The Dukies were crying all the way to and through the NBA Draft.
Reports continue to filter in that Duke is still hung over from losing its last two games of the Mike Krzyzewski era against arch-rival Carolina.
Having four players drafted in the first round and five in the first 42 selected has left Duke with a nagging question of how did that happen?
Can it be that “we had better players, but they had a better team?”
Or, “Were our guys thinking too much about how wealthy they would all become as soon as the season did end?” And, ultimately, was Coach K at 75 too old and plagued by his own injuries to get the job done?
Legitimate questions, after Paolo Banchero was the No. 1 pick overall, Mark Williams No. 15, A.J. Griffin No. 16 and Wendell Moore No. 26. Trevor Keels capped off Duke’s best draft class ever at No. 12 in the second round and No. 42 overall.
Meanwhile, UNC’s only player eligible was undrafted super senior Brady Manek, who has since signed a summer contract with the Hornets.
And the most troubling question of all, “How did our Hall of Fame coach lose to a rookie head coach in his last home game and his last game on the biggest stage before slipping off into retirement?”
That will continue to puzzle the Blue Devils, who reload with another class of potential one-and-dones, while the Tar Heels return the most experienced team in the country and perhaps the most in program history.
Carolina fans are reveling over the summer about how the prospects for next season suddenly swung from the first weekend in March through the last weekend in June.
Jon Scheyer was supposedly set up to maintain the Duke brand and legacy with several veterans back and the top recruiting class in the country onboarding, while former assistant Hubert Davis had the challenge of taking over a program trending downward over the last two or three years. Instead, the script suddenly flipped.
UNC will be ranked near the top in most preseason polls for 2022-23, as one by one all the eligible starters from a Final Four team announced their return and another talented graduate transfer signed on.
The Blue Devils will hold their familiar position as a top 10 team that will take the court with a new core of freshmen who will also be gone after one season. Somehow, someway, Carolina has returned to preeminence while Duke again tries to prove itself with talented, yet untested college players.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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