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Word on the Street: How do you feel about Duke's loss?

March is upon us and with it brings the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, aka March Madness.

In Chapel Hill, this time of year brings about a lot of expectations, usually centered around our beloved Tar Heels who often have a legitimate chance to bring home the trophy each year. However, our friends over at Duke are slowly teaching us to have new expectations. Only three years removed from the Mercer fiasco, and with Lehigh upsetting the Devils two years before that, Duke has again been upset early in the big dance.

Staff writer Aaron Whittemore took a stroll around campus to hear what people thought about Duke’s shocking (but actually not that shocking) loss to South Carolina in the second round of March Madness.


Danny Cullum

Sophomore journalism major

“I was super pumped. I watched the whole game. It’s great to see UNC fans cheering for South Carolina in the arena and also I love to check Twitter to see all the funny memes of everybody clowning on Duke because that’s always like one of the best parts too.”


Bethany Rutledge

Junior Spanish major

“When I found out Duke lost, I was laying in my bed and my dad texted me and he told me that Duke lost and I felt an overwhelming sense of justice and exhilaration.”


Mary Glen Hatcher, right, and Ryan Alderman, left

Sophomore advertising major and sophomore philosophy and public relations major, respectively

Mary Glen: “When I heard that Duke lost, I was very happy. I shed a single tear, and then I went on with my life.”

Ryan: “When I heard Duke lost, I just tweeted ‘Bye, Duke’ with a smiley face with like the colon parenthesis and then a GIF that said ‘the devil called, he wants y'all to come home bitches.’”


Bronwyn Bishop

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Junior environmental studies major

“Just like really euphoric. I’ve never felt that way about a basketball game before and it was a special experience.”


Sonny Simonetti

Sophomore political science major

“I was actually kind of upset that Duke lost because I was looking forward to a Duke vs. UNC finals.”


David Katibah

Junior economics and political science major

“I was pumped to see Duke lose because a Duke loss is a UNC win every day of the week. Although I will say I was sad because my bracket was busted when they lost because part of me wanted to see a Duke-UNC final. That would have been really fun and really intense and history so it would have been cool to be a student here when that happened. But nonetheless I was excited to see them lose.”


David Kang

Senior economics and statistics major

“I was very glad because the things that happened in sports the past year I was 100 percent expecting Duke to make it to the final, them being down 30 at the half and then coming back to win it on like a half-court buzzer beater or something like that. But they lost in the second round, so it was very satisfying. It makes the rest of the tournament much more enjoyable.”

swerve@dailytarheel.com