Sorry, America. They are good again. They are really so good.
Half of the country will hate hearing. But it’s true. Duke left for the Final Four for the 18th time in school history and they could just have a team capable of winning everything. Again.
Faced with the challenge of an Alabama team that has better fired on the 3 balls in a match than any March Madness History team, the Blue Devils never dragged in an 85-65 victory to book their trip to San Antonio.
But the applause for the night are not based on the shoulders of the talented first year student Cooper Flagg, who received a lot of attention from the Crimson Tide defense.
While he succeeded 16 points, his compatriot Kon Knuppel collected 21 points. Meanwhile, Mark Sears – the hero of the Alabama of two nights ago – seemed a shell of himself in the middle of a suffocating wall of the defenders of Duke.
So now Duke has left for Texas Sun. But the warmth of the desert will not be the only thing that awaits them, because the pressure to win a sixth potential title lounges.
Duke returns in the Final Four at the back of first -year students, such as Tyrese Proctor (5) and Cooper Flagg (2)
The goalkeeper of the first year of Duke, Kon Knueppel, paved the way with 21 points in the evening
Duke Jon Scheyer’s head coach went to his very first Final Four in charge of the program
Of course, they were favored, but the main objective of Duke entering the night was to slow down the fastest offensive in the country.
Alabama plays at a rate like no other in the country. It is a pace so fast and so overwhelming that they can usually let the defense fall on the edge of the road.
This is not the case this year, because it is for the final team of the four of last year which was not long in scoring but which was missing. Crimson Tide of this year was much better in diet by defending their own net and was top 30 in defensive efficiency.
Just a problem: the Duke team they played is the best attack in the country that also has a defense among the first five.
So yes, this Alabama team has just established the NCAA tournament record for most attempts of 3 points and most made 3 points in one match in their dismantling by Byu on Thursday.
But just after the end of this match, Duke hit the floor and dropped 100 points in a match against an ill -matched Arizona team.
The Blue Devils came out of the doors by doing exactly what they needed: playing an intense defense on the ball that killed any momentum, the tide would have pushed the ground. Conversely, they led up to 13 in the first half.
Sears, the hero of the Alabama on Thursday evening, was slow after the jump and ended up getting a lot of first half-time bench because he failed to find his shooting form by overthrowing ten 3 points just two days ago.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats calls a game against Duke in the elite eight
Alabama hoped for a strong match of Thursday’s hero, the senior guard Mark Sears
Duke’s main goal was to slow down an incredibly fast ‘bama offense
There was a time when the momentum in the first half began to swing the Alabama path. After making a 7-0 race to reduce the six-point deficit, the tide started riding. But an immediate turnover on an inbounds led to a triple of Duke Caleb Foster to make a nine points that they took at halftime.
The 3 -point offensive from Alabama made them the match before. In the first half of this evening match, he flowed them to a clip 5 for 19.
While the game was approaching the half of the second half, the Alabama continued to push-trying to find an opening, a race, something, anything to keep their dreams of Mars alive.
They had the help of the fact that Flagg had trouble starting the second framework. He was seated after going 0 for 5 on the field.
But went up the support casting of his first -year colleagues: the Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel guards and the great man Khaman Maluach. While Kueppel was able to spray through the defense with laity and Proctor was effective in the shooting, Maluach was open in paint for lobs and transport in boards.
Alabama needed a resurgence of its best player, but Sears did not deliver. At 8:00 am, the man who struck ten 3 points on Thursday was on a 2 by 9 shooter line. He finished night
Even Sears’ defense did not work. Keeping flagg around 7:30 am, he harassed the native of New England so much that he lost his dribble … Only for Flagg to find him and put an uprising of a shot that he has laced.
It would be falsified to say “that’s how the night was” but it is just as true that the declaration “Duke is improbably talented”.
Mark Sears of Alabama fought powerfully from the ground – pulling a poor 2 out of 12
First year center of 7 -foot Duke Khaman Maluach Dunks Le Ballon against Alabama
The goalkeeper of the first year of Duke, Tyrese Proctor, ensures a shot in the elite eight against Alabama
Duke’s first year of the first year, Kon Knuppel, tries to save a wandering pass during the first half
None of the first -year students looked inexperienced. At the end of the night, Kueppel had 21, Maluach fell 14 points and nine rebounds, and goalkeeper Tyrese Proctor succeeded in a well -stored statistical line of 17 points, five rebounds, two assists.
And of course, there was flagg. Only three players since 2000 won the first year of the year and led their teams to national titles: Carmelo Anthony in Syracuse in 2003, Anthony Davis in Kentucky in 2012, and more recently, Jahlil Okafor in 2015 with – Who Else – Duke.
Flagg is positioned to join them now. Of course, this evening was not his best night. He went wrong with the ball and Grant Nelson de l’Alabama had his number for the majority of the procedures.
But with the attention given to him, the rest of the team was able to prosper. Alabama has tied too much for defense many times and has allowed space for other Blue Devils on the ground.
The tide hunted ghosts. Soon, the spirits overwhelmed them and they could not follow. The promise that the team has held to return Sears and Nelson from the final team Four last year was a whisper while the majority of Duke Foule speaks to their greatest pleasure in the prudential center.
But don’t be afraid of fans of Alabama. Like a patron dressed in crimson behind the media bench has proclaimed “the football season begins soon”.
It is no comfort to train Nate Oats. It is not a stay for Sears and Nelson, who leave a university floor for the last time either.
The success of Flagg led to too much defense of Alabama, opening the floor to his teammates
It is a night that will give the Alabama basketball fans- like this young ‘- agony for the moment
More to follow.