The Duke Blue Devils won the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship outright on Saturday in Chapel Hill, marking Jon Scheyer’s first regular-season title as head coach. If not for a road loss at Clemson, the Blue Devils would have finished the regular season undefeated in the ACC.
Duke defeated their rivals North Carolina on Saturday. The Tar Heels came into the game desperate for a win to secure a spot in the March Madness tournament. Duke’s Cooper Flagg had three fouls by halftime, yet North Carolina didn’t attempt to get him to draw his fourth foul in the second half.
North Carolina led in the second half, but Duke surged ahead. With the Blue Devils leading near the end of the game, Flagg drove past a defender and dunked, swinging his legs high in the air. The ESPN camera crew showed Flagg’s mom and dad on camera, with them patting their heads. However, the moment went viral when Flagg’s mom decided to use some colorful language.
Flagg’s mother apologized for any offense caused by her actions, but continued to criticize North Carolina fans. “It was a very intense situation we were put into… they continued to harass us with much worse being spewed in our direction, as well as toward our 18-year-old son and his teammates,” she wrote.
Fans being disrespectful is understandable given that this is one of college basketball’s oldest rivalries. However, it appears that harassing the family added some emotion to the situation. At the end of the day, Flagg’s parents were simply celebrating with their son, as they do after every good play, and it just so happened that a camera captured that moment.
