The end of the era is coming. It might come as early as Thursday, when Duke runs up against top-seeded Oregon in the Sweet 16.
When Duke shoots well from beyond the arc for 40 minutes, the Blue Devils are nearly unbeatable. When the shots fall for 20 minutes, it still might get the job done, as was the case Saturday. But against whoever Duke plays next in Anaheim, 20 excellent minutes of basketball might not be enough.
After a big early lead nearly slipped away, Duke downed the 12th-seeded Bulldogs 71-64 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center to advance to the West Regional semifinals next week in Anaheim, Calif.
For a while, Duke and Yale have been worlds apart in the realm of athletics. But just a few years ago, both schools were on the table for Yale sophomore guard Makai Mason and Duke freshman walk-on Brennan Besser.
Fourth-seeded Duke will take on 12th-seeded Yale at 2:40 p.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The teams met earlier this season in Durham—an 80-61 Blue Devil victory—but much has changed since then for both squads.
Challenged at halftime by his head coach after scoring just four points and grabbing two rebounds, center Marshall Plumlee returned to the floor with a vengeance for the final 20 minutes.
Fourth-seeded Duke defeated the Seahawks 93-85 in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday afternoon at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. Plumlee scored a career-high 23 points—including eight dunks—on 9-of-10 shooting and added eight rebounds, giving the Blue Devils point-blank scoring opportunities to ward off UNC-Wilmington.
Grayson Allen introduced himself to the nation with a 16-point performance in last year's national title game against Wisconsin, helping Duke erase a big second-half deficit to cut down the nets. What does he have planned for an encore?
For two straight years, Notre Dame has ended Duke’s hope of securing an ACC tournament title. Last season, the Blue Devils were galvanized by the loss to the Fighting Irish in the ACC semifinals, made the necessary adjustments did not drop another game the rest of the way.
Duke was awarded a No. 4 seed when the NCAA tournament field was revealed Sunday evening on CBS. The Blue Devils will open up first-round action Thursday against 13th-seeded UNC Wilmingtonin Providence, R.I.
After building a 16-point lead, Duke faded down the stretch and allowed Notre Dame to crawl all the way and take a lead late in the second half. The Blue Devils gutted it out to force overtime, but following 40 tough minutes against the Fighting Irish—piled on top of 40 back-and-forth minutes versus N.C. State Wednesday—five more minutes proved too much to handle
After forcing overtime with a 14-0 run near the end of regulation, fourth-seeded Notre Dame scored the first five points of the extra session and outlasted the fifth-seeded Blue Devils 84-79 Thursday at the Verizon Center, knocking Duke out of the ACC tournament for the second straight year.
The Blue Devils had seen the play before. They knew how it ended—an outcome different from the one they sought—so they decided to flip the script. In the highest-scoring 40-minute ACC tournament game since 1990, Duke survived 92-89 against N.C. State on the back of a gritty defensive stand on the Wolfpack’s last fluid offensive possession, stymying one of N.C. State head coach Mark Gottfried’s most trusted plays.
The ACC experienced lots of technical difficulties with the shot clock during Wednesday’s second-round contest between Pittsburgh and Syracuse. There could be plenty more of those scoreboard errors with the amount of offense on display Thursday.
Duke and N.C. State seemingly could not miss for much of the game Thursday, but a late Marshall Plumlee putback and defensive stand sent the Blue Devils past the Wolfpack for the third time this season.
Back in September, the Blue Devils celebrated their national championship with a trip to the White House. Now, Duke returns to the nation's capital looking for another title.
Throughout his two seasons at Duke, Grayson Allen has worn many hats. The almost-forgotten fourth member of a stacked No. 1 recruiting class. The postseason hero who made a name for himself at the Final Four. A prolific scorer lauded by fans, teammates and coaches alike for his efforts on the court. And, most recently, the recipient of national ire for the way he has treated some opponents.
The morning after playing a full 40 minutes in Duke’s 74-73 victory against North Carolina in Chapel Hill Feb. 17, freshman Brandon Ingram woke up sore.
When Duke announced March 5 that Amile Jefferson’s season was finished, the Blue Devils lost any hope they had of injecting the senior’s nightly double-double back into a depth-strapped roster.
Although his offense has not always been there, freshman floor general Derryck Thornton has faced off against some of the most seasoned and talented point guards in college basketball—from Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis to Virginia’s London Perrantes and Tar Heel Marcus Paige—and kept up with them all.
