Edited at 10:21 2/13/14
Much can be said about the “Greatest Rivalry in Sports” taking a backseat to Mother Nature last night. As a alum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a current graduate student at Duke University I believe I can offer some unique (and only slightly biased) insight into the situation.
Much can be said about the “Greatest Rivalry in Sports” taking a backseat to Mother Nature last night. As a alum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a current graduate student at Duke University I believe I can offer some unique (and only slightly biased) insight into the situation.
Let’s start with the facts.
First, and most unequivocal, the game should have been cancelled earlier than it was. We have radars, we have relatively accurate weather reports. There was no reason to cancel the game right before 6 pm.
Having said that, Duke could have absolutely made it to Chapel Hill yesterday if they wanted. Duke could have left around noon and beat traffic, or drove over around 6 like planned (a bad idea). One fellow decided to make the drive himself to assess road conditions. You can see his results here:
First, and most unequivocal, the game should have been cancelled earlier than it was. We have radars, we have relatively accurate weather reports. There was no reason to cancel the game right before 6 pm.
Having said that, Duke could have absolutely made it to Chapel Hill yesterday if they wanted. Duke could have left around noon and beat traffic, or drove over around 6 like planned (a bad idea). One fellow decided to make the drive himself to assess road conditions. You can see his results here:
The ACC has a policy that if both teams, the officials, and
enough game operations folks can get to the stadium, the game will be
played. So, from the UNC perspective the
matter was simple: the refs were there,
UNC was obviously ready to play and Duke simply didn’t hold up their end of the
bargain. I spoke to a buddy earlier today who was a former manager of a UNC team. He reminded me that Carolina typically leaves Chapel Hill 3 hours before tip-off when they play in Durham. To say Duke was breaking protocol is incorrect.
The other fact is that the weather was terrible. For fans to consider driving to the game from
anywhere outside of the immediate Chapel Hill area was insanity. The Dean Dome holds over 21,000 fans. My guess is only around 2 to 4,000 would have
made it to the game. Some sold their
tickets on stubhub during the afternoon, others just sat on their tickets
hoping for a reschedule. UNC announced around
mid-afternoon that all unused seats would be given to students, something that
hasn’t happened since
the 2000 snow game vs. Maryland.
Students were psyched. My guess
is around 8,000 would have made it down, a guess which may be off by 4,000 or
so either way.
To suggest Duke and Coach K did not want to travel to Chapel
Hill to play a game because the Dean Dome would be swarming with students
rather than old, blue-haired, wine-and-cheesers is probably ridiculous. Duke was favored, holds the recent advantage
in the series, and is likely the better team regardless of venue. As a Carolina fan, it is fun to think the
Heels had an advantage last night, but the truth is more students doesn’t mean
Roy Williams will change his three-point defensive scheme.
Coach K was able to get his side of the story on the record
this noon. The Leader of Men said, “There's
still problems today. That's why the game was not pushed to today. We're going
to play it next week, and it was the smart thing to do. Their fans were not
able to get to the game, and we couldn't even get a bus here. The main route
you have to take there was a parking lot."
See, not only is K the Greatest Coach of All Time, but he’s
also benevolent and cares deeply about UNC’s fans.
I don't believe him. You shouldn’t either. It is completely reasonable to cancel the
game for weather. But to say the game
was called because the bus couldn’t make it?
I’m not buying it.
My friend Marcus made some great points about the game in an
email today. He wondered what kind of
message it would send about college athletics that classes can be cancelled and
campuses shut down, but games are still played.
Fair point. He also wondered
about Duke’s team and fans getting back to Durham after the game. Another fair point.
The facts tell two stories:
Duke could have made it to the game and home afterwards in sub-optimal
conditions. The other fact is that the
weather was terrible and some roads un-drivable. Playing the game from a rational, “I care
about safety” perspective would have been a bad decision.
As we stand now, the only real losers are the fans who sold
their tickets yesterday afternoon for a percentage of face value and all the
UNC students who waited all afternoon in the snow to watch a
once-in-a-generation game. Thankfully,
we have no reports of people getting in accidents traveling home from the game
that wasn’t. The game is rescheduled for
Feb. 20, just two days before Duke’s rematch with Syracuse.
I’m a UNC fan and I think Duke could have left earlier in the day to play the game, but the
responsible decision was made to postpone the game. No matter how awesome the rivalry, it's not worth the damage a drive home at night could cause.
I just don’t buy the bus excuse.
PS - Evidently DPAC felt their Wednesday show of the Book of Mormon was worthy of people risking their life to see.
PS - Evidently DPAC felt their Wednesday show of the Book of Mormon was worthy of people risking their life to see.
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