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2 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2019
ACC TOURNAMENT CHAMPS
KINGS OF QUEEN CITY
Duke captures 21st ACC tournament title behind season-high 18-point performance from Tre Jones By Michael Model Sports Editor
CHARLOTTE—One week ago Saturday, the Blue Devils walked off the court in Chapel Hill ready to hit the reset button prior to starting postseason play. Three wins, 81 points and 30 rebounds by Zion Williamson later, it’s safe to say Duke is back at its best. The third-seeded Blue Devils clinched their 21st ACC tournament title after knocking off No. 4 63 seed Florida State 73FSU DUKE 73 63 Saturday evening at the Spectrum Center. Duke used a 25-11 run in the opening minutes of the second-half to break open a game that was tied at halftime. Williamson capped his stellar tournament for the Blue Devils with a 21-point, five-rebound performance as Duke collected its first piece of hardware of the 2018-19 campaign. Williamson’s scoring total for the week was a program record for a three-game run in the ACC tournament and earned him MVP honors. Williamson and R.J. Barrett earned a spot on the all-tournament first team and Tre Jones was named to the second team. “It’s an honor for to us win,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “This is the
Now Open.
Jim Liu | Opinion Photography Editor
Duke lifted the ACC tournament trophy for the 21st time Saturday after beating Florida State in Charlotte. best conference, especially this year, and I’m proud of my guys. They beat three outstanding opponents, and tonight was a physical, really hard-fought defensive game and our guys played good defense again. So I’m proud of them.” The Blue Devils (29-5) struggled to find consistency out of the gates, missing each of
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their first eight attempts from the perimeter as Florida State jumped out to a 27-19 advantage. Duke then started to push the tempo and took advantage of eight first-half turnovers from the Seminoles (27-7) to tie the game at 27 and entered halftime tied at 36. Terance Mann hit a triple out of the locker room to give the Seminoles a three-point
lead, but the Blue Devils came right back with a classic Duke second-half run. Jones hit a jumper, Williamson hit a pair of layups, Javin DeLaurier hit two at the line and a reverse layup by Jones in transition capped a 10-0 spurt. The Blue Devils took a 46-39 advantage See ACC CHAMPS on Page 13
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A SEMIFINAL FOR THE AGES
THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM Zion Williamson the difference as Blue Devils avenge regular-season sweep against North Carolina By Hank Tucker Associate Sports Editor
CHARLOTTE—Zion Williamson’s absence could be used as an excuse in the regular season, a way to make Duke feel better about getting swept by North Carolina for the first time since 2009. Those defeats were largely erased with a gritty victory in the ACC tournament, with Williamson of course leading the way. The third-seeded Blue Devils beat No. 2 seed North Carolina 74-73 in an ACC semifinal for the DUKE 74 ages at the Spectrum 73 Center, rallying from UNC an early 13-point deficit to make it tight throughout the second half. Williamson followed up his 29-point, 14-rebound game in the quarterfinals with another titanic performance, finishing with 31 points and 11 boards. The freshman forward scored the gamewinning bucket, out-leaping Nassir Little and Luke Maye to follow his own miss with a two-handed tip-in with 31 seconds left. “Why would I pass up on this experience, playing in the biggest rivalry ever? You can’t go create moments like that nowhere else,” Williamson said. “I feel like I have a really great second jump, and that’s just my competitive spirit, so when I saw it miss, my instinct was to try to just get the rebound.” Cameron Johnson had a good look at a 3-pointer on the next play but didn’t convert it, and R.J. Barrett missed a pair of free throws to leave the door wide open with 12 seconds left. The building could finally exhale when Coby White’s fadeaway 3-pointer in the closing seconds rimmed out and Little couldn’t quite control a desperation tip-in. “I knew by the way he was sizing me up he was trying to get off a three. I felt like I took him out of his rhythm there a little bit,” Duke point guard Tre Jones said. “I felt like I forced him into a pretty tough shot, even though sometimes those are the ones
Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer
Zion Williamson immediately put away any doubts about his knee with numerous dominant dunks in the ACC tournament. that go in.” White’s misfire was a fitting finish to an ice-cold night for the Tar Heels, who shot just 4-of-27 from long distance. North Carolina scored only 29 points in the second half, struggling to deal with tenacious defense from Jones, Williamson and reserve point guard Jordan Goldwire, who played a career-high 28 minutes. The Tar Heels went scoreless for more than four minutes to let the Blue Devils turn a two-point deficit into a two-point lead, but finally broke through to pull in front on a fast-break 3-point play for Johnson with three and a half minutes remaining. Maye finished through contact on the North Carolina’s next possession as well, but an and-one for Williamson and a layup by Goldwire after recovering a loose ball put Duke in front 72-71.
