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Bracket nerds and college basketball historians — from Jim Nantz to your nextdoor neighbor — pay attention to these things. The Duke Blue Devils have repeated their national championship journeys over the years, and anyone who follows Duke closely knows this.
In 1992, for instance, the Blue Devils’ path to a national championship under Mike Krzyzewski went from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis.
1992: Campbell, then Iowa, in Greensboro; Seton Hall, then Kentucky, in Philadelphia; Indiana, then Michigan, in the Metrodome.
2001: Monmouth, then Missouri, in Greensboro; UCLA, then USC, in Philadelphia — USC beat Kentucky in the Sweet 16 to deny the world a Duke-Kentucky regional final rematch in Philly, nine years after the epic original; and then Maryland and Arizona in the Metrodome.
It is true that Duke didn’t have a Greensboro-Philadelphia path to Minneapolis this time. It is true that the Metrodome no longer exists. Nevertheless, it remains that two of Duke’s five national titles were won in Minneapolis, which recalls a tidal wave of great memories yet also adds to the sting of not being in the Twin Cities for this year’s Final Four.
Duke — for the bracket nerds out there — has won its five national titles in two Midwestern cities: Minneapolis and Indianapolis.
The Hoosier Dome (renamed the RCA Dome) was the site of Duke’s greatest single NCAA Tournament win, the 1991 upset of unbeaten UNLV in the national semifinals which changed the program forever. Duke then won its first national title two nights later against Kansas to cement that transformation. That was the first Final Four Jim Nantz called for CBS after taking over from Brent Musburger. None of us had the internet yet, let alone Twitter. What a time.
In 2010 and 2015, Duke reached the Final Four in a century marked by a lot of Final Four misses. Those two years, however, produced magical runs to the national championship — in 2010, because Duke didn’t have the elite, high-end talent of most Blue Devil squads; in 2015, because Kentucky entered that Final Four 38-0 and was the focus of the event, much as UNLV was in Indianapolis 24 years earlier. Duke was not the favorite to win the 2010 NCAA Tournament when it began, and Duke was not the favorite to win the 2015 Final Four when it began.
Had Duke not won those two Final Fours in Indianapolis, we might not think of the program differently, but we certainly would think of Coach K differently. His resume would still be better than Roy Williams’ body of work if he had “just” three national titles, but the gap between the two men would be a lot smaller.
Indianapolis with three, Minneapolis with 2. Duke has won five national titles in two modest and buttoned-down Midwestern municipalities. Duke was looking to match the three-pack in Indy with another trio of trophies in Minnesota.
Not being able to compete for the “double triple” in Minneapolis stings… but the meaning of Minneapolis to Duke basketball — cementing the back-to-back championships in 1992 and then reminding everyone Duke and K were still the kings of college basketball nine years later — is still profound as the 2019 Final Four bursts into color.
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