Teams like Northern Iowa and Cornell have gained significant notoriety for advancing to the Sweet 16 in this season’s NCAA Tournament. After all, it is a feat that few teams achieve each year.
For the Blue Devils, however, this impressive accomplishment has become nothing more than an afterthought.
“We want to have a chance to go to the Final Four and play for a national championship,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “If it was that easy, then everybody would do it all the time. When people start throwing up what you haven’t done, there are a lot of people who have never done anything, [like] going to the Sweet 16.”
The Blue Devils have made it to 26 NCAA Tournaments in Krzyzewski’s 30 years as head coach, including earning trips to 10 Final Fours and winning three national championships. Duke has also made 15 consecutive tournament appearances, the second- longest active streak in the country, which includes a run of nine straight Sweet 16s from 1997-2006.
Virtually every college basketball program in the country could not even fathom such accomplishments, with the exception of maybe UCLA and Kentucky. And since this kind of Tournament success is rare outside of Durham, living up to these enormous expectations is an obstacle that few other teams in the NCAA Tournament have to experience.
It would be unheard of for a team to receive criticism for not having reached a Final Four over a period of five years.
But Duke, which last made a Final Four in 2004, is held to a completely different standard. With the long-term success the Blue Devils have had, so comes the expectations to make a deep run in the Tournament every year.
“They are going to be on me all the time, but that’s okay,” Krzyzewski said. “I just want to make sure our players are not playing for that, and they get the recognition for what they are doing now and not compared to what Jason Williams did. That’s unfair. I just want to make sure that our guys get the best experience and play for all the right reasons right now and then whatever happens, if there’s something that doesn’t happen as well as we want, I’m okay with getting the criticism.”
Since their last Final Four appearance, the Blue Devils have won four ACC tournament championships and posted a 170-39 record. And due to the achievements of Krzyzewski’s previous teams, what would be considered a great accomplishment at any other program, like making the Sweet 16, is the norm with the Blue Devils.
These are the same goals, though, that have made Duke one of the best collegiate programs ever.
“Those expectations are the reason why all of us came to Duke,” junior Nolan Smith said. “We came here to live up to those expectations, so we feel like it’s our job to do that. We don’t feel any pressure from the expectations off the court but it’s the reason we put on the Duke jersey every game to go out there and play hard.”
While there is such a long history of success in Cameroon Indoor Stadium, it is easy for individual players and teams to be overlooked. The pressure to achieve greatness and become a part of history is the root of the winning tradition in Durham.
In addition to the coach who built this tradition and the players he recruited, the winning mentality has enabled Duke to reach the pinnacle of its sport. Those expectations, however, can be as much a blessing as they are a curse, and this extends beyond having to play up to a higher standard than the other 15 teams left in the Tournament.
“There is an amazing tradition here, an unbelievable amount of Final Fours especially,” senior Brian Zoubek said. “That is something we want to uphold, but that really isn’t our focus. This is our team. This is our year, especially for our seniors, and we want to do something that is just about us and we aren’t worried about what Duke has done in the past. We are having such a great time playing with each other and it’s been so enjoyable this year. We really do not want it to end and we will do whatever it takes to not let that happen.”
This year’s team should be recognized for its ACC regular season and tournament championships in addition to its Sweet 16 appearance. Regardless if the Blue Devils manage to earn yet another trip to the Final Four and win a fourth national championship, this team hopes to make sure its legacy doesn’t get lost in the already crowded rafters.
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