Jim Liu | Opinion Photography Editor
Tre Jones found his efficiency offensively in Charlotte, becoming a force on the attack in the tournament’s latter stages.
Little then came through the lane for a dunk with 48 seconds on the clock to give the Tar Heels a one-point lead before Williamson contributed the eighth and final lead change of the night. After trailing for almost the entire first half, the Blue Devils battled back to even it up at 44-44 heading into the locker room and quickly scored six straight points to seize their largest lead out of the break. The biggest pro-Duke roar of the night to that point came on an and-one for Cam Reddish as he powered through Maye for an andone bucket leading into the second half ’s under-16 timeout. Three straight turnovers and back-toback Little dunks soon brought the louder North Carolina faithful to its feet to tie it up, and the two teams traded punches the rest of the way in an electric environment—a
Williamson tomahawk dunk on one end, a Kenny Williams 3-pointer on the other, and back and forth they went. “It’s a long game, and they’re going to play fast and we’ll play fairly fast, not as fast as them, and we just needed some stops,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Vintage ACC, Duke-North Carolina, you know, both teams played so hard and well.” North Carolina was the cleaner, crisper team for the first 10 minutes of the game, beating Duke down the floor repeatedly in transition and making almost every shot it took. Johnson scored the Tar Heels’ first eight points of the game and had 16 in the first half as they raced out to a 33-20 lead. But Williamson started Duke’s rapid comeback with a 3-pointer with 6:01 left before the break and finished it with another triple to tie it up in the final minute of the half. After missing their first seven attempts from beyond the arc, the Blue Devils made four of their next five, and in between Williamson’s 3-pointers, some unlikely suspects helped the Blue Devils battle back. Goldwire and senior Antonio Vrankovic both came off the bench to play significant minutes, slowing the Tar Heels down with their defense and each making a layup during Duke’s first-half comeback. Vrankovic and Goldwire did well enough that their effort earned them spots as starters when the Blue Devils took the floor for the second half. “They deserved to start. They put us in a position to do that. I don’t think it was desperation as much as who do we have in uniform?” Krzyzewski said. “We had a big meeting this morning about giving energy and anyone who is in the— give the guys who have been in the game a long time energy.” “Just a year ago, my high school season was already over. I was probably getting ready for the McDonald’s All-American game, and a year later, playing for an ACC championship, life can change drastically in one year,” Williamson said. “You’ve just got to live in the moment.”
Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer
R.J. Barrett was able to rest his back during the ACC tournament after carrying the Blue Devil offense for five games without Zion Williamson.
