How will Duke feel if UVA wins it all?
We'll feel good. ACC pride. Our beef is with the Tar Heels, not with the Cavaliers (or at least not as much). Me, I'll root for Virginia.
Duke lost today out of 14 turnovers. The freshmen got nervous. It happens. The one thing that makes me sad is that we won't ever see a group of spectacular freshmen like this one, because the truly great ones will be going directly to the NBA.
I know people tend to hate Duke (because we win a lot) but lovers of the sport should have been well advised to root for Duke, because it is probably the last chance of seeing a player like Zion Williamson in college basketball, and it would have been nice to see him win it all at the end, to join the ranks of the truly greatest college basketball players of all time, before turning pro.
I wish they had given him the ball for the last play; he's the clutch one. Barrett is great be he isn't Zion.
It's incredible how a game can be lost in small details. One point loss. Given that Zion has a steady point production and he sat out for several minutes due to foul trouble, that was enough to drop a tiny bit Duke's average points per minute of play (not to forget that his teammates freaked out when he got the second foul early, and then in the middle of that turmoil, allowed a 13-0 run by Michigan State. Again, had that not happened, this 1-point differential at the end would have been different). That foul was the turning point. Duke had all the momentum until it happened with a huge run of our own, and Michigan looked rattled, behind by the highest margin since the start of the tournament (9). Then, foul on Zion, he sits, everything falls apart. Darn.
I think, if Zion had played some 3 more minutes, we'd have scored some 4-6 more points and the game would have been out of reach for the Spartans, at the end. And their big run wouldn't have happened. Just then and there you get 17 points that would have profoundly changed the 1-point defeat at the end.
I'm not saying the Spartans didn't deserve it. From the beginning, I was saying that the Spartans were the best #2.
i'm just saying, losses come out of small details like this, when both teams are this good. This time, we were on the losing end. We were overdue for a fall, after the three previous close calls, so that's that.
I can't even say "better luck next year" because it won't be the same thing, with the change in eligibility rules. This is why Coach K has been so upset, and even bitter. He knows that it's the end of an era. At age 72, he probably is now thinking of quitting. Recruiting will never be the same. He has won it all. He makes 9 million dollars per year; is filthy rich. Why should he continue, if his teams won't be as good any longer? He will no longer have the pleasure of coaching a guy like Zion. That's why he went on a long rant against the NCAA during the interviews after the Virginia Tech game. Coach K should now peacefully enjoy his fortune with his nice wife. He gets very nervous and runs into medical issues. It's time for him to let go.
Other Duke fans will kill me for saying so, but I'm just thinking, Coach K deserves a nice retirement. I wish him well, and I don't want him to be bitter and frustrated. I'm very grateful for what he did for the program all these years. The game won't be as it was, any longer, so, for him, carrying on will be really anticlimactic.
Anyway, this is just my guess. Certainly he hasn't given any indication that he's about to quit. Maybe he'll want to stay around, to see if he pushes the NCAA around to get a better agreement with the NBA. If he quits, his considerable influence is gone. We'll see.
