BROOKLYN, NY – Jon Scheyer knows better than most the pressure that comes with wearing a Duke uniform. The treble feels a little higher, the highlights brighter than they would be for most.
“And when things aren’t going so well, you can feel like you’re a lot worse than you really are,” said the Duke head coach and former star guard. “When you lose in the ACC tournament, we lose our last regular-season game and you can feel like the world is ending a little bit, even though this is what all these guys came back to do and what they came back for right now. right here.”
Just a week ago, these Blue Devils were still smarting from that five-point loss to North Carolina at home in the regular season finale and the subsequent five-point loss to NC State in the ACC tournament. Center Kyle Filipowski said he and his teammates cannot and should not feel entitled to win this time of year, just because they are Duke. They had to fight and fight for them, like they didn’t a year ago in their second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Tennessee.
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And so, here are those same Blue Devils, Sweet 16 bound after a resounding 93-55 victory over No. 12 seed James Madison in Sunday’s South Region game at Barclays Center. That’s why players like Filipowski and Tyrese Proctor returned to school. This feeling, right now.
“It’s what you dream about when you’re a kid,” Proctor said.
Filipowski said: “We learned our lesson playing last year. “We didn’t want to repeat that.”
JARED McHIM 🕺🕺
🔥 30 burgers with 11 minutes left
🔥 Most 1H points of any player in this tournament
🔥 Most 3-point female genital mutilation in an NCAA tournament by a Duke player (8) pic.twitter.com/azdmyZ9b0H
– Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 24, 2024
Then, fourth-seeded Duke jumped on James Madison from the start and nearly doubled the Dukes at halftime. Jared McCain became the first freshman with 30 points and zero turnovers in an NCAA Tournament game since the field expanded to 64 in 1985. He finished with a career-high eight made 3-pointers of the. After just one shot attempt against Vermont in the first round, Filipowski filled the stat sheet with 14 points, five rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. As a team, it was as clean a game as you could ask for in an environment like this: The Blue Devils shot better than 50 percent from the field, assisted on 22 of their 33 baskets and turned the ball over just six times. in the game.
“I don’t know if we expected this,” Scheyer later admitted.
But he did know his team would be better than when the regular season ended. Players and coaches alike often talk about how this game can humble you. He did it in those losses to NC State and UNC (although it turns out both teams were also good for the Sweet 16).
“The silver lining of that (the ACC tournament loss) was that it gave us a week to work on ourselves, to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Scheyer said. “I’m proud of our team for just sticking to the job.”
That work included individual conversations as well as conversations with the entire team. Scheyer wanted to find out where his guys were, mentally, before finding out what went wrong on the court in those two losses. The defense had been pretty solid, but the offense hurt the defense. How could they improve their connectivity? His ball movement? How could they learn from two tough losses but not let those two tough losses define them?
Scheyer said after the game that he felt Sunday was the Blue Devils’ best passing performance of the season. Filipowski said the key to the game was Duke’s defense; JMU scored 14 of its first 17 points against Wisconsin on Friday off turnovers and in transition. The Blue Devils didn’t want the Dukes to do what they did best, so they had to set the tone early and often.
“And I know tonight we also had guys that were on fire,” Filipowski said.
No one knows what the future holds for this particular Duke team, but no one necessarily saw this performance coming either. Now, the Blue Devils will face Houston in Dallas next weekend for a date in the Elite Eight. The lows were low, yes, but they are now also a thing of the past, with the highs in sight.
“You have to be grateful for the bad times that come your way,” Scheyer said. “If you handle them the right way, you can put yourself in a position where you are even more prepared. I thought that’s what he did in the Vermont game and tonight against James Madison.”
(Photo by Jared McCain: Elsa/Getty Images)
