How this Duke basketball team keeps piling up wins, learning while winning
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Duke extended a nine-game start, collecting NCAA-level wins against ranked foes.
- Late offensive reads and defensive communication produced a 67-66 win.
- Coach Scheyer framed close-game learning as mental toughness for tougher tests.
Even on the way to a spectacular season that included an ACC championship and a Final Four berth, Duke learned hard lessons early last basketball season.
Narrow losses to Kentucky and Kansas — in which the Blue Devils had the ball in the final seconds only to fail to score — proved foreshadowing to a gut-punch of a meltdown late against Houston in the Final Four that cost the Blue Devils a shot at a national championship.
Instead, Florida won the NCAA Tournament with its own late rally over Houston on the season’s final Monday night.
Which brings us to Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
The reigning champion Gators fell behind by double-digits in the first half against Duke, only to slowly chip away and finally take a lead with 35 seconds to play.
Here the Blue Devils were again, needing a late score and a defensive stop to avoid a difficult defeat.
This time, No. 4 Duke executed.
Isaiah Evans nailed a 3-pointer with 19.7 seconds to play. Caleb Foster and Cam Boozer blocked Florida guard Boogie Fland’s path to the basket and when Fland dribbled the ball off his foot with four seconds left, Foster grabbed it to secure a 67-66 Duke win.
“At the end of the day,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, “I think it shows there’s a mental toughness to this group, just to find ways to win. You know, Arkansas was a close game, obviously, Kansas down the stretch, and tonight, I think it says a lot about the character, a lot about the toughness.”
Piling up big-time wins
Scheyer pointed out the accomplishment there. For the first time since the 2017-18 season, Duke has won its first nine games. In each of Scheyer’s first three seasons coaching Duke after Mike Krzyzewski’s retirement, the Blue Devils lost two games each November.
Here they are this year in December, finding ways to grab wins. The Blue Devils own a 78-66 win over No. 21 Kansas at New York. They beat No. 24 Arkansas, 80-71, on Thanksgiving night in Chicago.
Now No. 15 Florida has fallen. Scheyer set up a schedule to prepare his team for the long run, but the Blue Devils are already collecting NCAA tournament-type wins.
“You always have to learn,” Scheyer said. “That’s why we did the schedule. But if we can, let’s learn through winning, and you just have to have that humility and understand that winning can make you soft. You know, winning can make you soft. And I think our guys have done a great job of continuing to figure out how to get better.”
The growth will have to continue because a fellow unbeaten, No. 7 Michigan State (8-0) is up next in a top-10 clash Saturday in East Lansing, Michigan.
The toughness is important, of course. It will be mandatory going up against Tom Izzo’s Spartans.
Just as important, though, are lessons about decisions.
Resiliency spawned smart decisions
Seeing Fland hit the shot that gave Florida its first lead since the first half with 35 seconds left could have deflated Duke.
Instead, the Blue Devils ran their offense. Boozer, who had already scored 29 points, had the ball near the 3-point line and started a dribble toward the basket. Two Florida players converged on him, naturally expected him to try to take the winning shot.
Instead, Boozer flipped the ball back to Evans, the Duke player left wide open by the Gators’ defensive hedge.
“A lot of our plays are read and react,” Evans said, “so there’s a lot of like, second, third, fourth options out of those plays. But obviously I was one of those options. So you know, it’s gonna be hard to guard me and Cam and pick and roll situation. Obviously, with my shooting and his attacking.”
Evans had missed all seven of his 3-pointers on Tuesday night. But he drilled this one and Duke led for good.
Earlier in the game, Foster told Evans to stick with it, saying he was going to make a big shot. That proved prescient.
Foster and Boozer then made Evans’ shot stand up.
As Fland dribbled looking for a path the basket, Boozer was initially on him before Foster came over on a defensive switch. Together, they corralled him and Fland dribbled the ball off his foot with four seconds left.
Offensive execution followed by defensive communication, all in the final 20 seconds. That’s how games are won against the best teams.
“To be able to win, you know, a game where you don’t score as much both ways, it’s more a grind-it-out type of game,” Scheyer said. “Hopefully, you know, we can score better in some other games, but you got to win that way sometimes. And I thought our guys made big time winning plays.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2025 at 5:00 AM.