SENIOR SENDOFF - Let me preface this column by saying that I was absolutely pulling for the Carolina Tar Heels to beat the Duke Blue Devils Saturday, even though I picked Duke to win during last week's RO Sports Show.
But one of the coolest things that can happen in college basketball was when Coach K called a timeout with his team up by 10 with just seconds to go so his senior Grayson Allen could exit the court, get a standing ovation and a big hug from K and his teammates.
Unfortunately for our guys, Joel Berry II and Theo Pinson, their senior night didn't get as well when they were upset by Miami University early last week. The point, however, is that it is becoming rarer to see players even reach their fourth year, much less be as successful as these three have.
Allen's first year in 2014-15 came with a National Championship along other Dukies such as Tyus Jones, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow - three guys who feel like they've been gone forever. And in a way, they have. All three exited after their first year in Durham to chase the ultimate dream and paycheck in the NBA.
Justin Jackson should have been alongside Berry and Pinson last week when they stood in front of the Dean Dome crowd and said how much the Carolina experience meant to them. But he, too, left after his junior season.
Berry and Pinson have a championship under their belts from last season, as well, and added a second-place finish to their resumes the year before.
Former Kentucky player Karl-Anthony Towns tweeted last week that it was senior night for his team for the one season he played for the Wildcats, 38-1 and stopped one game short of facing Duke in the title game in 2015.
And while Saturday was Allen's last game at Cameron, it's almost certainly the last game in Cameron for several of his non-senior teammates, from Marvin Bagley III to Wendell Carter Jr. to Gary Trent Jr. to Trevon Duval.
If anything, it's surprising North Carolina and Duke had three senior stars to honor among them. Even beyond the one-and-dones, how many really good college players stay four years the way Allen, Berry and Pinson have? They're among the very few of a dying breed, and yet all three won ACC and national titles before this season.
What, really, did they have left to prove?
They came back for the experience of being a senior, to give those speeches and to see it through to the end in an era when the lure of the NBA has never been stronger for players from elite conferences like the ACC.
The final regular season Duke-North Carolina game is a reward for their persistence, and fans get that because their memories go back years, even decades.
It's hard for a player to truly understand that in a single season. It probably takes the eight or nine times in the atmosphere to understand it as well as Berry, Pinson and Allen do.
Not many players take that opportunity these days. They're off to the NBA at first chance, as Bagley, Carter, Trent and Duval almost certainly will be, much the same as their predecessors in 2015 while Allen is honored without them.
Saturday night was as close as those freshmen will get, and frankly, it just isn't the same.
