, just as Mark Williams did. Williams and his teammates may not have allowed themselves to believe that they could lose.
The players were the ones who had to prevent it from happening. In the past few weeks, they'd struggled to do that.
They decided that they were not ready for it to be over. Krzyzewski, in that moment, though? He'd given it all over to his players. He knew all that he could do is express his belief in them. He couldn't go out there and make it happen with his sheer force of will, even if it's felt like that's exactly what he's been able to do for decades.
He surrendered to his players, outcome be damned.
Carolina is there, too. The house money the Tar Heels are playing with feels limitless at this point. Sure, they'd love to beat Duke again and reach a title game. But they weren't supposed to be here, and no matter what happens, they'll end the season with a lot to be proud of.
Same goes for Duke. But neither Carolina or Duke are the type of programs that are content for second place. Or even third or fourth.
One of them will have to settle for that after Saturday, though.
