‘It’s not going to define us.’ No. 6 Duke vows to learn from another loss at NC State.
The kind of performance Duke hoped — heck, believed — it had put in its past cropped up again Wednesday night.
That it came at PNC Arena was no surprise if you know the Blue Devils’ history in the building.
After N.C. State routed the No. 6 Blue Devils 88-66, coach Mike Krzyzewski’s team is a pedestrian 8-7 against the Wolfpack in their 21-year-old home arena.
The place may be on its third name but to Duke it remains worthy of a four-letter word.
This performance isn’t about the venue though.
N.C. State (17-9, 8-7 ACC), desperate for a marquee win to boost its NCAA tournament at-large resume, played like there was no tomorrow because there may not have been for their postseason hopes.
Duke flat out didn’t and it absorbed a beating so thorough it’s the most points the Blue Devils have lost by to an unranked opponent with Krzyzewski as their coach.
“They were just at a different level of competitiveness,” Krzyzewski said. “It wasn’t a matter of them taking us out of it. In order to take us out, we would have had to be in. So we weren’t in to be taken out.”
Duke never led against NC State
Riding a seven-game winning streak before Wednesday’s game, the Blue Devils (22-4, 12-3) were confident the stretches of uninspired play they had shown in losing back-to-back ACC games to Clemson and Louisville last month wouldn’t return.
“You never think a team that’s as talented as we are, who has played as well as we have would come out and perform like that,” Duke senior captain Javin DeLaurier said. “I think we’re all a little bit embarrassed by the product we put on the court tonight.”
Just last Saturday, Duke pounded Notre Dame 94-60 giving the Blue Devils five wins by 30 points or more against ACC opponents this season.
Against N.C. State, Duke never led and the game’s lone tie was at the opening tip before either team had scored.
Before five minutes had been played, N.C. State had already built a 10-point lead. Duke cut the deficit to five at 14-9 but would never get any closer as it struggled offensively in the half court against N.C. State’s pressure.
The Wolfpack shot so well early that Duke could never get its transition game going to fuel an offensive surge.
N.C. State led 44-29 at halftime, Duke’s largest halftime deficit of the season, and poured it on over the game’s final 10 minutes.
Duke shot 37.7 percent and made just 4 of 17 3-pointers (23.5 percent) in a brutal performance.
“We deserved what happened tonight,” Duke sophomore guard Tre Jones said. “We didn’t play like ourselves at all. We are just going to have to learn from it.”
Blue Devils prove they’re not unbeatable
Time is running out for lessons to make a difference. Duke has but five regular-season games left before the ACC and NCAA tournaments.
Those are the events where the Blue Devils want to play their best to achieve the banners the players and coaches strive to add to Cameron Indoor Stadium’s rafters.
But turning in an unsightly performance like the game Duke played against N.C. State only showed the Blue Devils are as capable of losing in the NCAA tournament’s first weekend as they are winning the national championship.
Jones, though, insists that’s not the case. The same man who willed Duke to that miraculous come back win at North Carolina on Feb. 8 was adamant these Blue Devils are through playing as lackadaisical as they did at N.C. State.
“It’s not going to break us, not going to define us,” Jones vowed. “It will be something we can learn from and grow from.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2020 at 5:00 AM.