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PHYSICS OF ZION
‘Once in a lifetime’: How did Zion get so good? By Bre Bradham Staff Writer
A minute into the second half of Duke’s beatdown of Clemson at Cameron earlier this season, Zion Williamson scooped up a defensive rebound and took the ball down the court. At 6-foot-7 and 285 pounds, he moved with the kind of ease that makes you question your conception of physics and what a body that big should be able to do. Four orange jerseys converged on him, but he dribbled around them and laid the ball in. Coast to coast. A few minutes later, he pickpocketed the Tigers’ point guard and threw down a 360-degree slam. The question that has hovered around him all season and seems to defy explanation, even in the midst of March, is how did the 18-year-old Williamson—wielding a combination of highflying dunks, ball-handling skills and media savvy—get so good? ‘As long as he puts the damn thing in’ Williamson was not always 6-foot-7. Lee Sartor, Williamson’s high school coach at Spartanburg Day School, first saw Williamson play during an AAU game when he was in the fifth grade. Physically, Sartor said, Williamson was a fifth grader, but his basketball IQ was clearly above the others on the court. Williamson transferred to Spartanburg Day School before his ninth-grade year, and the rimrattling slams soon gained national attention. “He wasn’t tall and physically overwhelming
like he grew to be when he was in the ninth grade. I think his size started to come between his ninth-grade year and his 10th-grade year, then his 10th-grade year he went to a whole other level physically,” Sartor said. “The rest is history.” Williamson spurted up several inches in one year, eventually leading his team to three straight state championships—including scoring 37 points and throwing down a handful of slams in the championship game his senior year. “He’s just one of those players that comes along maybe once in a lifetime and kind of transcends the game of basketball,” Sartor said. After every college game that Williamson throws one down, reporters jab teammate R.J. Barrett for a ranking of the dunk. The 360 jam against Clemson earned a seven, his soaring throwdown against North Carolina in the ACC tournament earned a 10. Either way, it’s still only two points. “He can do that, so then do it. We allow him to do it,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the January win against the Tigers. “There’s no ceiling on how high or how many times he can twirl as long as he puts the damn thing in.” ‘His game is more complete than that’ It’s hard to say the most prolific basketball player in the nation is underrated, but there is one aspect of his game that gets buried under the windmill slams and break-your-brain defensive swats. He has handles. The basketball phenom that LSU tried to recruit to play football and who is
heftier than all but two dozen Blue Devil football players was not always a forward—he grew up playing point guard. “The thing with Zion is that people look at his dunks, but his game is more complete than that,” Sartor said. Williamson was the first in the gym for practice and one of the last out, the coach explained, and he developed strong guard skills early in his career. Krzyzewski, commenting on Williamson after the blowout win against Kentucky to open the season, called out his point guard history when he noted that all four freshman can bring the ball up the floor.
“It’s an unusual mix and the offense that we’re learning allows them the freedom to do it,” Krzyzewski said. ‘The same humble, respectful kid’ Sartor said the first time Wiliamson made ESPN was his freshman year during a Christmas tournament. Soon, his highlight reels were racking up millions of views on YouTube and he was frequently making SportsCenter. “Between Zion’s junior and senior year, we didn’t play in a game that wasn’t sold out,” See WILLIAMSON on Page 13
Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer
Zion Williamson has electrified crowds like no other this season.
DEFENSE AT THE FOREFRONT
How Tre Jones renewed Duke’s defensive identity By Mitchell Gladstone Sports Features Editor
Imagine turning up court, only to see two brown eyes staring right back at you. Except, they aren’t looking at you, but rather the basketball between your hands. For opposing point guards, there has been a near constant this season—Tre Jones and his 6-foot-2 frame, ready to make for 40 of the most miserable minutes you’ve ever had on the hardwood. Jones has often made his man look meek. Georgia Tech’s Jose Alvarado logged more turnovers than field goals against Duke, scoring just two points after halftime and seven all game. St. John’s Shamorie Ponds— the third-leading scorer in the Big East— didn’t get his first bucket until nearly 25 minutes in. Boston College’s Ky Bowman, a second-team All-ACC honoree, took almost 15 minutes to get on the scoreboard and finished his night a meager 5-of-17. All of that happened in three straight games. Some coaches have hesitated to give credit to the Blue Devils’ floor general, instead attributing their players’ struggles to little more than an “off night.” But the Tre Jones Experience is real. ‘He’s got it’ It didn’t take long for Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski to acknowledge Jones’ defensive ability. Following the Blue Devils’ come-from-behind win against Texas Tech
Sujal Manohar | Photography Editor
Tre Jones has anchored the Blue Devil defense with his intensity and has been a crucial part of the team’s fast-paced offense. at Madison Square Garden in December, Krzyzewski compared his freshman leader to the likes of Tommy Amaker, Bobby Hurley, Steve Wojciechowski and Chris Duhon— Duke icons that can claim two National Defensive Player of the Year awards and three national titles between them. “He’s a godsend for me. I’m so excited about coaching him,” Krzyzewski said of Jones Dec. 20. “One of the best things, whether I’m coaching the U.S. team or
coaching the Duke team, is having the ability to have real-time leadership while the game is going on, and the ability to improvise or make reads, that you would make reads out of a timeout. Tre gives me the opportunity to do that. “It’s like coaching, like the U.S. team, you have LeBron [James], Chris Paul, they make real-time decisions. A lot of kids, there aren’t many that can get their teams to—Tre can do that. He’s got it.”
