Remember how you felt

“It’s not supposed to happen like this. We are a better team, higher ranked. We have more talent. And it’s our Senior Day; our guys have been through so much. Heck, it’s MY Senior Day. It simply can’t happen like this.”

Those were my thoughts one year ago this weekend. 3:47 remained on MY Senior Day in Chapel Hill. The beloved home team Tar Heels were trailing the hated Blue Devils by nine points and things were looking particularly bleak. The crowd was stunned and quiet during the final television timeout. In the huddle, Coach Williams told his players that they would win. And, they believed him. What’s more is somehow, even without hearing the pep talk, the crowd believed as well.

No doubt the scene was very similar in Durham a year later. Coach K surely told his team that they were going to win. Down twelve late in the game, the Blue Devils looked tired. The Cameron Crazies looked shocked. The task at hand looked nearly impossible. But, everyone believed. Every single player, every single fan, and especially every single college senior in the famed arena believed that the home team would somehow pull off the miracle.

You believe for so many reasons. You believe because of how you pictured this day in your mind each year of your college career. Playing the arch rival, beating the arch rival. There is no nightmarish ending, nothing depressing about it. No matter how bad things look, your team pulls it out. That just makes the entire experience that much more memorable. You believe because that’s what being a great team is all about. No great team ever thinks it is going to lose. Down twenty? No problem. Need a half-court shot at the buzzer? Been there, done that. Beat the rival in the final seconds? It’s almost expected. You believe because it’s all you know to do.

This time last year, all I could do was believe. Surrounded by close friends who are also diehard fans, we all were thinking the same thing. “It’s not supposed to end like this.” Yet, we still believed. And as the now famous comeback took place, our belief grew with each basket, each steal, each roar of the crowd. Silently, my buddies and I watched and cheered as the Tar Heels made a nearly improbable comeback. We never said anything to each other about it. Why? Because we knew that each of us believed. It is unspoken among everyone; you just accept that everyone believes. This faith is heightened under such extenuating circumstances such as a deficit late in a big game. After Marvin Williams hit the go-ahead bucket and subsequent free throw, our belief turned to complete joy and eventually tears. The fairy tale ended exactly as it was supposed to end. Belief became reality, and Senior Day was seemingly perfect. MY Senior Day was perfect.

A year later, the same cannot be said for the Blue Devil seniors. So put yourself in those evil dark blue shoes. Tonight, Duke entered the game as the better team. They are highly ranked and supremely talented. They are led by a senior class of players that have been through a great deal. No, there has been no 8-20 season, but there has been adversity and success without the crowning achievement of a national title. It was to be an evening of celebrating the careers of six seniors, especially the four leaders, and more specifically, two All-Americans. More than that, it was to be a celebration of four years for many Duke students. Some of the most supportive fans in the country packed Cameron Indoor Stadium for the last time as an undergraduate. No doubt many great memories filled their collective minds. Yet, the best memory was yet to come. Why? Because they all believed.

Except the best memory never came. At least not the way it was planned. Surely everyone that witnessed the battle of two rivals will remember it. But instead of a memory filled with tears of joy, the darker blues will remember tears of sadness. Tears of disappointment. Tears of finality. Either way, you go to your Senior Day expecting to cry a little bit, because you know it is the last game you will watch as a student. But, at each of these schools, you enter Senior Day expecting those tears to occur after a victory. There is just no other way for it all to end.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” That is what every Duke senior thought following Carolina’s victory Saturday night. They all did their part: they believed. The players did their part: they believed. But sometimes believing is not enough. This was one of those times. Somehow belief did not equal victory; moreover, it did not equal the perfect fairy tale ending. Senior Day ended in a nightmare for Duke. It will always be remembered as a disappointing end to four great years of being a fan or player for the seniors. JJ Redick will not get another chance to win his last home game as a Duke Blue Devil. Neither will Sheldon Williams. Or Sean Dockery. Or Lee Mellcionni.

And no Duke senior will get another chance to believe as a student. The emptiness that comes with realizing it is over is indescribable. For that finality to come accompanied by a loss is bitterly disheartening.

“That could have been me. Just as this game is ending in emptiness for the Cameron Crazy seniors and the Duke players, last year’s game could have been the same for me. Instead of burning a copy of MY Senior Day game to DVD, I would have wanted to turn away every time I saw the game on television. Instead of crying tears of joy and soaking up the moment with my best friends, I could have been crying bitterly. It could have been me.”

As Saturday’s game came to a close, this is what I thought. ESPN zoomed in on a Cameron Crazy seemingly in prayer with seventeen seconds left; that was me last year, praying desperately for my belief to be rewarded, for my Senior Day fairy tale to come true.

So recent graduates, do you remember what it felt like at the end last year? That feeling is the exact opposite of how Duke’s seniors feel right now. I know what you’re thinking; “good, I hate Duke, they should feel like and I am happy about it.”

But really, no one’s fairy tale should end like that. No one’s belief should go unrewarded. Everyone, even the hated Blue Devils, deserve to believe and win the last game of their college careers. The feeling of happiness and joy found in winning on your Senior Day is something every player should experience, every student should experience.

So as you are celebrating the huge win (and remember, it is only one win), remember the other side. Remember how you felt and think about how they feel now. Even though they are ‘rich kid northern transplants,’ remember that those rich kids are people too. Remember that it was their belief that was shattered. Empathize because it could have been us. And one day, it will be us. No doubt Carolina will lose a heartbreaking Senior Day to Duke sometime in the future. Someone’s fairy tale will be ruined just as Duke’s was Saturday night. I count myself as lucky to have had my fairy tale come true, to have cried tears of joy.

Sometimes, the fairy tale does not come true. And that’s sad, even when it is Duke.

Congratulations to the Duke seniors on outstanding careers. And, congratulations to the senior Duke students on believing for four incredible years. Keep believing even after your Senior Day, as that’s all these four years were: learning how to believe.