Fans at Late Night with Roy. Photo: Rivals.yahoo.com.

Chapel Hill, N.C.— I’m a sinner. I have betrayed my faith and my family, and nothing I could ever do will change that.

My grandparents graduated from Duke in the 1930s and bleeding royal blue is a tradition I’ve always embraced. To me, Shane Battier, Jason Williams, J.J. Redick and Greg Paulus are gods—they graced the sacred floor of Cameron Indoor Stadium for a combined 15 years and provided me floor-slapping and twine-tickling memories that still give me chills.

It was always my dream to play point guard for Mike Krzyzewski and be that gritty player everyone outside of Durham hated. When I realized by age 12 Coach K wasn’t going to call, I thought maybe I could just go as a student. But by the time I got my first B- in Physics class in 9th grade, I realized that wasn’t too likely either.

Instead, I spent my first two years of college at Marquette, where I received good-enough grades that left me with some options to get away from the frigid winters and beer-guzzling tradition of Milwaukee.

As an aspiring journalist, I had to put school first and I quickly realized that UNC had one of the best journalism programs in the country, so I decided to apply. I remember watching last year’s national championship game completely conflicted. This was the school I had spent the first 20+ years of my life despising and yet, it was my number one choice as a school to transfer to.

Six months later, I’m a junior at UNC. People around here wear “Duke Sucks” t-shirts as if they’re part of the required dress code. I’ve been asked at least 100 times now who I’m going to root for in their match-ups from now on and my honest answer is I’m not sure.

But, as much of a Dukie as I’ve been raised to be, even I was in awe at the Dean Dome for Late Night With Roy, UNC’s Midnight Madness tradition, Friday night.

The color, the lights, the players, the crowd, Roy Williams dancing—it was hard for even a passionate Dukie not to get goosebumps.

The coolest part to me though was seeing the excitement from the class of 2013 when they were introduced. UNC, as usual, has a top-tier freshmen core headlined by Dexter Strickland and John Henson, who have both played in the Elite 24, and the Wear twins, whom I wrote about in Bounce #21. It got me beyond amped for the upcoming year and made me wish conference play started tomorrow.

What the exact playground relevance is with this article I’m not sure. But I think anyone who’s ever played the sport on any level, or even just been a fan, can recognize tradition, dedication and passion, even if it may be rocking a different color blue.