Newark, NJ – With 6:39 separating Duke from the final berth Final Four, it continued all season, Jon Scheyer huddled his team and took a deep inspiration.
What he said then would be the thread: either what sent the Blue Devils to San Antonio … or the most ill -read moment of the three -year mandate of Scheyer.
“It’s our time, right now. Scheyer Aboya. “It’s our game.”
And early, it was.
Two days after Alabama has published one of the truly historical offensive efforts in the sanctified history of March Madness, Duke composed his defense among the first five times more and put the pliers on the Cramatian tide, 85-65, to go to his first last four under the final of Scheyer and the final of the South Region of the program between Houston and the Tresenee. N ° 1 Florida advanced earlier on Saturday after defeating Texas Tech.
Duke’s defense had transported the Blue Devils to the titles of the regular ACC and tournament season, in the country’s n ° 1 ranking and the seeded n ° 1 in the regional east.
Now, only two other games separate the Blue Devils from immortality and a sixth national championship banner to hang on Indoor Stadium Cameron.
Given the offensive explosion of Alabama Thursday against Byu, the regional final on Saturday would always be decided by if Duke could sufficiently slow down the offensive of the Nate oats. The Crimson Tide finished the game by pulling a dismal 23 for 65 (35.4%) in total and 8 for 32 to 32nd – a dramatic departure compared to two days earlier, when Bama kept a record of the triple NCAA 25 tournament. But perhaps the most remarkable of all, he limited a team that had an average of 13.7 rapid rupture points per game – the 18th in America, by CBB analysis – only eight Saturday evening.
This is not a coincidence, then, what Scheyer’s message was the whole game, apparently repeated whenever his team huddled inside the prudential center: “Find our donkeys, play at our rhythm F -ING and do what you do.”
This helped that Duke could not have asked for a better start, with Cooper Flagg (who finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and three assists) emptying a first 3 on the very first possession of the team to launch a 15-5 race. And while the Alabama finally settled, this initial cushion turned out to be crucial for Duke building an advance of a match, which amounted to 46-37 at halftime. The fact that the Duke’s offensive – who entered on Saturday evening is on average 94 points in his first three tournament games – faced with little early resistance. The Blue Devils pulled 56.3% in the first half.
But just as critical? This defense of Blue Devils waterproof, which suffered an offense in Alabama which has comfortably held in the top 10 of the season. Duke and Alabama made the same number of three (five) in the first 20 minutes, except that Duke did it out of 10 attempts of less: nine compared to the 19 years of the crimson tide.
Sears did not score for the first 17:43 of the match, accumulating as many turnover (three) as shots. And although he finally obtained a Middy in the fall a few minutes before the break, the length of Duke – as the highest team in the country, by Kenpom, without players less than 6 feet 5 – turned out to be as much an obstacle as the whole season.
There is a reason why Scheyer and one of his friends closest to basketball, the director general of the Boston Celtics, Brad Stevens, agreed with the best philosophy of construction of university alignment in pre-season: there is no substitute for duration.
While Duke returned to court for the second half, the mother of Flagg, Kelly, said aloud what Duke fans in their living room in the country surely thought: “100 more minutes, that’s all I want.”
Alabama’s response outside the intermission – a starting start to 1 for 7 and a missed opportunity to reduce the deficit – has only made this more likely. Even when Duke went three minutes in the second half without a basket made, the Blue Devils’ ability to go to the charity gang – they drew 19 for 22 from the line for the match, including 14 for 16 in the second period – kept the Alabama remotely.
But ultimately, this same feat of free throws allowed Alabama to get back into competition. Alabama pulled 10 of its 14 free throws in total in the second half. In this same group with 6:39 to play, Scheyer did not chop words by reminding his team: “These are automatic free launch shooters.”
Message received. For the rest of the match, the Alabama scored seven points, ending with its less than total since January 14.
And what do you know? An 11-0 race in the last minutes of the match, highlighted by a Flagg Floater, extended the margin of Duke and made the house a coronation.
For a team that once again proved that it was more than capable of winning it all.
(Photo of Cooper Flagg: Vincent Carchietta / Images Imagn)
