The Game of the Century?

What We Can Learn from the UNC-Duke Game

This is the first in a series of brief Civic Way journal entries about current issues, and their relevance to broader issues of democracy, governance and America’s future. The author, Bob Melville, is the founder of Civic Way, a nonprofit dedicated to good government, and a management consultant with over 45 years of experience improving public agencies.

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For Duke and University of North Carolina basketball fans, tonight is the game for which they have waited their whole lives. For many American sports media, it is an opportunity to search the Thesaurus for new superlatives, and perhaps justify their salaries. For superfans like country singer Eric Church, it is an opportunity to remind the rest of us how little we matter.

Tonight, before a huge national audience, the North Carolina Tar Heels and Duke Blue Devils will face one another to determine who will play in this year’s NCAA national championship game. We know that the outcome will have little (if any) impact on real world worries—the pandemic, climate change, crime, inflation, Ukraine, to name a few.

Still, such sporting contests serve a purpose. They excite and entertain us. They divert our attention from real problems and the issues that divide us. They give us permission to suspend our fears, to lose ourselves in something that will end simply, with one winner and one loser. They leave us with the kind of certainty that so often eludes us in our day-to-day lives.

Separated by 10 miles, Duke and UNC have played each other 257 times over the last century, but never before in the NCAA tournament. There have been other “games of the century.” Houston v. UCLA in 1969, North Carolina State v. Houston in 1983, Villanova v. Georgetown in 1985 and Duke v. Kentucky in 1992. Surely, the Blue Devil-Tar Heel rivalry ranks among the sporting world’s fiercest. Texas-Oklahoma, Army-Navy, Michigan-Ohio State, Yankees-Red Sox, Lakers-Celtics, Barcelona-Real Madrid.

Tonight, after 42 years of coaching at Duke, five national championships, 13 Final Four appearances and 1,200 wins, Mike Krzyzewski will face the University of North Carolina in the NCAA tournament for the first time. After a storied career at UNC, including several years as Roy Williams’ assistant coach, rookie head coach Hubert Davis will face one of the greatest coaches in college basketball coaching history, and on the sport’s biggest stage.

Millions of fans will watch the game. And what will they do?

They will pace the floor, cheer, shout, dispute calls, lament bad bounces and breaks. Some may eat and drink too much. Some may hurl insults and obscenities. If their team wins, they will be thrilled. If not, they will be crushed.

Far more importantly, what won’t they do?

They won’t refuse to accept the results. They won’t make wild charges about fraud. They won’t mindlessly repeat cheap slogans like “Stop the Steal.” They won’t debase themselves.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our politicians would do the same?