Keith Srakocic / Associated Press
The men’s basketball team Duke is having a historic season – but not in the way he would like.
Duke fell to Notre Dame 93-89 on Tuesday, dropping to 7-8 this season. It is the first time since 1999 that the program records a record below 0.500, according to Kyle Boone from CBS Sports.
According to Matt Giles of FanSided, it has been even longer since the Blue Devils fell below 0.500 in February, something they haven’t done since 1995.
The program is in serious danger of losing the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995, when legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski was on leave to recover from back surgery, for Mike Lopresti from NCAA.com. Blue Devils went 13-18 that year and had only two ACC wins.
Their fights in the regular season could take them to the NIT, where they have not appeared since 1981 – Krzyzewski’s first year with the team. The leader of all Duke’s victories avoided a question about the tournament when talking to reporters on Monday (h / t Giles):
“I think that planning ahead during this season is not a good idea, and also, just keeping your eyes on the road and trying to be the best you can be. To be honest with you, we haven’t talked about it with our team. So, let’s go consider what you want. I just hope we have our ACC tournament … I’m totally in favor of the ACC tournament. “
A perennial contender, Duke has lost six of his last eight games and is 5-6 in the ACC game. The team was ninth in the AP Top 25 poll of the preseason, a place ahead of Kentucky, another typically strong team that is fighting in 2021. The Wildcats, who had the best recruiting class in the country, have only 5- 12.
The last edition of the survey did not have Kentucky, Duke, Kansas and North Carolina, something that has not happened since December 18, 1961, according to Adam Zagoria of New York Times.
If Duke and the other major NCAA programs don’t get up and running quickly, March will have a new sensation.