完整的故事在這兒。

完整的故事在這兒。

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oregon/articles/2017-03-29/final-4-conflict-for-eugene-couple-who-met-at-north-carolina

Final 4 Conflict for Eugene Couple Who Met at North Carolina

A Eugene couple who met at the University of North Carolina must decide before Saturday's Final 4 matchup whether to root for the Oregon Ducks or the North Carolina.

March 29, 2017, at 10:43 a.m.

Final 4 Conflict for Eugene Couple Who Met at North Carolina

By ALISHA ROEMELING, The Register-Guard

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Zach Lazar, 34, and his wife, Kristin Denmark, 33, of Eugene never dreamed they'd be able to watch their two favorite college basketball teams compete against each other.

But that changed Saturday evening, when the third-seeded Oregon Ducks men's basketball team defeated top-seeded Kansas 74-60 in the Midwest Regional final in Kansas City, Missouri. The victory means the Ducks will face the North Carolina Tar Heels in a Final Four face-off scheduled for Saturday in Glendale, Arizona.

As a lifelong Tar Heel fan, who grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, Lazar said it's exciting to see his team make it to the Final Four. But he added that the situation also is somewhat torturous.

"All of our friends from North Carolina are texting us and asking who we're rooting for and saying, 'You better answer correctly,'?" Lazar said with a laugh. "Our Oregon friends are doing the same thing. We don't know who we're rooting for yet, but sooner or later, we'll have to decide."

The couple met in a volleyball class at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2003 and earned their undergraduate degrees there. Lazar earned a bachelor's degree in international studies in 2005; Denmark received a bachelor's in political science in 2006.

"We're both big sports fans," Lazar said. "The East Coast is much different from the West Coast; no one really cares about professional sports on the East Coast, and North Carolina especially is all about college basketball."

Lazar said that becoming a Tar Heel fan at UNC was almost compulsory.

"You're almost brainwashed into becoming a huge fan," Lazar said.

The couple, who moved to Eugene in 2008 to further their education, says they're big Ducks fans, too.

"Oregon sports are my favorite in everything except college basketball," Lazar said in a phone interview Tuesday. "Football, the women's soccer team; I follow a lot of Oregon sports."

Denmark attended the University of Oregon School of Law from 2008 to 2011, and she works as an attorney in Springfield. Lazar works for the UO as an undergraduate coordinator in the department of romance languages. He's also pursuing his master's degree and is enrolled at the University of Oregon College of Education.

"My wife — as of this morning — says she's comfortable saying she's probably going to pull for Oregon," Lazar said. "She likes certain aspects of the team, and North Carolina has had a lot of basketball success, and Oregon only has that one banner. . They deserve something else."

Lazar said he's probably going to root for his alma mater.

"I think I'm probably going to go for Carolina," he said. "The good news is that one of the two will be in the national championship."

Ultimately, Lazar said, he wants to see how Eugene reacts if the Ducks advance to the national championship.

"My senior year (of college), they (UNC) won the national championship, and everyone near campus rushed the streets, and it was insane," he said. "It would be cool to see that sort of celebration here."

But Lazar said that he and his wife, who likely will watch the game at home, would be happy with either outcome.

"I just think it's awesome that two things in our life that means so much are meeting," Lazar said. "When they announced the brackets, I thought it would be cool if both teams make it to the Final Four, but I didn't think it would actually happen."