Thanks for all the concerned comments but I will survive but in the end it's still just basketball. Yes it's the best basketball in the world but it's still just basketball.
I really like the perspective of this post from a Duke blog that I read. If you have a moment check it out.
The Longer View
Once a team loses in the tournament, the season ends with a thud, and when it ends like Duke’s did, painfully, it’s even worse. But you still have to have a bit of perspective.
It’s not like our coach got fired for violations and lying about violations, or like some of the players got charged with violent offenses. Nolan Smith and Kyle Singler will get their degrees in a few months and continue to build useful and rewarding lives. We only wish they could have finished on a brighter note because they’re both winners.
Kyrie Irving will have to decide whether or not to head to the NBA. Whatever he decides, he’s earned immense respect and affection from Duke fans for his character and his team-first attitude. He’s a wonderful kid and his family must be incredibly proud of him.
Mason Plumlee will likely have a decision to make as well. If he asked us, we’d counsel him to wait — parts of his game are NBA ready, but not all, and you don’t get much on-the-job-training there. It’s a tough life. But it’s his, and he should follow his heart.
As for the rest of the team, we can only say: thank you. Thanks for representing Duke so honorably. Everyone had to step up when Kyrie got hurt, and they all changed their roles. Despite that, they still won 32 games. We wish they had gone to Houston, but it was something out of reach this time.
Finally, we should all be immensely grateful to have Coach K. People tend to take winning 30+ games a year for granted, but you really shouldn’t. It’s hard to do once, much less 12 times (in fact, since 1986, Duke has failed to win at least 25 games just six times).
Our program is run with honor and dignity, and it succeeds on a scale which none of us ever could have imagined.
So losing to Arizona is sad of course, but we’re just as excited about next year as we were about this year, or the year before or the year before that.
So we hope everyone will take Coach K’s advice in situations like this and put on your Duke stuff tomorrow. There’s an awful lot to be proud of, and no loss is going to change that.