Clemson may be Duke’s opponent in Cameron Indoor Stadium tonight, but they are hardly the main attraction.
When the No. 4 Blue Devils (26-3, 12-2 in the ACC) step onto Coach K court for the final time this season at 9 p.m., the attention will instead be on Duke’s stellar senior class, who will be playing in college basketball’s most storied venue for the final time.
But while the eyes of the fans will be on Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith and Casey Peters, the seniors know that the game itself is still the most important thing—especially if the Blue Devils are to claim the ACC regular season title with victories in their final two games.
“First thing that comes to mind is to win,” Smith said. “Thinking back over all the wins I’ve had in Cameron, there’s going to be nothing better than to put on a great performance in my last game here.”
Emotions will certainly run high for this senior class, though, who brought Duke’s fourth national title to Durham last season and, with a victory, would graduate with a 65-2 record in Cameron as well as the longest active home winning streak in the country.
The two players who have been there for the whole ride, Smith and Singler, have had a relationship that has run the gauntlet of experiences during their four years as Blue Devils. Their first year on campus was a tumultuous one that ended with a second round exit from the NCAA Tournament. Two years later, however, they found themselves on top of the college basketball world and decided together to return for one last season at Duke.
“The decision was easy because we wanted to come back and wear the Duke jersey some more, win more games and lead this team,” Smith said. “Our junior year is when we became brothers.... Living together, doing everything together off the court, our relationship has been great, and we want to finish this year off the way we planned coming back for our senior years.”
The two will have to put their relationship and emotions to the side, though, in order to win one more game against a desperate Clemson (19-9, 8-6) team that finds itself squarely on the bubble as Selection Sunday approaches.
That’s something that associate head coach Steve Wojciechowski knows well from his experiences both as a coach and a player for the Blue Devils.
“When you know it’s the last time you’ll put a uniform on in Cameron, there’s a lot of different emotions,” Wojciechowski said. “There’s a lot to celebrate with these guys, but when the ball goes in the air for the jump ball you need to put all that to the side and focus on the task at hand.”
That task is to beat the Tigers, who face a similar situation as Duke’s last opponent, Virginia Tech, in that a win could take them off the bubble and secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Clemson is coming off two straight wins and very nearly upset North Carolina three weeks ago, losing to the Tar Heels by just two points.
The Tigers also have the experience to weather what is sure to be a hostile Cameron crowd. The Tigers boast eight upperclassmen on the roster, and most have had successful careers under former head coach Oliver Purnell.
When Purnell left the university to coach DePaul, though, Brad Brownell took the reigns at Clemson and instituted a different defensive style that saw similar results. Indeed, his high pressure half-court defense has had just as much, if not more, success as Purnell’s full-court trapping scheme, as the Tigers have allowed only 60 points per game this season.
“Clemson is an outstanding defensive team,” Wojciechowski said. “They do the best job of anyone in our league of pressuring the ball.”
Regardless of whether Clemson pulls off the upset or Duke gets the win, once the final buzzer sounds, the attention of Cameron will once again be squarely on Singler, Smith and Peters.
It’s something that the normally effervescent Smith knows and, in a way, dreads.
“I’m an emotional guy,” Smith said. “We take care of business, get the win, and I expect my after-the-game speech to be very short, so the guys don’t see me cry.”
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