Not the way anyone wanted to end the regular season, but keep the 86-78 loss to UNC in perspective: Coach K took a team with one senior, two juniors, and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores, and without much of an inside game, and turned in a 26-4 regular season. That’s impressive.

Even more impressive is that instead of relying on a previously defined system, the team bought into an entirely different way to play.  It took them to a spectacular regular season, with a one point loss to Pitt, a one point loss to Miami, and bigger losses of course to Wake Forest and UNC.

That said, those things didn’t help Saturday night. UNC just played better.  They played a lot better in the first half, and while for the most part Duke outplayed them in the second half, UNC was able to close the deal and Duke wasn’t.

Duke went down 11 at the half and forced their way back into the game, going out in front when Jon Scheyer hit a basket to put the Devils up 68-66.

As it turned out, that was Duke’s last basket. Gerald Henderson nearly scored on a shot that probably started out as  dunk attempt but ended up a missed layup.  If Duke had gone up by four, it would have maybe been a different game.

No one ever wants to lose, but it happens to everyone, and what’s important is what you take out of it.  What can be learned from this?

The first thing is probably this: Duke has to overcome some things to win (think lack of size) and while they’ve done some brilliant things to do it through the year, the main thing is just consistency of effort. In the second half, when they were outhustling UNC, getting to loose balls and beating them to boards, they pushed UNC on the defensive.

At the end, they seemed to run out of steam.  Comebacks can do that to you.  You fight your way back in, you make it all the way back, and that’s all you have.  Takes a lot of energy.

On another somewhat bright note, on a night when Duke didn’t shoot well (32.9%), got outrebounded (53-44), and had real problems holding on to the ball in the first half, they were still right with the number one team in the country with less than three minutes to go.

Duke gets a few days now to rest and get ready for the ACC Tournament.  Alaa Abdelnaby said that Coach K gets an extra spring in his step in March, that he’s always invigorated.

The brackets will be set tomorrow. Until then, let’s just relax, look back over a marvelous season, and look forward to seeing how far they can stretch it.

Notes – before the game, both teams took the floor, facing each other, and Duke asked for a moment of silence to honor Eve Carson, the late president of the UNC student body who was murdered earlier this week.  Duke also invited the other student government officers to attend.  The announcer called for everyone to come together not as rivals but as members of a community.  It was a surprising and powerful moment…also in the crowd: Peyton and Eli Manning, sitting with David Cutcliffe…