A.J. and Matt discuss the storybook ending for Coach K’s final run
A.J Reilly: We do have set up on Saturday, a pretty good final, a pretty doggone good Final Four that will be headlined by an old rivalry.
Matt Bassin: An old rivalry that has never faced off in the NCAA tournament ever. You’ve had Duke and North Carolina, running basketball on and off for 40 years, and they’ve never met in the NCAA tournament.
A.J Reilly: And what a send-off it’s going to be one way or the other for coach K. Right? Of course, it happens this year. It has to, it has to! In the year of a tournament that is built on forced narratives with the MSU playing Dayton. And then, of course, making the seven seed Michigan state play the two seed Duke. If they both won.
Of course, you get a perfectly scripted narrative of North Carolina. Tarheels taking on the duke blue devils in the final four for coach K’s last hurrah. And I know as an avid Coach K fan, you are just eating this up. You’re loving it. This is going to be like the greatest moment of your life to see this happen next Saturday.
Matt Bassin: Look, even as a child, before Michigan State and Duke became a thing because it really became a thing once Izzo took over and they started matching up in the NCAA Tournament and the ACC big 10 challenge obviously helped things. There was more of a chance for duke and Michigan state, but Izzo has always been known for scheduling hard games in the regular season, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, whoever. So we got to see a lot of duke and Michigan state.
And I hated duke for that. I hated Duke my freshman year of college, Arizona versus duke in the national championship. My freshman year, I hated duke long before that, I have always loved the Carolina blue so much more than the Duke blue. I have an Ed Cota jersey. Okay. A bunch of other jerseys. I’ve always been a more Carolina fan, even though Michael Jordan went there and I had a rivalry with Michael Jordan.
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That didn’t matter. Rasheed Wallace went there. I had a bunch of players. Vince Carter, a bunch of players have always been North Carolina. I’ve always hated Duke for different reasons, but there is no way not to respect what Mike Shashefski has done. He’s one of the greatest college coaches of all time, one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time, and to have this happen in his send-off, cause it’s his final four. It’s his final, final for one way or the other win or lose. This is the last one he’s going to, so we already know that is it going to be his final national championship game, following it up? But for Duke and North Carolina to meet after the way that it ended at Cameron, a hundred former duke players there to send off their head coach in the final home game, their final game against North Carolina, we THOUGHT, and it went UNCs way. So now Duke has a chance.
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