This one hurt.
That’s not to say the end of a basketball season doesn’t always hurt when it isn’t accompanied by blue and white confetti falling from the ceiling. As Duke fans, that’s our blessing and our curse: we’re blessed with great success, and cursed with expecting that success every year. So every season that ends without a National Championship banner brings with it some degree of disappointment.
But this one hurt more than usual.
How much it hurt honestly came as a surprise. I ached in 2011 when Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith couldn’t end their career with the fanfare they deserved, not to mention the added frustration of what could have been with a healthy Kyrie Irving.