Lucas: Sick

By Adam Lucas

DURHAM—Where to start?

Sweet mother of Cormac Ryan, where to start?

I want to be very honest with you: part of this column was written before Saturday night's game was played. Part of it was written throughout the day on Saturday, starting right around 10 a.m. when the Duke pregame show began on ESPN.

I knew better. Really, I did. Before 11:30, after a stream of angry texts, a close friend texted me, "You should never watch a Duke affiliated ESPN Gameday. It is bad for your blood pressure."

My reply, a full seven hours before tipoff, was, "It's too early to feel like this."

But it wasn't. That feeling you got as every college basketball personality the network could find stood on Coach K Court and picked Duke to win the game is exactly what made Saturday night so much fun.

Two years ago, Duke lost to Carolina at Cameron Indoor Stadium in no small part because they could not possibly conceive that they might lose to Carolina.

And then Saturday they went and did it again.

Every single person on Gameday picked Duke. The host—whose son went to Duke—and another analyst—who played at Duke—did not make picks, but you can probably guess who they would have selected. Jay Williams, who is most notable in his post-basketball career for being an incredible meme while begging for a timeout at that game two years ago, proclaimed that Duke was going to "kick that ass."

Let us pause here for a moment to try to imagine Hubert Davis doing the same thing when he had a regular role on Gameday a decade ago. Maybe "kick that bejeebies" just doesn't have the same ring.

In hindsight, and I will need to watch the tape, perhaps I misheard Williams. He may have said "trip that ass." In which case, mission accomplished.

My best two new friends from Saturday are the two Duke students who had "DDMF" tattooed on their inner bottom lip. I truly hope that was a temporary tattoo. Without them, I would never have known that a "DDMF" tattoo on your bottom lip looks very much like the word "DUMB" tattooed on your bottom lip.

My favorite people right now are the ones who are staring quizzically at the screen, wondering what DDMF stands for. Oh, gentle readers, it's just an expression that the Cameron Crazies shout at the top of their lungs multiple times per game to wild applause from the national media. The "F" doesn't stand for "bejeebies," let's put it that way.

But they have to shout it, because it is on the script. And nothing happens at Cameron if it is not on the script.

For example: Duke called a timeout with 14:24 left in the game. Carolina had built a 52-43 lead thanks to a 7-0 run that included baskets from Armando Bacot, Jae'Lyn Withers and Ryan.

At that moment, trailing by nine and needing to reenergize the crowd, the bass-thumping Cameron speakers played…

"My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.

I know you do not believe this. I know you will think I am making it up. May the ghost of Danny Green's dunk strike me down if I am lying. The song was "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion.

Maybe it makes sense. After all, with 2:09 remaining in the game and Carolina up just six and the game still in doubt, there was no other song that could be played, no other music in the world that could ignite almost 10,000 people, other than the Duke band playing a slow version of Cascada's "Everytime We Touch."

If your high school's Anime Club had unfettered access to body paint, it would be very much like Saturday night in Durham.

Duke has a terrific team. Carolina has beaten other terrific teams this year. Tennessee is very, very good. Oklahoma is solid. Winning at Clemson was a nice victory.

It's the whole environment that makes it so much more fun to win in Durham. The uncanny ability of an opponent to never be humbled is what makes this whole thing sheer joy. In the last week, they've bragged about their road attendance (Duke played in front of four road sellouts this year, Carolina played in front of seven), they've tweeted "Bad night for court-storm nation" after a win at NC State, which finished in tenth place in the ACC, and they've played Celine Dion during a timeout of the best rivalry in sports.

If you're a Carolina fan, you see the outright folly of this. If you're a Duke fan, you don't. That's what makes it great. They could never be us. We could never be them. It is just inconceivable.

And tonight, we don't have to be. That's largely thanks to Cormac Ryan, who was trying to conduct a postgame interview on the Tar Heel Sports Network after his 31-point performance when he was interrupted by Seth Trimble. "This man," Trimble said, "is sick in the head."

"I just like to compete," Ryan said on the THSN. "It brings it out of me and it brings it out of all of us. There's no choice but to compete on the road like this, especially in this building. I'm competitive. I'm fiery. Being able to show that and have that mentality in games like this is a lot of fun. I love it. I'm so happy we were able to get the win. There's nothing better than competing with your best friends."

Ryan's postgame adventures, including walking along the top of the Tar Heel team bus on Franklin Street while cradling the ACC championship trophy, will get most of the attention.

When you watch the video, though, watch something else: watch the front right seat of the bus. That's where Hubert Davis is sitting, looking out the big front window at the assembled throng, and pumping his fist like he's listening to "Wow" by Tiesto (as we know, per Cormac, it rips).

Imagine how happy that moment made Davis. This is exactly what he's been talking about for this team ever since they first went on that Outer Banks excursion over the summer.

He wanted them to be remembered: it's happened, as they hung an ACC championship banner.

And he wanted them to have unforgettable experiences: like celebrating a big win on Franklin Street. Before he even met with the media, he was already making plans. "The bus is going to Franklin!" he said in the locker room. "We're doing it!"

Sometimes recruiting in the 2024 version of college basketball is very complicated. And sometimes it's very simple, because here is the Davis pitch to the next wannabe Cormac Ryan:

Can I interest you in walking on the roof of the team bus down the heart of Franklin Street while every waking person in the town of Chapel Hill chants your name while you hold the ACC championship trophy?

Good. Sign here.

The head coach had earned the right to enjoy that moment. It all really began back in the Carolina locker room after the Tar Heels dispatched NC State on March 2. Harrison Ingram and Elliot Cadeau were discussing the regular season championship permutations. Essentially, the conversation went like this:

Cadeau: "What has to happen for us to win the ACC?"

Ingram: "We have to win one more to at least tie for the title."

Cadeau: "No thanks. We want it all to ourselves."

To get there, Davis had to guide them through an emotional Senior Day and give them some space to celebrate earning a share of the title and recognize they'd accomplished a season-long goal but then get them back on the practice court Thursday and push them hard, one of the hardest of the year, and then he had to build them back up on Friday.

In other words, he had to coach them. It's unclear whether he's been so good at coaching them because they are so much like him, or if they're so much like him because he's been so good at coaching them. But this year's team and this year's head coach are definitely made in each other's image.

Which means they both knew exactly how to celebrate winning an outright regular season title. You can't drive the bus down Franklin Street to celebrate a championship without the trophy. And that trophy was…where, exactly?

That was the mystery Davis sent Eric Hoots to solve approximately 20 minutes after Saturday's win. The ACC had brought the regular season championship trophy on site. It made sense. This game could decide the owner.

It's just that, upon inquiry, it wasn't around. It had been helpfully stowed in a back office of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Luckily, the Tar Heels remembered to ask about it before departing the arena. That meant the trophy spent Saturday night hanging out on Franklin Street rather than sitting lonely in a dark office listening to Cascada remixes.

He's been saying it since October. And Saturday night, he said it for the last time this regular season. And the crazy thing is that this is the one thing both Carolina and Duke fans would recognize. It's something they would probably say about their favorite teams on each side of the rivalry. I don't pretend to know enough about Duke to know if this year's Blue Devil edition qualifies as one of those favorites. But I know this year's Tar Heels are getting very close.

"The number one thing is that from the start, this team wanted to be a team," Hubert Davis said on the THSN. "Because of that, they collectively worked hard together. They wanted to be a team. And because of that, it has allowed them to be ACC regular season champions."

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Armando Bacot

Elliot Cadeau

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