When Jones went down with a separated AC joint in his right shoulder during the Blue Devils’ first matchup with Syracuse, Duke looked lost offensively. The Blue Devils chucked up 43 3-point attempts and turned the ball over 12 times en route to their first loss in nearly two months and just their second all season. It’s not on the offensive end, however, where Jones’ impact is felt most. Duke is on track for its best defensive season since 2009-10, when it finished fifth in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency thanks to a duo of backcourt stoppers in Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith—both of whom are now members of the Blue Devil staff—and firstteam All-ACC forward Kyle Singler. Jones won’t be winning any individual defensive awards this year—he finished second to Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter in ACC Defensive Player of the Year voting and is not a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, an award for which Zion Williamson, however, is still in the running. Jones is also not in the top 10 of any of the advanced defensive metrics, such as defensive win shares, defensive rating and defensive box plus-minus. But he can claim victory against his older brother, Tyus, who, for all his clutch shotmaking was not nearly the same caliber of defender during his lone season at Duke in 2014-15, when the Blue Devils went on to See JONES on Page 14
6 | WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2019
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PERIMETER PERIL
Poor 3-point shooting could plague Duke For a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament that looks unbeatable at full health, Duke sure has a glaring flaw: it shoots the 3-point ball at a meager 30.2 percent, the 16th-worth rate in the nation. Make no mistake about it, these Blue Devils can still score. With the No. 6 offense according to KenPom.com’s adjusted efficiency metric and college basketball’s most efficient scorer in Zion Williamson at its disposal, Duke rarely struggles to rack up points. But in a climate where effectiveness beyond the arc is increasingly important— after all, three points are more than two—the Blue Devils’ woes from deep could prove to be what stops them from bringing a sixth title back to Durham. Entering the season, concerns about Duke’s outside shooting quietly lingered among the hype surrounding the otherworldly freshmen class—none of the expected starters graded out as a sharpshooter except for Cam Reddish. In the Blue Devils’ 118-84 drubbing against then-No. 2 Kentucky to open the season, this criticism was quickly quieted. Tre Jones, Reddish and Williamson each knocked down a three within the first 2:07 of
Juan Bermudez | Sports Photography Editor
Cam Reddish has struggled to find consistency throughout the season, but will be counted on in March. action, and Duke finished the evening with 12 triples on an efficient 46.2 percent clip beyond the arc. Although the Blue Devils did not sustain this rate, they remained a solid shooting team through nonconference play and into midJanuary. That is, until Syracuse’s defense came into town.
Sujal Manohar | Photography Editor
Jack White started off strong from the perimeter, but has been unable to find his stroke of late.
The Jan. 14 loss to the Orange serves as perhaps the most damning evidence against Duke’s offensive abilities. Up against a stifling 2-3 zone defense, the Blue Devils jacked up three after three, but to no avail—Duke sunk just nine of its 43 attempts from outside en route to a 95-91 loss. Jack White was responsible for 10 of those
missed 3-point tries, a shocking night for the 6-foot-7 forward who led the Blue Devils in 3-point percentage for much of the first half of the season. White had been a revelation in stretching the floor for Duke, hitting a 3-pointer in 12 of the team’s first 13 contests. See PERIMETER on Page 15
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ACC TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS ®
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KETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PIONSHIP BRACKET BRACKET National Semifinals
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NC Central (18-15) 16
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Columbia
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ACC GETS TRIO OF NO. 1 SEEDS EAST: DUKE After dismantling then-No. 2 Kentucky Wildcats in the Champions Classic by a score of 118-84, the Blue Devils got off to a hot start, beginning the season 14-1. Injuries seemed to be the only thing to slow the Blue Devils, as Krzyzewski’s squad ended the season dropping only one game at full strength. After losing three of the final six regular-season games with Zion Williamson out, the Blue Devils were able to capture Coach K’s 15th ACC Championship
SOUTH: VIRGINIA Virginia spent most of the regular season dominating all of its competition except Duke, spurred by the motivation of last season’s historic, humiliating blowout loss to No. 16 seed UMBC in the NCAA tournament. Head coach Tony Bennett’s squad trounced top-10 opponents Virginia Tech and Florida State and also topped the Hokies, North Carolina and Louisville on the road. The Blue Devils were the Cavaliers’ only kryptonite before March, as they didn’t have much of an answer for freshman phenom Zion Williamson in either matchup. The staunch defense and slow pace had the look of a prototypical Virginia team, but the Cavaliers appear to have more talented offensive weapons than in previous years. Sophomore De’Andre Hunter is expected to be a top-10 pick
