Kansas downed Duke 85-81 in overtime Sunday to advance to the Final Four.
Posted 31 minutes ago Updated 12 minutes ago
By Marilyn Payne, WRAL Multimedia Sports Journalist
Omaha, Neb. — Trevon Duval called it a classic: a four-point game that decided who booked a trip to San Antonio for the Final Four.
After a battle of basketball bluebloods, an Elite Eight finale between two of the four winningest programs in all of college basketball, the rookie guard was absolutely right.
“I just wish Duke won,” Duval said after leading his team with 20 points in the final game of the season. “It’s tough to fall short of our goal. It just hurts a lot because we all put our best effort toward winning.
• Photos: Kansas 85, Duke 81
“I gave it all I got, that’s what we’re supposed to do. When you give it all you got, it just hurts a lot more knowing you put it all on the line. It just sucks.”
Kansas beat Duke in overtime, 85-81, ending Mike Krzyzewski’s team’s season and potentially as many as the entire starting five’s collegiate careers.
The Blue Devils (29-8) were celebrated as the most talented collection of individuals to start this season. High praise, a preseason No. 1 ranking and top recruiting class poured into Durham, paving the way for what would’ve been Krzyzewski’s 13th Final Four appearance. The would-be number is one that will set a new record for a head coach, if the winningest coach in all of college basketball gets there.
This season, Coach K’s young roster lasted one weekend (two games) longer than his last young group labeled the best in the nation to start the year did. But the Blue Devils fell to a home-crowd team for the second season in a row.
This year, it was Duke’s inability to play to its strengths that did the Blue Devils in rather than a dominating opponent that played beyond its own standard.
Rock Chalk R-E-B-O-U-N-D
The mismatch did not end up mattering for the four-guard Jayhawks lineup.
Marvin Bagley III, who averaged 21.2 ppg and 11.1 rebounds per game, was nearly absent on the boards in the first half (finishing with just three rebounds – all offensive, though) and scored just five points in playing 19 of the first 20 minutes. Bagley’s containment seemed magnified as Wendell Carter Jr. played just nine minutes because of foul trouble, scoring only two points on free throws and without securing a rebound.
“That definitely plays a role in why we lost, we weren’t hungry on the glass at all,” Carter said. “By the time we wanted to be hungry, it was too late. Starting off the game, they just got some great rebounds.”
So, Kansas outrebounded Duke 24-18 in the first half, getting ahold of 63 percent of Duke’s misses.
Starting the second half with three fouls, Carter was able to play a smart 22 minutes (split between second half and OT) to score eight more points before fouling out with 2:43 left in overtime.
“That hurt my team a lot,” Carter said, who finished with 10 points and two rebounds (despite averaging 13.6 ppg and 9.3 boards). “I’m not playing the blame game or anything, it’s on me.”
Bagley was better in the second half, too. But the likely lottery pick finished with just 10 rebounds and 16 points in a game where the opponent only played one big.
The Jayhawks (31-7) finished with 47 rebounds to Duke’s 32 (15 second-chance points to 11) and rebounded 30 of Duke’s 40 (75 percent) misses, helping set up an offense driven on speed and successful in transition, although the Blue Devils did finish with 10 points more in the paint than Bill Self’s team did.
“There’s so many things that I could say we did wrong, it was just a team effort that we didn’t do,” Carter Jr. said. “I can’t really say we can move on from it, because.. but I guess we’ve got to just forget.”
Regular play for regulation
Grayson Allen joked that he wished someone would’ve loosened the rims in CenturyLink Center pregame, breaking up the tears he fought back with humor after the definite last game of the senior’s Duke career.
The Blue Devils shot poorly Friday (39.3 percent from the floor, 19.2 percent from three) and didn’t do much better Sunday, finishing 30-for-70 (42.9 percent) from the floor, making just seven threes on 24.1 percent 3-point shooting.
Nine of the team’s 23 made two-point shots were layups as the team found its way inside to get around the rough clip.
“I seen how they play defense. They pretty much leave the whole lane open, so it’s pretty much one on one,” Duval said. “That’s one of my strong suits is one-on-one and driving to the basket. As soon as I seen that they were playing defense that way, I took advantage of it.”
With three seconds remaining, Duke thought that going inside for a short jumper or a layup was the answer.
“It’s the same thing we did to take the lead,” Krzyzewski said. “I didn’t want to call timeout because that play was working. And we went to the free-throw line a few times. And it also gave Marvin a chance, if they didn’t double team him, to get the ball inside.
“I’m OK with it, I mean, almost went in.”
Almost meant Allen’s shot with three seconds left – the answer to Svi Mykhailiuk’s game-tying three-pointer with 25.7 seconds left – missed, despite all of the Blue Devils believing it would fall.
“That think rolled around the rim about four times,” Allen said. “I thought it was going in. That’s not a good feeling.”
Malik Newman was automatic in OT, sinking a 3-pointer (to make five overall) and six free throws to account for all nine of Kansas’ OT points as Duke missed its last four shots from the floor and was scoreless for the last 2:35 of the game.
“We thought we had them the whole game,” Duval said. “It came down to crucial plays in the last two minutes of the game.
