Duke stares into the abyss and, for the first time this season, likes what it sees
Paolo Banchero practically bounced back toward the Duke bench. There was pandemonium erupting elsewhere, around him and behind him and in front of him where the Duke families and fans were practically spilling out of the stands.
The arena seemed to revolve around him as he stepped toward Mike Krzyzewski, like they were in focus and everything else was blurry. They slapped hands as Banchero practically yelled “yeah, coach!” in his face.
It was almost a primal scream, the sudden release of so much tension that felt like an explosion. Jeremy Roach followed, throwing his arms around Krzyzewski in some sort of hybrid chest-bump-hug.
“I don’t have a chest to bump,” Krzyzewski said later, the mood suddenly as light as it has been all season.
Whatever hangover Duke had been carrying around, whatever baggage the Blue Devils had been dragging around behind them, it evaporated in this cataclysm of relief and celebration that was perhaps a little excessive for this stage of the tournament — for a coach going to his 26th and final Sweet 16 — but not for these circumstances.
If Duke celebrated Sunday night like it was going to the Final Four, not San Francisco, a mere waypoint on a longer journey, maybe it was because it felt like that, not a second-round game but a regional final. Michigan State and Duke asked everything of each other, swapping leads and full-speed collisions, and this one last meeting between Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo delivered everything it promised.
And if, in six days, Duke does indeed get to the Final Four, this 85-76 win may be the game that got it there.
For two weeks, since the collapse in Cameron, the Blue Devils have been fighting themselves as much as their opponents. “The lull,” Krzyzewski has taken to calling it, the four-game swoon that started with North Carolina ruining his final home game and extended through the three listless games in Brooklyn that Duke nearly lost, nearly lost and lost.
This was different. Duke could see the end coming, almost like a physical thing standing there in front of it, after blowing yet another late lead. The Blue Devils wilted under similar circumstances too many times this season.
From up nine in the second half to down five with five minutes to go, Duke was watching the same grim scenario play out, unable to make plays, unable to get a stop. A.J. Griffin watched from the bench after turning his left ankle. The vibe was grim.
This time, Krzyzewski wasn’t ready to be done. Nor were Banchero and Roach and Wendell Moore ready to let it happen. When the game paused for a television timeout with 3:43 to go and Michigan State headed to the foul line up one, the vibe changed for good.
“We were like, man, we got four minutes,” Banchero said. “We can either lay down, or we can turn it up. That’s really all it was, man. Just fighting. Having heart. And just trusting each other, really.”
And then the Blue Devils, with the end of Krzyzewski’s career hovering over them, made every single play they needed to make to win the game — whether it was Banchero driving on Hauser or Jeremy Roach getting to the rim and finishing in traffic or slumping Trevor Keels hitting his biggest 3-pointer of the season.
The Blue Devils did what they hadn’t been able to do, in the “lull” or even before. They flipped the script. They took over. They took control of their own destiny and seized it with both hands like a rebound.
“I think they showed their truest colors,” Izzo said. “They lost at home to North Carolina. They lost to Virginia Tech. Same kind of games. We came back and went up. An average team without much heart might have drifted into the sunset. I thought they reached down in Mike Krzyzewski fashion and did an unbelievable job of taking it at us.”
Heart. This team has often been questioned just how much of that it actually has, frittering away late leads, losing on the final possession. And there it was, at the last possible moment, in excess. Krzyzewski teared up afterward, talking about it. His team had been put to the test, with everything hanging in the balance.
“It had nothing to do with coaching those last four or five minutes,” Krzyzewski said. “It all had to do with heart and togetherness. They followed their hearts, and God bless them.”
They’ll follow their hearts to San Francisco now, a new chapter with new pitfalls and, potentially, a rematch with Gonzaga. But this looks like a different Duke team: one that stared into the abyss and, for the first time this season, liked what it saw.
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This story was originally published March 20, 2022 at 9:24 PM.