in the NBA Draft and can score both at the rim and at the 3-point line. He was also named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year. Juniors Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome are both elite 3-point threats as well, and Virginia’s 41.4 percent clip from deep ranks third in the nation. —Hank Tucker
with an impressive three-day stretch featuring wins against Syracuse, North Carolina and Florida State. The Blue Devils are a menacing team in the paint driven by the dynamic freshman duo of R.J. Barrett and Williamson. Williamson, who was recently named Sporting News’ National Player of the Year, is just about unstoppable when he gets the ball in the paint, and Barrett’s ability to penetrate
and hunt baskets has terrorized teams all season. The two combine to average 45 of Duke’s 83.5 points per game. While most of the scoring comes from the two stars, Tre Jones may be Duke’s best defensive player. Jones, has consistently shut down the ACC’s best point guards while also averaging over five assists per game. Despite having four of the most talented freshmen in the NCAA, the Blue Devils have proven to be mortal largely due to their poor 3-point shooting. —Daniel Landa
MIDWEST: NORTH CAROLINA The Tar Heels entered their regular season as the eighth-ranked team in the nation. After just five losses in the regular season, North Carolina has worked hard to push itself up to third in the nation. The Tar Heels took advantage of Duke’s slump at the end of the season, overtaking the Blue Devils to finish second in the ACC behind Virginia. North Carolina’s depth on the court has been a huge factor to a successful season. Senior Luke Maye was named the preseason ACC player of the year and his ability to clean the glass has only increased. Besides Maye, Cameron Johnson has been a player to look at for making shots all over the court. Senior Kenny Williams has also showed his ability to step up and sink some needed 3-pointers. The freshmen have been surprising, as Nassir Little hasn’t
lived up to the hype he came into college with and Coby White’s performance at point guard has been the talk of the town instead. White managed to break freshman records at North Carolina, notching three 30-point games. —Ramona Naseri
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REST OF THE EAST NO. 2: MICHIGAN STATE Once again, Tom Izzo’s Michigan State squad sits near the top of the Big Ten and is in prime position to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament. After losing to top-ranked Kansas to open the season, the Spartans picked up five wins in a row before falling to Louisville on the road in overtime. Following that defeat, Michigan State won its next 13 games, including ranked wins against Iowa, Ohio State and Maryland. The Spartans hit a midseason funk, losing consecutively to Purdue, Indiana and Illinois. Michigan State rebounded strongly, and finished the season winning eight of the last nine regular conference games to clinch a share of the Big Ten regular season title and the top seed at the conference tournament in Chicago. At the Big Ten tournament, Michigan State ran through Ohio State and Wisconsin before knocking off Michigan for the third time this season. Injuries have plagued the Spartans this
season. Junior Joshua Langford left the team’s game against Northern Illinois in the first half with an injury, and the team later announced that he would miss the remainder of the season. Before the injury, Langford averaged 15.0 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. —Spencer Levy
NO. 3: LSU Head coach Will Wade laid the foundation of a contending program in the SEC his first year at the Tigers’ helm. He followed it up by recruiting a pair of top-50 prospects in Naz Reid and Ja’Vonte Smart. Although the Tigers had an admittedly easier stretch through January, LSU took care of business and stayed dominant throughout, earning seven straight wins including a comfortable 83-69 win on the road against thenNo. 18 Ole Miss. Although the Tigers’ hot streak ended in a one-point loss at home to Arkansas, LSU picked right back up where it left off, taking down Mississippi State and Auburn before earning a signature—albeit controversial—win at then-No. 5 Kentucky and at home against formerly fifth-ranked Tennessee. The key to LSU’s resurgence has been exceptional play from Tremont Waters and a versatile supporting cast around him. Even when Waters was out with an injury in late February, Reid, Smart and Skylar Mays stepped up to fill the offensive void. However,
while the Tigers have the talent to take on any team in the country, LSU has some glaring weaknesses it must address. The Tigers are fairly poor at shooting from beyond the arc, averaging 32.3 percent from three. Adversity also struck at the worst time in March, though, with Wade getting suspended indefinitely due to an investigation of recruiting violations. He is unlikely to be on the sideline at all during the NCAA tournament. —Winston Lindqwister
NO. 4: VIRGINIA TECH With plenty of talent, Virginia Tech entered the season more than capable of earning a double-bye in the ACC tournament. And while the Hokies came up just shy of fourth place, they showed why they were Buzz Williams’ best team since arriving in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech won three straight to capture the Charleston Classic, taking out then-No. 23 Purdue in the final, before the Hokies were stunned at Penn State in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. Thanks to a soon-to-be NBA talent in Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Virginia Tech won all but two games in December and January, only losing on the road to the ACC’s two top teams—Virginia and North Carolina. The Hokies then opened February with a memorable win, holding N.C. State to just 24 points in an entire game, and closed the month with a signature victory, taking out Duke at
