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Buzzsaw? Maybe Duke is, but Alabama’s Elite Eight exit didn’t have to feel so inevitable
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Duke could very well go on to win a national title, and rolling past Alabama in the Elite Eight will be a footnote on a journey to a title. That’s very much in play for KenPom’s highest-rated team of the 21st century. In fact, that might be the most likely result for the Blue Devils, who punched their ticket to a Final Four with a 85-65 victory against Alabama.
But Alabama never looked ready to match Duke in any facet of the game.
No, it wasn’t realistic to think that the Blue Devils would “defend” Alabama like BYU did 2 nights earlier. The historic 25 3s that Alabama poured in the Sweet 16 wasn’t going to carry over at that same rate, especially not against a team that defended the 3-point line as well as Duke did (they only allowed 7 teams to hit 10 3s in a game in 2024-25).
Call me crazy, though, but one of the worst versions of Alabama might not have had as much to do with Duke as that lopsided final score suggested.
Where was Alabama’s fight? Where were the steals and points in transition? Where was the confidence from an offense that walked on water? And what happened to Mark Sears?
If you’re a cynic, you’d answer those questions by saying “Duke, Duke, Duke and Duke.” I get it. Alabama wasn’t beating Duke with an 8-for-32 clip from 3-point range, and it had next to zero chance getting past the top-seeded Blue Devils with a 6-point, 2-for-12 shooting performance from first-team All-American Mark Sears.
Sears wasn’t just rattled in the closing minutes when he was forcing shots and committing offensive fouls. He couldn’t make the right play all night. A 2-point first half was a credit to Duke, yes, but the guy who could’ve scored from the moon on Thursday night was missing in action. And so often with Sears, the beauty of his game is how he can create for others or at least get to the free-throw line. Neither of those things happened (he shot 1-for-3 from the free-throw line). At least not with the frequency or the urgency that they needed to in order to halt Duke’s path to San Antonio.
Ask yourself this — at what point did it feel like Alabama was going to win that game? The tipoff? By the time Grant Nelson made the play of the night on future No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, Duke was in control up 10.
(The irony is that Alabama actually did a nice job defending Flagg, who shot 6-for-16 with 19 points.)
That sequence, which included Sears’ only made 3 of the night just 2 days after he made 10 from long range, should’ve been a rallying cry. Instead, it was the closest the Tide got the rest of the game. The wheels fell off for good when Duke went on a 13-0 run to turn a 7-point lead into a Final Four ticket punched.
It didn’t feel like a fitting end for Sears or Nelson, both of whom ran it back after last year’s Final Four run. That fueled a preseason No. 2 ranking that had Alabama firmly in the national title conversation for most of the year. Reaching consecutive Elite Eights at a place that had 1 previous trip prior to Nate Oats’ arrival shouldn’t be scoffed at, and in time, that legacy will be appreciated appropriately.
But that should sting because Alabama had the pieces to take down a team like Duke, and not just because it could make 3-pointers at a historic rate. Oats’ team picked the wrong night to look completely out of rhythm offensively. It picked the wrong night to have its post players look overwhelmed when Duke attacked the basket, especially Kon Knueppel. It picked the wrong night to have the worst version of Sears.
Above all else, Alabama picked the wrong night to not embrace the underdog it was.
Duke was and is the better team. That’s undeniable. That doesn’t, however, mean that every iteration of Duke-Alabama would’ve looked like it did on Saturday night.
There was a version in which Sears could’ve put on his cape and been the best player on the floor from start to finish. We could’ve seen another one of those Nelson runs like last year’s UNC performance, or perhaps Aden Holloway could’ve had another monster shooting performance in him. Nope.
Alabama was another Duke casualty. The Tide could’ve turned made Duke scratch and claw for its Final Four berth.
But ultimately, the Tide left it all on the floor a round too early.
Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.
