The Duke-North Carolina game was special, but let's put it into perspective.

As I said during the telecast, it was a great, great game with significance in the ACC. There was so much intensity because of the rivalry, two schools separated just eight miles apart on Tobacco Road. There was also so much emotion.

It pales in comparison to something else that happened.

Last week, North Carolina student body president Eve Carson was murdered. It was a senseless tragedy and one that shook up everybody in the region. I never met the young lady, but I read about here and heard all of the reports on radio and TV. For a father, she was a dream to raise.

As a father of two girls, it breaks my heart to think about this. I can't even imagine what the phone call must have been like to her mom and dad, to break that news. Miss Carson did everything right, trying to live the American dream. She helped others, brought spirit to the students in Chapel Hill, and meant so much in the lives she touched as she travelled abroad and got involved in so many special activities.

Yes, It was great to see the North Carolina and Duke communities get together, paying tribute by wearing blue ribbons and giving a moment of silence prior to the game.

Now I am looking forward to hearing the bulletin that the police caught the criminal that committed that heinous crime.

Dick Vitale coached the Pistons and the University of Detroit before broadcasting ESPN's first college basketball game in December 1979. Send him a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.