home for the third straight season. Star guard Justin Robinson will play in the NCAA tournament. The senior has not played since injuring his foot Jan. 30 against Miami, but his return will give a major lift to Virginia Tech’s offense as well as add leadership to an alreadyexperienced core. —Mitchell Gladstone
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WEST: GONZAGA Gonzaga muscled through nonconference matchups early, besting Idaho State, Texas Southern and Texas A&M before heading to the Maui Invitational. In the Lahaina Civic Center, the Bulldogs narrowly beat Illinois, dominated Arizona and opened up a 16-point lead on then-No. 1 Duke before hanging on just enough to eke out a 89-87 win for the invitational championship. The win earned Gonzaga the No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll, and it would keep that rank until running into a hot Tennessee team that handed the Bulldogs their first loss. Gonzaga then dropped a second straight game, following up the defeat to the Volunteers with a 13-point loss to North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The nonconference losses did not affect the Bulldogs for West Coast Conference play, however. Gonzaga ripped through conference play, with its closest margin of victory standing at 12 points and putting the squad in position to easily earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. However, in the WCC Tournament the Bulldogs inexplicably dropped the championship game, falling 6047 to rival St. Mary’s. The Bulldogs feature arguably the most polished offense in America. Picking teams apart inside and out thanks to a combination of capable outside shooting, skilled big men and speed, Gonzaga is capable of beating anyone. Few’s squad is filled with veterans, has biggame experience and executes consistently. It would come as no surprise if Gonzaga is cutting down the nets in Minneapolis. —Sid Bhaskara
Winston Lindqwister | Contributing Photog
Gonzaga took down the Blue Devils in Maui last November.
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ACC CHAMPS FROM PAGE 2 with 16:29 remaining—then their largest of the night. Less than three minutes later, Duke went on another 8-0 spurt to open up a 58-44 advantage, forcing a Florida State timeout with 11:11 remaining. The Blue Devils opened the half with 10 consecutive made 2-pointers and coupled that with stifling defense that held Florida State to just three of its first 15 from the field out of the break. “We came here and we talked to each other like, ‘We came too far just to lose,’” Williamson said of the message at halftime. “You know, it’s a long bus ride. We don’t want to be on no quiet bus ride. We want to be lit and enjoy ourselves, and also we were playing physical, both teams, so we just had to have execution with it and that’s what we did.” The Seminoles fought back and cut the Duke lead to as little as five, using a 12-3 run to trim the deficit to 61-56 with 5:28 remaining—behind a team-high 14 points from ACC Sixth Man of the Year Mfiondu Kabengele—but Florida State could not slow down the Blue Devils enough down the stretch. A bucket by Jones and a 3-pointer by Cam Reddish from the left wing with 1:20 left put the game away. Jones continued his recent attacking mentality on offense, but was more efficient than in past games. The floor general added a season-high 18 points, on 8-of-14 shooting, while racking up six assists in the process. “I feel like it’s just the will to win. All of us came here with one goal in mind and
that’s to win, so especially in a game like today, championship game, my brother’s had my back,” Jones said. “Even at the start of the game I was struggling a little bit. They kept believing in me, coaches kept believing in me and kept telling me just keep going, keep taking my shot. So with them believing in me and trusting in me, those plays were able to be there and I was able to make them.” After a slow start from Barrett, the freshman phenom began to attack and ended up with 11 first-half points and 17 in the contest. Barrett complemented another stellar offensive showing from Williamson, who paced the team with 12 in the opening period and led the Blue Devil scoring game on the interior. Both teams showed sloppiness in the first half, combining for 15 turnovers. The teams took better care of the ball out of the locker room, as Duke won the turnover battle 13-12. Duke did manage to improve in an area that it has struggled mightily in throughout the season—at the charity stripe. The Blue Devils finished the contest with an 81.0 percent clip on free-throw attempts. Duke needed every point it could get at the stripe as the Seminoles could not miss, draining their first 13 attempts and finishing the contest 15-for-16. With the win, the Blue Devils earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament. Duke will be in the East Region and will begin tournament play Friday evening in Columbia, S.C., before potentially moving on to Washington. “This tournament’s been great, we’re ACC champions,” Williamson said. “I think that if we didn’t win it then the tournament wouldn’t have been great, so us winning this makes it great.
