North Carolina Tar Heels advance to men's basketball national final, close Duke Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski's legendary career

NEW ORLEANS — One could make the argument that no game in college basketball history featured the pregame hype of Saturday night's Duke vs. North Carolina Final Four contest.

Given the historic ramifications of the first NCAA tournament game in the sport's greatest rivalry — a spot in the title game at stake, potentially Mike Krzyzewski's final game — it was always going to be difficult to match the incredible pregame buzz leading up to the contest.

As the Duke-Carolina rivalry tends to do, however, it answered the bell.

In one of the best environments the sport has seen, North Carolina edged Duke, 81-77, advancing to face Kansas in Monday night's national championship game.

Krzyzewski's career officially comes to a close one step short of the sport's biggest stage. He ends his career with five national championships, 13 Final Four appearances and nine appearances in the national championship game.

But Carolina made sure he wouldn't get to a 10th title game on Saturday night.

Coming out of the final media timeout tied at 67, both teams refused to give up an inch. Trevor Keels hit a 3 with 2:07 left, followed by Brady Manek hitting one on the next possession — and Wendell Moore answering with a 3 of his own with 1:20 left.

But RJ Davis was fouled on the ensuing possession, hitting both free throws to give Carolina a two-point lead. Mark Williams missed two free throws on the next possession, and Caleb Love came down and hit a 3 to give the Tar Heels a four-point lead with 25 seconds left.

Love's free throws in the final seconds would ice the game for North Carolina.

Neither team showed many signs of being caught up in the monumental pregame hype once the game tipped off. The two teams traded blows for most of the first