‘We can’t be entitled:’ If Duke can’t find an edge, its NCAA Tournament will be short
Duke’s season-long quest to find a higher level of play has reached its ultimate test.
Bounced from the ACC Tournament by an N.C. State team it beat by 15 points just 10 nights earlier, the No. 11 Blue Devils head back to Durham with nothing but the season’s most-important games to be played.
Duke has played well at times, good enough to win 24 regular-season games and enter the ACC Tournament as the No. 2 seed.
But, too often, the extra gear needed to compete against the nation’s best teams has proved elusive.
On Thursday night at Capital One Arena, Duke’s meandering play allowed the upstart Wolfpack to run its tournament winning streak to three games with a 74-69 win over the Blue Devils in a tournament quarterfinal game.
Duke never had a handle on the game, from starting with seven scoreless possessions to surrendering the lead in the final minutes of the first half to never overtaking the No. 10 seed Wolfpack after halftime.
“I think for us,” coach Jon Scheyer said, “it’s about the competitive fire you need to have in the postseason.”
Scheyer exempted Kyle Filipowski and Mark Mitchell from that assessment. Filipowski produced 28 points and 14 rebounds Thursday, while Mitchell finished with 18 points and eight rebounds.
But the rest of the team struggled in alarming ways.
Duke finished 5 of 20 on 3-pointers.
Senior guard Jeremy Roach, in his second season as a team captain, scored five points on 1 of 6 shooting with three turnovers. Freshman guard Jared McCain, after having a gash in his right eyebrow repaired with three stitches due to a collision with teammate Jaylen Blakes during pregame warmups, scored eight points and missed all three of his 3-point shots.
This all reminds Filipowski far too much of how last season ended. Duke ripped off 10 consecutive wins until Tennessee shoved the Blue Devils out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round, beating them, 65-52.
“NC State wanted it more than us,” Filipowski said. “I think that was kind of the biggest thing. We, this postseason, I mean, just speaking back to Tennessee last year, they wanted it more than us. These teams are so different in the postseason.”
Duke has to find a way to be different, too. The Blue Devils have been striving for that level all season.
Back in December, Duke found itself 5-3 after consecutive losses at Arkansas and Georgia Tech. Some soul-searching followed and the Blue Devils reeled off eight wins in a row and 19 of their next 22.
But within that hot stretch was a 93-84 loss at North Carolina that left Scheyer angry about his team lacking a competitive level.
At 24-6 overall entering last Saturday night’s regular-season finale at home with the Tar Heels, Duke had a chance to share the ACC regular-season championship. But it fell behind 17-4 and 30-15 before rallying only to fall short in an 84-79 loss.
With that, the postseason arrived. Duke had days to prepare for Thursday night’s league tournament quarterfinal game.
When the game started, they looked lost — for the third game in a row.
“You never want to come out like that,” Mitchell said. “They came out and punched us in the mouth early, and I think they did that in Raleigh, too, but we just responded. Tonight we couldn’t get it together.”
Yes, in Raleigh on March 4, NC State scored the game’s first nine points. But Duke scored the next 11.
That wasn’t the case Thursday night. None of this is sitting well with Scheyer.
“It’s happened three games in a row,” Scheyer said. “That’s a concern. That’s a big concern. Even the start of the second half was the same way. So as a coach, we have to, I’ll have to figure out how to get that message across better or differently.”
Time is running short this season. Of that, the Blue Devils are keenly aware.
“We’ve got to come out and like our life depends on it,” Roach said. “I mean, I think they just had a better sense of urgency than us and that can’t happen.”
Roach reminded that Duke’s main goal all season was to make the Final Four in Phoenix. The Blue Devils won last season’s ACC Tournament and returned four starters so they’d experienced that joy.
But if Duke wants to wash away the sting of this loss by going on an NCAA Tournament heater, it has to find that elusive higher gear. And it has to realize no one is going to find it for them.
“There’s still another level to it in the postseason,” Filipowski said, “and we got to learn we got to be one of those teams. We can’t expect to win. We can’t be entitled. We’ve had a really good year, but that doesn’t mean anything now. I think just overall as a group, we’ve got to want it more than the other team. Because if not, then it’s gonna be the same situation.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2024 at 6:00 AM.