This Just In — The intersection of Franklin and Columbia was flooded with fans within seconds. The court in the Smith Center was stormed … twice. Carolina had snatched its one and only lead over Duke last Saturday in the last four tenths of one second.
That’s the only time you really need the lead in a game — at the end.
What an utterly thrilling finish to this year’s first of the two regular season match-ups between our great universities. Despite having seen many overtime finishes that were nail biters and games where it seemed the players might finish each other off in the parking lot afterwards, this was the most exciting finish most of us have ever seen in this storied rivalry.
Boy howdy, that’s saying something.
Photo via Todd Melet
All that said, the only blemish in this perfect painting came afterward in the press room as Duke Coach Jon Scheyer told reporters with great concern that even though he’s all in favor of “court storming,” that members (that’s plural) of his staff were assaulted … “punched in the face” to be specific. That’s not what this rivalry is about, he said.
Gosh. He’s right. That’s not what it’s about.
Fans storming a basketball court after a stunning upset has never been something that I would want to find myself in the middle of, especially as I get older. Scheyer explained that he was concerned for the safety of his players and his family.
In the words of Sandra Day O’Connor right before dropping the hammer in a case: Oh my goodness.
Despite the fact that there were 20,000 people around Coach Scheyer in person and at least that many cameras, there was no evidence whatsoever that any player, family member or staff member was “punched in the face” as Scheyer described.
When he backed off this allegation a day or two later, he claimed that a staff member was “trampled” and suffered a broken lip. Again, photographic or eyewitness corroboration of this hasn’t made its way to me.
It is incumbent upon Coach Scheyer to come clean about this nonsense and do it soon. He needs to be clear that he was talking about what he was afraid of, not what actually happened. I’m not holding my breath.
Scheyer likely has a long career ahead of him. He’s a talented coach, but this kind of incident goes right to the heart of the work he’s supposed to be doing — teaching.
Coach K would be at the front of the line to tell anyone listening that coaching in college basketball is about win-loss records as well as building the character of young people. Last Saturday night was an Ethics exam and Coach Scheyer failed.
Let’s assume for a moment that someone on the Duke staff got banged up in the court storming. What would Dean Smith, Roy Williams or Mike Krzyzewski say about that? They might acknowledge that it got a little dicey as the arena emptied onto the floor, but they would NOT make a baseless accusation of an assault.
In this regard, Scheyer is not worthy to hold Krzyzewski’s jacket. Perhaps he’ll learn from this and grow into the job. I hope so. I mean that. I love this rivalry and I want Duke to be a program of the highest caliber.
We can all do better in our professional lives. Scheyer will have plenty of opportunities to extend a hand of friendship toward Carolina’s coach and fans. I hope he does that and moves past this with a lesson learned as the welcome madness of March approaches.
Hearty congrats to my Tar Heels — on the court and off.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – [email protected] and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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