This (Non) Sporting Life: Thank God That's Over

Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, my recurring series of posts about sports written by a guy who doesn't know a lot about sports.

Saturday night, the Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina Tarheels met for an epic showdown.Although the two schools are only 11 miles a part, this battle of the ages took place in New Orleans as part of the semi-final round of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament.   

I've written in the past few of these This (Non) Sporting Life posts about the demands of an expected dramatic narrative. That dramatic narrative demanded that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, in his final year as coach after 4 decades would win his final home game. 

This did not occur.

That dramatic narrative demanded that Coach K would win his final ACC Tournament championship.  

This too failed to occur.   

Going into the NCAA Tournament, I gave up on the damn dramatic narrative delivering a satisfying conclusion.

I made a vow to myself that just coaching his team to thje upper echelons of the vaunted NCAA tournament would be sufficient capstone for the career of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.  

So naturally Duke kept winning and began to have hope that maybe at last the demands of the dramatic narrative would be met. 

That dramatic narrative demanded that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, in his final year as coach after 4 decades would win his 6th and final NCAA Tournament championship. 

Nope, not gonna happen. 

After Kansas defeated Villanova to secure it's place for the championship game, Duke and North Carolina clashed in a tense game with multiple lead changes and the tied scores. 

The Tarheels' Caleb Love made a key 3-pointer and three late free throws which gave his team the edge over the Blue Devils for a final score of  81-77.

My wife Andrea who is a North Carolina fan watched with excitement as the Tarheels pull of their last minute win. It was a very religious (or sexual?) experience for her as the seconds ticked away and the team held their lead: "Oh God! Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!" 

Meanwhile, I'm all "Thank God that's over." 

Look, I wanted Duke to win but the pressure of watching them fight game after game with this idea of adhering to same kind of dramatic narrative for more than I could take. 

Yes, it is a damn fine capstone for the career of Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski that after 40 plus years head coach, he got his team this far. 

Yes, I am willing to accept that but damn, we were so close to obtaining something more.

Also I mentioned in Monday's post that I was sick and Saturday was when that illness started kicking my butt. I was not in the best of moods at the time. Sorry Duke lost but thank God it's over.  

So it would be North Carolina who would meet Kansas on Monday night in the NCAA Championship game.  

Maybe for Andrea, drama would be destiny and the Tarheels would overcome the #1 seeded Kansas and secure a National Championship for first year coach Hubert Davis.

No, this did not happen.

After being up 15 points over Kansas at half time, Carolina went down at the end as Kansas edged past the Tarheels for a 3 point win.

Andrea went to bed sorely disappointed. She cares more about these things than I do.

Me? Thank God it's over.

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Blog bidness time: no more posts until this weekend when I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You returns with Songs For Saturday and Cinema Sunday.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.