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A blue-collar effort from the bluest of blue-bloods has Duke heading to another Final Four
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NEWARK, N.J. – Going to Final Fours and winning championships might seem like a birthright at Duke, as many times as the Blue Devils have done both.
But nothing in March is given.
Even the bluest of blue bloods with rosters filled with 5-star standouts have to earn the opportunity to cut down news and raise banners.
It’s a painful lesson Duke learned a year ago when it was denied an opportunity to play in college basketball’s premier event by ACC rival NC State, a team that finished 10th in its conference during the regular season.
The sting of that defeat has stayed with coach Jon Scheyer and the 2 returning scholarship players from that 2024 team. And it has served as motivation throughout a season that has seen the Blue Devils win 35 of their 38 games.
Sure, the addition of the nation’s best freshman class, led by mature beyond-his-years star Cooper Flagg, helped bring about that success. So did an ACC that was historically down.
But when it came time to make all those wins mean something, Saturday against Alabama in the NCAA East Region final, this Duke team wasn’t about to take the opportunity lightly. It rolled the Crimson Tide 85-65 to earn its 18th trip to the Final Four and an opportunity to add another national championship banner to the 5 that already hang from the Cameron Indoor Stadium rafters.
“It’s the expectation, almost, because of how it’s been here,” senior guard Sion James, a transfer from Tulane, said afterward. “But it’s not a guarantee by any means. Just because we play for Duke doesn’t mean we’re going to the Final Four every year. It’s a grind. We had to work from the minute we got here to get to this position.”
As James implied, the blue-blood Blue Devils punched their ticket to San Antonio by putting on their blue collars and earning it.
They didn’t do it with a flashy array of dunks and 3-pointers or another epic stat-stuffing performance by Flagg, although they did shoot a blistering 53.6% from the floor while going 6-for-13 from beyond the arc. And their star still managed to go for 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists on a night in which he committed 4 turnovers and missed 10 shots.
Nope.
While offense sells tickets, as the time-worn cliché tells us, it’s defense that still wins championships. And Saturday at Prudential Center, Duke stifled the highest-scoring team in the nation with a suffocating effort that held Alabama to its second-lowest point total of the season.
It took the Crimson Tide until the 9:48 mark of the second half to surpass the 51 points they scored in the first half alone against BYU.
Two nights after blistering the Cougars for an NCAA Tournament-record 25 3-pointers in a 113-88 Sweet 16 beatdown, Alabama managed only 8 treys on 32 attempts. Sears, who scored 35 against the Cougars on Thursday was held to just 6 by an aggressive, switching Duke defense that would have made coach Norman Dale from the movie Hoosiers proud.
Only instead of having just one player capable of telling him what kind of gum Sears was chewing during the game, Scheyer would have several.
Tyrese Proctor, Sion James and Caleb Foster, with help from Flagg and even the 7-2 Khaman Maluach — they all took turns getting up in the Alabama star’s face, rarely letting him get an open look. It’s a defensive blanket that set the tone from the opening possession and stayed relentless to the final buzzer.
“I think it’s a credit to our guys for not getting spooked by the 25 3s because it can spook you where you’re so spread,” Scheyer said of the Crimson Tide’s Thursday night barrage. “I’m sure we’ll look back and (see that) we’re fortunate they missed some open ones, as well. But really I think the versatility for our guys is a big thing for us.”
That versatility, along with the size and length at every position, is what makes it such a nightmare matchup for any opponent.
From any conference. Even the SEC.
“Duke is as good a team as we’ve seen all year,” Alabama coach Nate Oats. “We’ve got some really good teams in the SEC. And they’re at that level.”
The Blue Devils’ Elite Eight victory was their second this season against an opponent from the nation’s best conference. They took down Auburn back in November. Saturday, they claimed the championship of Alabama by ending the Crimson Tide’s season.
They’re going to have to beat at least 1, possibly 2 more SEC teams in San Antonio to win the only championship that matters. The one that has been their only focus since being taught that painful lesson last March.
Nobody’s going to hand them the trophy and banner just because they have the letters D-U-K-E stitched across the front of their jerseys. Those are rewards they’re going to have to earn.
As Oats and his Crimson Tide can attest, this Duke team is equipped to do just that.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
