Newark, NJ – Duke did not face a team that looks like Alabama.
Alabama has not seen a team that looks like Duke.
We could be great at the Prudential Center on Saturday evening.
The first two seeds are those that remain in the east region, as in the south (Auburn, Michigan State) and the Midwest (Houston, Tennessee). In the West, things have become slightly uncontrollable: Florida N ° 1 is also on the table, with this seeded n ° 3, Texas Tech, the only team preventing a full -fledged chalk in the regional final. A tournament as dominated by the favorites as it deprives us of the charming deep tournament to which we have used, but the exchange is worth it.
These other three Elite eight The matches could be so competitive, we could get the best Saturday / final Sunday.
The best of all occurs here in Jersey. Duke-Alabama is the best Elite Eight confrontation since, since Duke led by Zion Williamson played (and lost) Michigan State in 2019. If the teams play their best, it is fortunate to be considered among the best Elite Eight matches. Almost definitely compared to the best – Duke 104, Kentucky 103 in the 1992 regional final – but perhaps something just a notch below.
“We know it will be a war,” said Duke’s first year center, Khaman Maluach.
I hope that the one who won on the run. We rarely get a regional final with two teams as well in attack. Alabama reached 113 points against Byu in this building on Thursday; Duke checked exactly 100 by beating Arizona. The potential for powerful offense and powerful performance is palpable from a pair of programs classified at the top of the pre-season (BAMA n ° 2, DUKE n ° 7) and which have been stable for the most part in the last four months.
To what extent will the factor tested in combat be a factor? Consider: This is Alabama’s seventh game against a Kenpom team among the first 10. Duke? Only his second. But Duke ranks n ° 1 in Kenpom – and has the second highest margin of efficiency in the history of this metric. Alabama is sixth in Kenpom; The tide faced each team classified in front of them, checking Duke from the list when the game tips on Saturday evening (8:39 p.m. on TBS).
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Duke and Alabama are both good enough to strut in a national title. However, we are there, obtaining this game before the Final Four.
“This is the most difficult match to win,” said Duke Jon Scheyer’s coach of a regional final, “each team has a big momentum in this match. Whatever you play, each team has won three games in a row. And then you are obviously a thumb of the promised basketball, at a final level.
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Chip Patterson
A game of this big question after the other, Mysteries who will soon be discovered. Duke defensive Dynamo Maliq Brown, recently back from a shoulder injury, will it be a revolutionary factor for the Blue Devils? Mark Sears, fresh out of a lava shot performance against Byu, go more than 25 years against Duke’s size and commissionability? Can Alabama win if it does not reach at least 75 points? Can Duke win if Alabama reaches 90 years? How is Kon Knueppel still subject to this game? Does he end up being the guy who plays best, or is it going to be Tide Award Grant Nelson, who seems to be quietly waiting for his moment? Is it possible for Cooper Flagg be even better than it was against ArizonaAnd if not, can Alabama win this game if flagg play better than its averages (19.0 ppg, 7.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.4 SPG, 1.3 BPG)?
It will be the first meeting between Duke and Alabama in the tournament, and in the heart of a tête-à-tête is a two-component question: is it easier to contain the almost inconstantable Flagg Cooper than to slow down the most score of university basketball? The answer to this could give us the winner.
“I will say that it is more difficult to hold cooper under its averages because there is a way to remove the three,” said Crimson Tide coach on Friday. “We are going to have to do our best. But it is also one of those guys who, I mean, you will not remember at 10 points. It simply does not happen.”
Alabama comes out of historical performance against Byu; The team’s 25 -point screen of the team was the most triple (four) in an NCAA tournament match, and its 49% success rate was also the best percentage with at least 40 attempts in a March Madness game. Despite this magma level shoot, the reality is that Alabama is not an elite outfit at 3 points. It is on average 35.6% beyond the arc, ranking 75th in the country. He launches a lot, but his ability to mark is much more based on his best classified tempo: 75.2 possessions per game.
