It appears that not even prior obligations will not get in the way of the first ever NCAA tournament matchup between Duke and North Carolina.
On Wednesday, TMZ reported that country music star Eric Church has canceled his upcoming concert at AT&T Center in San Antonio on Saturday night, in order to watch his Tar Heels play the Duke Blue Devils in the Final Four.
“As a lifelong Carolina basketball fan, I’ve watched Carolina and Duke battle over the years,” Church said, “but to have them matchup in the Final Four for the first time in the history of the NCAA Tournament is any sports enthusiast’s dream.”
“This is also the most selfish thing I’ve ever asked the Choir to do: to give up your Saturday night plans with us so that I can have this moment with my family and sports community,” Church continued. “However, it’s that same type of passion felt by the people who fill the seats at our concerts that makes us want to be part of a crowd at a game of this significance.”
County music star and #UNC super fan Eric Church has canceled his show in San Antonio on a Saturday, April 2 so they he can go watch #UNC play #Duke in the Final Four with his family. pic.twitter.com/CSeBwpd9wM
— Ross Martin (@RossMartin_IC) March 29, 2022
The concert is listed as “canceled” on the TicketMaster website, and that all those who purchased tickets to the event will be granted a refund.
Fans planning on attending the concert in San Antonio were not pleased with Church’s decision to cancel.
“You cancelled our concert Saturday to watch basketball??? Have you never heard of TIVO?? We sacrificed to get to go to this concert,” one Facebook user said. “You have hurt my wife. After all the shows canceled due to COVID, the world opens back up and you make this extremely selfish move. I am sick tou [sic] stomach. You have lost fans permanently.”
“He decided the basketball game was more important,” another user added.
Saturday night will be the 258th time that Duke and North Carolina play, but the first time they’ve ever matched up in the NCAA tournament. North Carolina, an 8-seed in the tournament, made their way to New Orleans after defeating Marquette, Baylor, UCLA, and Saint Peter’s. The Tar Heels will play in the Final Four in head coach’s Hubert Davis’ first year at the helm, one year after the retirement of legendary coach Roy Williams.
“I haven’t thought about it at all,” Davis said of Duke. “The only thing on my mind is celebrating with the rest of the players on what just happened today. Next week will be next week. And we’ll deal with that next week. But right now I don’t want to think about next week and lose the moment of today.”
The game has even more meaning, as North Carolina could end the career of legendary head coach Mike Krzyzewski, who will be retiring after the season.
Krzyzewski, who turned 75 in February, has won five national titles at Duke and led the U.S. men’s basketball team to three olympic gold medals. His 1,202 victories make him the winningest Division I coach in men’s college basketball history. Coach K has spent 42 of his 47 years coaching at Duke, building the program into the blue-blood it is today. Along with being the all-time winningest men’s coach, he’s been to the NCAA tournament 36 times, won 13 ACC regular-season titles, and has 15 ACC tournament championships to his name.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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Source: Dailywire
