Duke-UNC played out like a WrestleMania main event

It wasn’t until the 3 that I knew. That was the moment, when I caught myself pumping my fist, and mouthing “yes!” that I realized I worked myself into a shoot.

Saturday was WrestleMania, and one of the greatest, most fear-striking heels of all time, was stalking slowly around, looking menacing. And also something happened with the Undertaker.

Mike Krzyzewski had a lot of twists and turns on this, his final Road to WrestleMania. There was the embarrassing loss in his final home game to North Carolina. His loss to Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament that had so many questioning if there was one more run for him.

Then the tournament. Coach K’s team waltzed through the chaos to reach the Final Four, the vicious heel forcing mealy-mouthed nerds to eat their previous words.

And then the main event. Duke. Carolina. For the first time ever, at the Showcase of the Immort— the Final Four.

It lived up to the billing, booked perfectly, really. Each side had its moments to shine, they went back and forth and built a great story with a dramatic payoff, that three by Caleb Love, and the 81-77 final, retiring the legendary heel. What more can you ask for?

And shoutout to Jim Nantz for noting Krzyzewski’s first loss was also to Carolina. Brilliant bit of storytelling by one of the best heel announcers in the history of the game.

Monday night, Carolina faces Kansas in the Raw after WrestleMania, where Anything Can Happen™️ and maybe everything that happened two nights earlier winds up meaning nothing.

But it’s the WrestleMania moment that people remember, and the Heels will always have theirs.