RIGHT UNC fans celebrate with cigars on Bourbon Street after the victory over Duke. FAR RIGHT One UNC fan gives another a better view of the French Quarter festivities after the Tar Heels topped Duke.
still a
GDTBATH The unforgettable victory over Duke in New Orleans helped ease the pain of the abrupt end to March Madness By Evan M ar kfie l d
UNC alums Wil Machen, Jamie Agin, Mike Ogle and Evan Markfield celebrate the victory over Duke on Bourbon Street.
48
chapelhillmagazine.com
May/June 2022
A
s North Carolina basketball fans filed out of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, rain began to fall. And what began as a beautiful Final Four weekend – in more ways than one – was suddenly dampened. The Tar Heels had just lost to Kansas in the national championship game, coming up excruciatingly short in a game that for a long time looked like it would result in UNC’s seventh national title. After agonizing over every play as they watched a 16-point lead boomerang into a 3-point loss, the stunned Carolina faithful emerged from the arena with no option but to trudge back toward the French Quarter and hope to stay relatively dry. But let’s forget about Monday night for a minute. The biggest game of the weekend was the UNC vs. Duke semifinal – the first-ever meeting between the teams in the NCAA Tournament, with a berth in the championship at stake and, oh yeah, a chance to send Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski into retirement a loser. For the Carolina fans who braved the Big Easy, that storyline – the socalled “doomsday scenario” showdown that neither fan base really wanted