There were signs all over Cameron Indoor Stadium that the Blue Devil's 45 game home winning streak was in jeopardy, one of them was literally in the Duke student section.
"Wins LImit," one sign read with a number I didn't quite catch above it. In retrospect perhaps not the best sign to create and bring to support your team, but the game was neither won or lost in the stands.
Florida State brought its brand of physical play and took it to Duke. But to Duke's credit they didn't back down from the physical play. But they also opened themselves up to being in the position they were to lose.
In my game preview I had said that if Duke was out rebounded and or allowed the Seminoles to shoot 50 percent or better they'd be in a good position to lose.
And while the Blue Devils just narrowly out rebounded Florida State 29 to 28 they allowed the Seminoles to shoot 54 percent from the floor.
Duke played hard gave effort but in the end it was their defense's inability to get a stop when it counted. In the final seconds trailing by two, Mike Krzyzewski drew up a play for freshman Austin Rivers and it was executed perfectly.
But at the time I said to myself, you left too much time on the clock. And I was right.
Florida State took possession with just under 5 seconds left, pushed the ball quickly up the floor as they had the entire night, and found senior guard Michael Snaer wide open in the corner and he buried the game winning three as time ticked off. The final score 76-73. Duke string of home wins is now over.
The loss can be described as heart breaking and shocking, but it more or less was a game where two good teams battled and the better team won.
Duke's failure to play lock down defense was evident all night. They for the most part, shut down the Seminoles shooters, but the Blue Devils showed no ability to prevent passes into the interior and the Seminoles took advantage.
Countless times, especially as the game wore on Florida State shooters got off uncontested shots or were able to get into the lane where they made some tough shots.
It was that ability to get into the lane that cause Duke problems with fouls.
As foul trouble mounted against Duke's interior players, Florida State became more aggressive and gained more success in the paint as the Blue Devil big men became tentative defenders.
And while the Seminoles were hitting their shots, Duke was not. The Blue Devils only shot 39 percent from the floor and that is not a number that is going to win you a lot of games when you give up greater than 50 percent.
In his post game Krzyzewski tipped his cap to Florida State's effort but in a bit of a surprise to me didn't seem to think the Blue Devils played poorly defensively.
We will look at this more later but I personally can't recall a worse defensive Duke team, at least one not as bad in recent memory.
This team is still good but they are incredibly frustrating to watch, but again we will have more on that later. For now Duke falls to 16-3 (4-1 ACC) and now shares the top stop in the conference with Florida State.
For the Seminoles they have fully established themselves now as a contender for the conference title and a legitimate NCAA team.
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