A Thunderous Farewell at Duke for Coach K, Even in Defeat

DURHAM, N.C. — Before we get to the score, you should — no, you must — know what it was like at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday evening. That is the only way to appreciate what happened.

The occasion was the final game in which Mike Krzyzewski, winner of the most Division I men’s basketball games in history, would patrol the Cameron sideline as Duke’s maestro. Saturday was the appointed time for the faithful to holler or croak whatever they could through the din.

What came was an expulsion of emotions in surround sound, passions built up over 42 seasons that yielded some of the finest college basketball ever seen. For one last Krzyzewski-fueled Saturday night at Cameron, the range tore through once more: grief and glee, shock and ecstasy, all measurable in decibels.

Cameron, you see, is a claustrophobic cathedral of stone, brass, wood, percussion and menace — especially when the University of North Carolina comes to play — with a listed capacity of 9,314 and, on Saturday, maybe an equal number of prayers that the fire marshal was not a Tar Heel fan.

There were some, but very few, North Carolina partisans around. To call Saturday a full Duke family reunion, though, would maybe be too much since it is hard to have a family reunion when ticket prices surpass those of the Super Bowl.

But this was a night the Blue Devils knew would come, the last date-certain milestone on the choreographed tour to round out a Duke career that started in 1980, when nearly no one around Durham knew what to make of Tom Butters’s hire from West Point. It is concluding with at least five national championships — with the opportunity for one more in the N.C.A.A. tournament that will end next month in New Orleans.

Krzyzewski, now 75, said last year that it was time to step away. With the conference and national tournaments looming, there could be up to nine more games. But none of them will be in Durham.

So the blue body paint started to flake or sweat away long before tipoff between No. 4 Duke and unranked North Carolina, but the masked students bounced anyhow. The band would pause, even if the fans near the floor never really did until the end. One young man, who was impossible to see through the thicket of signs and outstretched arms and stuffed animals, passed behind press row and apologetically choked out a question as basic as it was daunting: “My God, how am I going to get through here?”

But one hour after the next, on an evening when scores of former Krzyzewski players (and Jerry Seinfeld) descended on Durham, he and his blue-clad brethren mostly thundered in a manner befitting a college sports dynasty.

To celebrate each national championship cited in a pregame video. To taunt the Tar Heels. To declare their allegiance to Krzyzewski, who will finish his career with 572 wins at Cameron. To make a ruckus.

The direction on the cheer sheet for students, after all, was: “Just be louder than ever today.”

The Duke bench was not quiet, either. The man routinely called Coach K, nearly alone there in not donning a sartorial tribute to his career, often was.

Tipoff approached. He sat, arms crossed and maybe a bit teary. The horn sounded to signal that…