By Staff
Commentary by KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
Before tonight’s tip-off between No. 1 North Carolina and No. 5 Duke, Cameron Indoor Stadium will grow silent.
The rabid Tar Heel fans will be quiet. The Cameron Crazies will be hushed.
A moment of silence will be held in honor of Eve Marie Carson. Tears will undoubtedly fall. Throats will feel a lump. Hearts will ache.
Carson, a beautiful 22-year-old senior majoring in political science and biology, was the student body president at the University of North Carolina. On Wednesday morning, Carson was found shot to death northeast of the campus.
Police are searching for answers.
This violent, horrific act has shaken up both the North Carolina and Duke campuses.
Tonight’s basketball game, which has plenty at stake, has taken on a whole new meaning.
The Tar Heels (28-2), who have won seven straight, and the Blue Devils (26-3), riding a four-game winning streak, enter tonight’s game with identical 13-2 conference records.
The winner will win the ACC regular-season championship and earn the top seed for the upcoming conference tournament.
It will also likely lock up a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
This game, played between schools separated by just eight miles, is important.
But, suddenly, Wednesday’s senseless tragedy has put a new spin on the game.
It should remind basketball fans, and everybody, that it is, indeed, just a game.
Several people will tune in to watch two of the nation’s best teams and top coaches, North Carolina’s Roy Williams and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, battle it out in this intense, epic rivalry.
Two halves of basketball. Forty minutes of athletes running up and down the floor, shooting a round ball through a basket.
Win or lose, it doesn’t come close to the impact Eve Marie Carson had at her school.
She won a coveted Morehead-Cain Scholarship, which covers the full cost of four years to attend UNC. Carson was involved with the N.C. Fellow leadership development program and student committees during her time in college. She mentored in schools in both Chapel Hill and Durham, while she spent summers working and volunteering in such places as Ecuador and Ghana.
Carson, a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, was a beacon.
She was fan of Roy Williams and the Tar Heels.
Her team will undoubtedly play with inspiration, but also with heavy hearts in tonight’s game.
Fans likely won’t forget this colossal matchup between these Tobacco Road rivals.
But let’s not forget about Eve.
Remember, it’s just a game.
Remember Eve.
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Kevin Travis is the sports editor of the Washington Daily News. You may reach him at 940-4217, or by e-mail at Kevin@wdnweb.com. His blog, KT’s Take On Sports, appears at http://wdnsports.blogspot.com.