UNC vs Duke and The Long Drive Home

I'm not a sportswriter. I don't know the stats or any of the names on the Tar Heel roster without looking at the game press package.

What I do know is that getting tickets to a UNC vs Duke basketball game is about as close as you can get to heaven without dying, if you’re a basketball fan.

Sadly this year it seems the Tar Heels are indeed dying.


North Carolina forward Deon Thompson fights for a rebound
during Carolina's loss to Duke on Wednesday night.

It's not for lack of facilities; the Dean Smith center is nothing short of awesome. Often called the Dean Dome, this year it was taken on a new name the Doom Dome or in the language of my son the dome of dooooooom.



The team locker room is best described as nicer than the member's locker room at Quail Hollow Country Club. The rest of the facility is just as stunning, weight room, and rec area and all trimmed tastefully with Carolina Blue.



It's not the coach, for Roy Williams has a track record of better the 80% over his coaching career. Williams a North Carolina native was an assistant to Dean Smith for ten years before forging his own legacy at Kansas.

It's not the fans. Tar Heel fans are some of the most loyal in basketball country.



Charlotte television anchor Heather Childers and the Observer’s Tommy Tomlinson where both on hand for last night's game against Duke and and their tweeter tweets say it all:

Tomlinson: Duke 28, UNC 27 at the half. Not exactly well-played, but highly entertaining.

Childers : Come ONNNNNNNNNNNNN #HEELS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come ON!

Tomlinson: That's as loud as I remember the Dean Dome. UNC up 4, 12 minutes left

Childers: I have on my sweater and everything!!! Noooooooooo !!!!! Wake up #HEELS !!!!!!!

Tomlinson: Duke's gonna win -- up 10 w/1 min left. UNC such a weird team. Athletic but uncoordinated. Lots of fumbling, dribbling off feet.

Childers: Ugh #Heels fell apart, completely fell apart.

In the end Duke played poorly the Heels played poorer still.

There is no doubt that Duke and Coach K will end the season with a solid first place in the ACC and that UNC and Coach Williams will end at dead last.

I don't know what it is, or where to even begin. Duke played sloppy and Carolina would have given the Blue Devils a serious beating had they played this game last year.

The dome of doom empties out into the coolness of a February night.

The wind outside the Dean Smith Center is still blowing but the walk to the car, not as bad as I would have expected. The fans, and students are noticeably quiet. Like friends leaving a late night visitation at a funeral home. No laughter or shouting, just thoughtful conversations amidst the pines of Chapel Hill.

Season's change, the cruel winds of February will soon give way to the warm spring days of March in the land of Carolina blue skies and Tar Heel basketball.

And there is still hope but the drive down Tobacco Road back to Charlotte seems to be taking so much longer tonight.

A little reminder of days gone by: