Storybook finish(ed)

 Maybe, here at the end, you begin this way: The basketball gods will sometimes be denied.

Sometimes they get Windexed by Armando Bacot.

Sometimes Caleb Love or R.J. Davis or Brady Manek shoots them through the heart.

Sometimes a rookie head coach (Hubert Davis) shows an icon the door.

All of those happened last night in the New Orleans Superdome, as Mike Krzyzewski coached one last game in the Final Four and one last game against North Carolina, and lost one last time. The first win of his transcendent coaching career came at Army, against Lehigh; the last was in the Elite Eight, against Arkansas.

In between, there were 1,200 others, including 50 versus Carolina. The loss Saturday night was K's 48th to Duke's ancient rival, so he finishes with bragging rights.

And if the basketball gods could not decree a storybook finish, there was at least a storybook last grapple with the Tar Heels.

Eighteen lead changes, including three on consecutive possessions in the final two minutes and change. A 13-0 run for the Tar Heels that erased a seven-point Duke lead in the second half. An immediate 6-0 run for Duke to tie it. Back and forth, back and forth, trading punches like Ali and Frazier.

The heroes for Carolina? 

Bacot, who scored 11 points and cleaned the glass for an astounding 21 rebounds. Davis, with his 14 first-half points. Love, with his 28 points, including a three with 25 seconds left that lifted Carolina four points clear and all but sealed it.

And now it's on to the final, where Kansas and the ghosts of the past await. 

It will be Carolina's12th appearance in the title game, and Kansas's ninth. The Tar Heels have won six national championships; Kansas, three.  And when they face off Monday night, the faint echoes of an epic struggle now 65 years gone will stir again.

 The year was 1957, and the title game Carolina and Kansas played that night was perhaps the greatest ever. Kansas had Wilt Chamberlain and were favored because of it; Carolina was undefeated and had Hall of Fame coach Frank McGuire on the bench. It went three overtimes before Carolina won, 54-53, on Joe Quigg's free throws in the final seconds.

The Heels and Jayhawks have not met in a championship game since.

Here's hoping this meeting lives up to the last one.