All day I said I didn’t really know what to expect from tonight’s game. Duke played at Carolina. Both teams have been somewhat inconsistent and Duke was coming off a loss where they played horrible one half and great in another. I said Duke could lose by twenty or win by six.
They won by one.
Duke lead all but the last minute of the first half. Carolina surged in the second half, getting up by as much as 13. Duke chipped away at a double-digit deficit in the last couple minutes. Tyler Zeller accidentally tipped in a Duke miss, putting the Blue Devils two points down. He was fouled and missed. Austin Rivers dribbled around a little bit, let the clock go down and released a three with 1.1 remaining. And it hit.
Duke has not been very good at running end-of-half (or game) plays, so I told Amanda with about 30 seconds left that I didn’t have any confidence in Duke winning the game. I’ll admit that I’d prepared myself for a loss, and I was going to be happy if they could keep it under 15 points, preferably around 12.
Amanda and I were both making noise when Austin’s shot went in. She was leaned back on the couch kicking her feet in the air and I was hopping around the living room. It was a while before either one of us settled down and I’m surprised we didn’t wake Milly up.
Facebook was abuzz. I got a call from Karen and Amanda called her granddaddy to see if he’d been watching. Michael, a Carolina fan, and I were texting back and forth a bit during the game. There was no texting down the stretch and I let him text me when the game was over instead of texting anything to him. There was no crap talk, just game and team discussion.
I mean, wow. Wow. This was instantly a classic. That shot by Rivers will be one of the clips they show from now on when talking about Duke and Carolina rivalry games. Even if he goes to the NBA after this, his freshman season, he’ll have earned himself a spot in the annals of Duke lore.
Oh, the rest of my day? Very busy working on two different projects. Amanda took Milly out and about to the park and to do some shopping so they’d stay out of my hair.
Half of small group was out due to sick kids, work or other things. Our discussion was short this week, as it was about the love language of receiving gifts, which wasn’t a strong one for anyone in our group.
Kirsten babysat Milly tonight. They both seemed happy to see each other.
Oh, Amanda told me that while I was in the bathroom this evening Milly said she wanted to give me a present. Amanda saw her put something in a sliver makeup bag that Amanda let her have a while back and zip it up. She brought it down this evening and I opened it up. It was one of her little plastic bugs. How sweet is that?
Zach Dotsey