Coming on Saturday, the consensus was that Duke needed at least one victory over rival North Carolina to keep his NCAA tournament hopes alive. I didn’t need what happened next.
The Blue Devils dropped to UNC by a score of 91-73 and looked even more lifeless than the score can show. They dropped 20 points in the middle of the first half and never reached less than 10 Tar Heels points after that. As time went on, UNC fans shouted “NIT”.
The defeat knocked Duke down to 11-11 in a miserable regular season and 10th place in the ACC. Not only was Duke swept away by the hands of his biggest rival, but he is now in a desperate position if he wants to keep his sequence of 24 consecutive appearances in March Madness alive. The last time a team led by Mike Krzyzewski did not attend the tournament was in 1984 (Krzyzewski missed much of the 1994-95 season after undergoing back surgery).
The consensus around Duke’s tournament hopes at this point is that his chances of making it through at-large are exhausted. The team’s only hope is five wins in five days to win the ACC tournament next week.
Here it is ESPN Joe Lunardi about Duke’s chances:
“Finally, Duke fell from the bubble and probably needs to win five games of the ACC tournament in five days to keep his sequence of appearances in the NCAA alive.”
And a few more observers:
This game didn’t work, but Tar Heels did. Duke is officially out of the bubble and Coach K will miss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1984
– Tate Frazier (@tatefrazier) March 7, 2021
I’m not sure I like Duke’s chances of getting a seed 1 at NIT with this performance so far.
– Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) March 6, 2021
Duke is expected to play Boston College in the first round of the ACC tournament on Tuesday.
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