Good Day to Be a Tar Heel

It was an ending so perfect that it made the Dillon Panthers jealous. Pete Berg is writing Jason Street’s triumphant return to the football field as we speak.

It was a perfect basketball game.

It was North Carolina vs Duke. In the Final Four. For the first time ever.

In their first NCAA tournament meeting ever.

In Mike Krzyzewski’s last year. And his last game, ever. It doesn’t even sound real writing it out. It’s a script that Hollywood wouldn’t even attempt to write (Who plays Coach K in the biopic though? Probably, like, Jared Leto.). It’s almost as unbelievable as an actor slapping another actor in the face during an an awards show. Wait, remember when that happened? That feels about as recent as the pushup challenge.

Jared Leto as Mike Krzyzewski. Who says no?

How did we get here? Let’s backtrack a few weeks. On March 5, UNC marched into Cameroon Indoor stadium and spoiled the final home game of Coach K’s storied 42 year tenure at Duke with a 94-81 win over the Blue Devils. Krzyzewski called the loss “unacceptable.” We had witnessed a living funeral before our very own eyes.

Pretty much every Duke player, from Grant Hill to JJ Redick was in attendance to watch K one last time in Durham. It was poetic for the Tar Heels and a silver lining of an otherwise mediocre season at the time. Still though, Duke held a slight 50-49 edge over North Carolina in the Coach K era. Imagine if they had a chance to even the score one more time?

Having watched very little college basketball this season, I’m not going to pretend to provide analysis of how they got that chance. I’m an honest person after all. Instead, I’ll just provide facts. After steamrolling Marquette in the Round of 64, UNC survived a rollercoaster against defending champion Baylor and Leaky Black launched a pass off the backboard. Then, in a battle of the best colors in college basketball, the Tar Heels escaped past UCLA to move within one game from a date with destiny. The Duke Blue Devils. All they had to do was get past something called a Saint Peter’s. Cute story, but nah. Boom. College basketball analysis.

How did I get here? It all begins in 1978. Now, you might be asking yourself. How old are you, Wesley? The answer is 29, meaning almost 30. Damn.

Or, you may be wondering if I go by Wes or Wesley? That’s up to you. Anyway, both are good questions. In reality though, the likely scenario is you probably stopped reading and haven’t made it this far. I wouldn’t blame you. What was I saying again?

Oh, 1978. Yes, that’s the year my father began attending college at, you guessed it, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 12 years later, my brother Brendan was born. 14 years later, I entered the world. Both of us, right out of the womb, were taught the only thing that mattered was Carolina Basketball. Every Fall, we’d go to Chapel Hill. We’d eat biscuits at Time-Out, up our UNC wardrobes, go to football games and pretend we were college students.

The day I became a man

In the summers, when my basketball career was taking off, I attended the Roy Williams Basketball camp. I lived in the dorms. I ate in the dining hall. On June 10, 2006, I became a man. That’s right, I got Bar Mitzvah’ed. The reward for attending my Bar Mitzvah? Gazing your eyes on a a full sized cutout out of me. Naturally, in a UNC shirt.

There was no world in which Brendan and I wouldn’t be Tar Heels.

Alternatively, there was a world in which we both wouldn’t be Tar Heels. What is that world, you may ask? I suppose it has to do with actually getting into the school, something of which I didn’t realize was a possibility until years later.

That reality was met on November 4, 2010 when I was denied admission into the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Yes, that date is completely made up. I have no idea when I get denied. Instead, I ended up at Temple University. You can imagine how much tension there was on the court when Temple played UNC when I was in college. I mean, as if those teams hated each other enough. Factor me into the equation? Game over. LOL and people think Duke is a rival.

Go Heels!

Spoiler alert: Temple really has nothing to do with this story. Shoutout Temple though, fifth-winningest program in NCAA Division 1 men’s college basketball. Look it up.

Carolina is a family and a fraternity that I was lucky enough to be adopted into. There’s a connection and bond you share that cannot be explained unless you’ve experienced it. I grew up thinking the sky is Carolina blue because God is a Tar Heel. I grew up thinking Duke was the enemy and Coach K the villain. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. My wardrobe is still filled with Carolina to this day and I’ll always feel a level of pride wearing that Tar Heel shirt. And no, it’s not because they just beat Duke in Coach K’s final act.

How are we here now? I don’t know. Sometimes there’s a glitch in the simulation. The UNC-Duke rivalry had seen it all. Except for this one thing — playing in the NCAA tournament and let alone the Final Four. I remember where I was when Gerald Henderson elbowed Tyler Hansbrough. I remember where I was when Austin Rivers put my brother on a meme. I remember where I was when Caleb Love knocked out Mike Krzyzewski. I also remember when Caleb Love shot 5/24 against Kansas two days later but we don’t need to talk about that. My memory is that good.

Very little in sports do you accomplish what North Carolina was able to do this tournament. Kansas fans got their title, when they quite literally won the National Championship. Carolina fans got their title when they knocked out Coach K, a moment they’ll hold onto forever. For eternity, in fact, as Jon Rothstein declared. And there’s nothing Duke can do about it. I’m not usually, if ever, one for moral victories in sports. I didn’t know they actually existed. This is the closest I’ve come to that moment.

Aren’t sports fun sometimes?