Survive and advance they say… That’s exactly what Duke did today in a 77-76 win over UCF. It was the signature game of the tournament so far. Frankly Duke should have lost. If you saw the end of the Duke\Wake Forest game near the end of the regular season, this was a replay.
Crazy ending to the Duke / UCF game. Zion Williamson & RJ Barrett with key plays down the stretch to win. ?? pic.twitter.com/aCPVghIcd1
— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) March 24, 2019
Duke didn’t lose and they advance to the Sweet 16. I looked back the last 20 years, and I couldn’t find another National Champion that had another opening weekend heart stopper like that. That doesn’t bode well for the Blue Devils. Leave it to a Duke site to possibly find a silver lining though, but I can’t fault them because they are right.
UCLA needed Tyus Edney’s game against Missouri.
Maybe this is Duke’s Missouri game.
But Dawkins owned Duke tonight. Aubrey too.
— TheDevilsDen.com (@TheDevilsDen) March 24, 2019
This very well could be Duke’s Tyus Edney game. Here is a trip down memory lane, as that UCLA team went on to win the 1995 National Championship.
Duke didn’t play well in Columbia, SC though, especially on the defensive end. I thought if Duke shot well from 3 point range, they would be the prohibitive favorite in this tournament. Well Sunday they shot 40% from 3, and nearly lost. The reason is UCF shot 48% from the field and 50% from 3. Against NDSU, in their opening game, they trailed for portions of the 1st half and led only 31-27 at the half.
The Blue Devils also need more contributions from their bench. Against UCF they played only 7 players, and got only 3 points from their bench. Duke can’t have this kind of production from their bench and expect to win the national title. Up next is Virginia Tech. They are a dangerous 3 point shooting team, that has already beat team. Don’t say it was because Zion Williamson didn’t player either. Virginia Tech was without Justin Robinson.
The Hokies penetrating guards will really test Duke’s on the ball defense. After that could be Big 10 tournament champion Michigan State or an LSU athletic team. I considered that LSU team the SEC’s best this year.
That’s all before you get to the Final 4.
Duke at their best still has a ceiling that I think no other team in the field can match, but we’ve haven’t seen much of it in the tournament so far. It better show up soon.
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