CLEMSON, SC — This season, Duke has the potential to become the country’s top college basketball team.
It just won’t happen on Monday, when the new polls are released.
The door was left open for the second-ranked Blue Devils to take the top place for the first time since November 2021, after No. 1 Auburn was defeated by Florida earlier in the day on Saturday.
But Clemson had other ideas.
The Tigers slammed the door shut with a second-half surge that stopped Duke’s 16-game winning run and eliminated the possibility of becoming the first ACC team to go 20-0 in the conference. Even though their 77-71 victory at Littlejohn Coliseum will be officially recorded as an upset, it was not unexpected.
If the Blue Devils were about to lose to a conference team. This was probably it.
You could practically see it coming from the end of the line of Clemson students who began assembling outside the arena before dawn in preparation for the 6:30 p.m. game.
A raucous sellout crowd ready to flood the court. Which it did.
A home squad still reeling from a 3-overtime loss to Georgia Tech in a trap game two days prior and looking to improve its NCAA Tournament resume.
Cooper Flagg, Duke’s star, acknowledged to being under the weather.
Throw in Dickie V.’s comeback after a two-year hiatus, and the Tigers have now won five straight games against top-five ranked opponents.
It was a fantastic college basketball game in a great setting. But if you’re looking for absolutes to draw from the outcome, there aren’t many other than the fact that Duke isn’t unbeatable and Flagg is mortal.
Sort of.
And that Clemson, which must repeat this process in less than 48 hours when North Carolina visits town for another vital game on Monday, is far superior to what the majority of poll voters believe.
“When we’re locked in and playing at a high level, doing the things we need to do and preparing the right way,” Brad Brownell, our coach, told me, “we can play with just about anybody in the country.”
The Tigers looked the part on Saturday.
They became the only team this season to shoot more than 50% against a Blue Devils defense that entered the day rated second nationally in KenPom’s efficiency ratings, going 30-for-51 from the field. They outrebounded Duke 36-23 and limited Flagg to 4 points on 2 of 11 shooting in the first 35 minutes.
“When we’re locked in and playing at a high level, doing the things we need to do and preparing the right way,” Brad Brownell, our coach, told me, “we can play with just about anybody in the country.”
The Tigers looked the part on Saturday.
They became the only team this season to shoot more than 50% against a Blue Devils defense that entered the day rated second nationally in KenPom’s efficiency ratings, going 30-for-51 from the field. They outrebounded Duke 36-23 and limited Flagg to 4 points on 2 of 11 shooting in the first 35 minutes.
Despite this, Clemson only won because Flagg lost his footing on a slippery floor as he drove for the tying basket in the final seconds.
A major reason for this is the Blue Devils’ freshman standout.
Despite not being at his physical peak and visibly fighting against a tall, strong Clemson front line, Flagg had enough gas in the tank to flip the switch and nearly get his team across the finish line. He scored 14 of his 18 points in the final 5 minutes, hitting 4 straight shots, including 3 3-pointers, to help Duke recover from a 7-point hole and take a late lead.
“Cooper was being Cooper there,” Blue Devils coach Jon Scheyer explained. “He just has a special will.”
Scheyer claimed he was confident his team would win until Flagg struck a damp place, possibly due to the humidity in the packed building, tumbled to the ground, and was flagged for traveling with 14 seconds left.
While the result said more about Clemson’s potential than Duke’s shortcomings, the fact that the Blue Devils still nearly pulled out the victory in the face of all that went wrong should tell you everything you need to know about how good the Blue Devils are when they are locked in and playing at a high level, doing the things we need to do and preparing the right way.”
The task of achieving that aim becomes even more difficult now that at least a few flaws in their armor have been revealed.
“This loss hurts because I think this group is on the verge of doing something special,” Scheyer told the crowd. “I reminded them afterward that this game had to represent something. It’s not fun to lose. I detest it. Our team despises it. So I’m certain we’ll have a squad that responds and gets us to where we need to go.”
Just in case the door to becoming the top team in college basketball opens again.
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