There wasn’t a single person who didn’t believe that Duke had enough talent to win the National Title. They absolutely do, but the question mark with Duke was if they could consistently beat quality teams in close games.
Duke is so good that they can typically just overwhelm teams. When they can’t, though, against NCAA caliber teams, there were question marks about Duke and Jon Scheyer late in games.
When they faded against UNC 2 weeks ago, the questions came back. From our article about that game…
In games decided by 5 points or less, Duke is 2-2 this year and was 1-3 last year. That’s a 3-5 record in those types of close ball games the past 2 seasons. They were outscored 19-7 by Texas Tech in the finish of that game this year, and 16-6 by UNC Saturday night.
Michigan was the ultimate test Saturday night. The Wolverines were the number 1 team in the country, and had laid waste to some of the better teams in college basketball – a 40-point win over Gonzaga, a 28-point win over Villanova, double-digit wins at Michigan State and Purdue. They were 10-1 in Q1 games.
With just 6 under minutes left Duke led 57-49, only to see Michigan cut the lead to 57-56 with 3:49 left. It looked like another late fade was about to ensue for the Blue Devils. This time, though, Duke didn’t flinch.
Isaiah Evans scores 4, Cameron Boozer scores 7, Patrick Ngongba picks up a critical offensive rebound, and Duke goes 4 for 4 from the line and ends up with 4 players in double digits, led by Boozer’s 18. If Boozer goes for 30 and nobody else scores in double digits, Duke isn’t beating Michigan. This team is getting the balence they to be elite.
The best front line in college basketball out-rebounded Michigan 41-28.
Saturday’s result doesn’t mean Duke will win the national title, but what it does mean is that they should be ranked #1 in the next poll, and that Jon Scheyer is getting his team to peak headed towards March. It also means the next time they are in a close game with a team near or at the same level as Michigan, they can look back at this game and be filled with confidence that they can win it late.
