Finally, Duke-Carolina failed to live up to its legendary hype.
This one might have been over before it started when the Blue Devils’ Superman slipped, blew apart his shoe and left the court with a sprained knee not to return. Zion turned Zeron with no full minutes, zero shots, free throws, rebounds, assists, blocked shots and steals, his one stat being the turnover that sent the Cameron cauldron into shock.
The wunderkind who has sucked all the oxygen out of every room, big and small, since his arrival at Duke did it again when he limped to the locker room and word spread he was done for the night. The Crazies went almost breathless after camping out in K-ville for 6 weeks, which ended with Tuesday night’s quagmire, to endure the eighth loss this century to those dirty Tar Holes.
The battle of the freshman point guards was a complete dud as Tre Jones and Coby White combined to shoot 4 for 25 including clanging 2 for 12 from the arc. The court actually could have been cleared for a game of two-on-two between the two Cams, a Luuuuke and an R.J, who with the help of 14 from Garrison Brooks had 130 of the 160 points scored.
Four others who saw considerable time failed to score a field goal as the teams began by making 3 of 24 3-pointers and, despite a late futile flurry from Duke, hit only 30 percent from outside.
Better yet, they could have invited Barack Obama to play offense for both teams, since POTUS No. 44 was sitting courtside baseline after visiting both locker rooms. Back in his day on the Chicago playgrounds, his nickname was Barry O’Bomber because he never saw a shot he didn’t like.
It was a weird and wonderful night for Carolina and a weird and woesome one for Duke, which suffered its second league loss while losing a freshman starter early in each game. Despite falling into a three-way tie with UNC and Virginia atop the ACC, most Dukies will apply an asterisk to this one since they know they can’t beat a top 10 team without Zion. The Tar Heels will take it, recalling the philosophy of their long-gone Dean that “injuries are a part of the game.”
Both teams played hard but the bad overwhelmed the good and at the end was something we didn’t expect at all.
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What a bunch of crap. Without Zion, Duke had only four McDonald’s All-Americans remaining, only two lottery picks and only 3 projected 1st round players. That left them with little defense for someone like Luke Maye, who had a slightly unfair advantage by virtue of having been coached by Roy Williams for four years.
Carolina spent the game scoring from two feet and Coack K made no adjustments to stop them. He didn’t put a man under the basket, switch to zone, or do anything else to prevent Carolina’s constant made baskets from inside. Thanks coach!