This leads to many points of paint. Alabama is a 60.1% shooting team inside the arc, which ranks third nationally. It is more likely that this game is won or lost, rather than the line of 3 points. In addition to directing the nation in a score (91.4 points per game), the 42.7 rebounds by Alabama competition are also better than all the other teams of university hoops.
“If you want to remove us 3, you can,” said oats. “We have also played where we also scored almost 70 points in the painting for the teams that are just fatal (doing this). So when people ask me how many 3s do you want to get up, well, it depends on how you want to keep us. … If you want to remove us completely from the line, build each trip, we will try to go and score 70, 75 points in painting.”
CBS Sports Research
Alabama and Duke combined to light the dashboard with 213 points Thursday evening. Alabama has soared: 94.3 ppg in this tournament. Duke’s 94.0 average points during his first three tournament games is a program record. This is the first Elite Eight match in which the two teams have been accompanied better than 90 per game since 1989, and even more fun: the last time that a NCAA tournament match presented two teams that scored 100 points the previous release was back in the 1992 Final (Duke against Indiana), when the two reached the century in the regional finals.
If there is a real advantage for Duke, this is this: the Blue Devils are on average 5.7 reversals in their last three games. This is the lowest rate of all teams to make a Sweet 16 since 2010. Alabama does not force reversals, ranking 352nd to assess 364 teams (13.4%). Duke, the offense by possession best rated in sport, will get its opportunities.
“Obviously, they are a great power offense and a large team. We know that it will be a big match,” said Scheyer.
Let’s certainly hope yes. With these two that have not faced another team like what they were affected here, this allows the possibility of an incredibly close game which is delighted by big games.
“Our last seven dry games have really prepared us for matches like this,” said Alabama All-American Mark Sears.
The Alabama offensive, Go-Go-Go-Go, cannot be reproduced in practice, but the unique flagg skills cannot either, the size of Maluach-and even the size of Duke. It is literally a huge team. You don’t really know what you face until you face.
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Flagg statistically had the best match of any recruit of all time in the tournament against Arizona, but Sears was only one more history. Its 10 treys have led to 34 points, in addition to eight assists and three interceptions.
With Sears which goes for more than 30 and eight Dimals, Flagg also struck 30 and having seven assists against Byu, Saturday is the first match in the history of the tournament which will put players opposed to matches with at least 30 points and five assists. Sears was the national player of the pre-season year here at CBS Sports. Flagg has already won the national player of the year Oscar Robertson.
This is the exact type of confrontation that we would have hoped in the pre-season to finish in the Final Four.
But instead, it is one of the best elite eight on-one on the paper that we have never seen. Duke is in a regional final for the 25th time, third more in history. This third Elite Eight of Alabama, and it is second consecutive after doing the Final Four last season.
A year ago, Duke arrived at the Elite Eight after maneuvering in front of Houston, who lost his best player, Jamal Shead, in the middle of the game because of a knee injury. The Blue Devils were square against NC State, the 11 seeds that were on a race of all time, but were big favorites against their ACC competitors. Instead, Wolfpack with a lot of space to breathe: 76-64. This lingered with Scheyer for 363 days.
“Each decision that we have made since March 31 of last year has been to put us in this same position and to have the possibility of capitalizing,” said Scheyer, referring to an inter -seison overhang focused on the size and the Switability to complete the star class of 2025 recruits from the coup.
A loss of Duke against Alabama would be reasonable – but always a failure for this team. These players publicly placed the bar to win a national title and nothing less. Alabama lost just as disappointing. The tide that realizes the final consecutive ovens would increase the status of the program in the modern hierarchy of university basketball. The stakes induce high pressure and anticipation which are at a level of championship. And this is essentially what we have here, only two laps earlier. It is an Elite Eight match which could well produce the possible national champion. You cannot ask for something bigger, or better, of a regional final than the Duke n ° 1 against Alabama n ° 2.
