No matter what happens now, there will always be the butt slap.
If Mark Gottfried’s time at N.C. State has indeed come to an end – and if he’s going to be fired at the end of the season, why wait any longer than Thursday morning? – the single peak moment of his entire tenure was probably that handshake line at the end of that Duke win, when Gottfried shook Mike Krzyzewski’s hand after knocking off the eventual national champions and then, as Krzyzewski passed, turned to reach back with his right hand and swat him on the posterior.