This (Non) Sporting Life: Farewell, Duke

Hi there!

 

Welcome to another installment of This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sports written by a guy who knows very little about sports.

 

Today: No joy in Mudville. Or in Durham. Or in the Fortress of Ineptitude where I call home,

 

The Duke Blue Devils are now out of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, falling to the Kansas Jayhawks.  

 

I kind of resigned myself to the idea that #1 seeded Kansas would likely advance to the Final Four again #2 seed Duke. But in the last minute of the 2^nd half, there was hope that maybe Duke could pull this off. They led Kansas by 3.

 

But Kansas’ Svi Mykhailiuk had other ideas, draining a three pointer with 30 seconds left.

 

Still, 30 seconds can be an eternity in basketball. All Duke needed was, well, anything, just one point from a free throw, to retake the lead and win the game. But despite my earnestly shouted basketball wisdom of “PUT THE BALL THROUGH THE HOOP”, Duke did not put the ball through the hoop in the time remaining. Why, oh why, did they not listen to me? And we’re off to overtime.

 

Whereupon Kansas put the ball through the hoop more times than Duke put the ball through the hoop. Kansas won in OT, 85-81. 

 

The top-seeded Jayhawks held off No. 2 Duke in overtime, 85-81, in a classic Elite 8 battle between two of the sport’s most storied programs.

 

Kansas will face Villanova in San Antonio on Saturday night in the national semifinals and blah, blah, blah, who really cares at this point? My wife Andrea’s interest in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament was deflated when North Carolina got knocked out last week. And now, my interest in this is likewise gone. Kansas can go on to play the Kaiju from Pacific Rim for all I care.

 

Sunday, Andrea and I went out to lunch after church. Andrea was wearing her beloved light blue Carolina Tarheels coat. I had my dark blue Duke Blue Devils coat; in all fairness, my dark blue Duke Blue Devils coat is really a Duke Blue Devils coat, it’s just dark blue. Anyway, this prompted a conversation with our waitress about how we support two different teams that are typically reviled on both sides. This usually astonishes people but it’s really not that big of a deal to us. It’s just a game of putting a ball through a hoop and there is nothing to gain by me gloating to Andrea that Duke stayed in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament one week longer than Carolina. That would be wrong and petty with nothing to gain by it.

 

Well, that’s that for today. Remember to be good to one another and also remember that Duke stayed in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament one week longer than Carolina.