He who laughs last always laughs the loudest. If that wasn't already a fact of life, North Carolina learned this lesson the practical way, as they ran onto the Cameron Indoor Stadium court and yelled into the visitors' locker room after an authoritative upset win over No. 4 Duke in head coach Mike Krzyzewski's final home game. The villainous nature of an instant classic will be forever memorable in its own right.
Once the dust settles Krzyzewski will be remembered more for winning five national championships, 15 ACC titles, and then losing his last regular season game to the archrival Tar Heels. This, however, wasn't the storybook ending that Coach K was hoping for. In a perfect world, he would've given another teary-eyed speech to the crowd, and been carried off the court to chants from diehard fans. Instead, the legend silently walked off the floor, in the most unceremonious manner possible.
The only thing that would've made Duke's loss more fitting would've been if legendary North Carolina head coach Roy Williams was sitting on the visitors' bench. If only he waited another year for retirement. Then again, this was a perfect statement win for Hubert Davis, as he gained recognition in his first season at the the helm. Symbolically, it represented a passing of the guard from one Carolina legend to an up-and-comer.
"That was unacceptable," Krzyzewski said to the crowd after the game, as he waved his hands trying to usher away resistance. If he learned anything in his four-plus decades of coaching the Blue Devils, it's that upsets happen all the time, and sometimes good teams don't play to their potential. North Carolina outwilled Duke from the opening tip. And by that measure, the win was more acceptable for hoops fans wanting top-tier entertainment, than unacceptable for the majority who wanted a magical ending to Krzyzewski's career.
The Tar Heels out-executed and outplayed the Blue Devils. Although it took a 21-10 run across the final five minutes to pull away, they deserved every bit of gratification that came with playing the role of spoiler under the unlikeliest of circumstances.
Feel-good films end with some satisfaction, while horror flicks conclude with sadness and disappointment. Whether the Tar Heels' double-digit victory over the Blue Devils was a feel-good movie or horror show is subjective to each fanbase. But there's an argument to be made that the sheer impressiveness of their upset win deserves more recognition.
Perhaps Duke losing wasn't the result anyone anticipated, but the game had a storyline that was perhaps more noteworthy. Tar Heels guard R.J. Davis and forwards Brady Manek and Armando Bacet might as well have taken the floor wearing Joker costumes, as the heroes in Durham had no chance at taking them down. Despite effortlessly ripping off seven straight wins heading into Saturday night, Duke looked more vulnerable than they'd been at any other point in the season.
More importantly, we came to a realization that the once-perceived immortal Krzyzewski was actually mortal. Yes, he still has the ACC and NCAA tourneys to make one final mark on the sports world, but this defeat felt like the end. There's a number of really talented teams in college basketball this season, making it unlikely that the Blue Devils win March Madness. It's also possible that a loss of this magnitude took some wind out of the team's sails.
As memorable as his tenure with the university was, Cameron Indoor Stadium became an unforgettable house of horrors in Krzyzewski's final 40 minutes of basketball. While most casual sports fans took a much-needed break from the Aaron Rodgers drama to tune into a must-watch college basketball game, they got an epic showdown for the ages. It was far from what everyone expected, but the end result will go down as a classic folktale, in which the bad guys won in dramatic fashion.
Jack Stern is a columnist and an associate producer for CBS Sports Radio. You can follow him on Twitter @J_Stern97.