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WILLIAMSON FROM PAGE 5 Sartor said. The coach said that what made Williamson worthy of attention is that he’s always been modest about it. “Of course we were excited and happy for him, but he remained the same humble, respectful kid,” Sartor said. So when he got to college, the media was nothing new to him. After games, as reporters jockey for positions around his locker and Williamson pulls in sidekick Mike Buckmire for interviews, the 18-year-old handles questions with an ease political candidates would envy. Now, he’s been on the cover of SLAM magazine, GQ recently ran a feature on him and his freshman teammates, and you can hardly turn
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on ESPN without seeing his face. The 18-yearold takes it in stride. “I came in, and with the brotherhood we all look out for each other, my teammates look out for me,” he said after the Clemson game. “If I’m ever feeling the pressure of the media they always got me. So the transition has been really easy.” The freshman is all but guaranteed to be the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft this June. But Sartor, now the head men’s basketball coach at Erskine College in South Carolina, said Williamson’s best is yet to come. “I’m so proud of him,” Sartor said. “But I tell people all the time that there’s so much more the world hasn’t seen that he’s capable of.” And as good as he is, Williamson himself sees room for improvement. “I’m 18 years old, I’m an unfinished product,” he said after Duke’s season-opening win against Kentucky. “I just work on everything.”
Bre Bradham | Contributing Photographer
Zion Williamson exploded in his return against Syracuse with 29 points and 14 rebounds.
JONES FROM PAGE 5 claim their fifth national title. “He’s been there like that for me, wherever I’ve been at with basketball,” Tre said of Tyus after winning the ACC tournament title Saturday in Charlotte. “Whatever level it’s been at, wherever I’m at in the world playing basketball, he’s always been able to reach out to me, and give me little pointers.” The Jones brothers grew up together in Apple Valley, Minn., yet didn’t overlap much being four years apart in school. Tyus’ last season before coming to Durham, Tre joined the Apple Valley high school team as an eighth-grader, playing with his brother and then-freshman Gary Trent Jr. “It really was just competing against [Tyus],” Jones said. “He never took it light on me or gave me an easy way out, he always scored on me if he could in oneon-one or if we were playing in the house or something. Obviously, when I was kid I didn’t like that at all, and would complain to my mom, but she didn’t care about that. She just told me to keep trying as much as I could, and I feel like that’s why I’m the competitor that I am today.” Manning up About two-thirds of the way through last season, Duke made the transition to a full-time zone defense. It was a dramatic decision for Krzyzewski, whose teams had been known for their hounding man-toman D ever since the early years of his tenure.
The 2-3 zone, however, wasn’t brand new. The Blue Devils broke it out back in January 2015 during a crucial win at Louisville, a game that sparked their 21-2 finish to the eventual national title campaign. And they haven’t been afraid to use it ever since—the defense that Krzyzewski stole from Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim pushed Duke past the Orange in last year’s Sweet 16 and nearly got the Blue Devils back to the Final Four for the first time in four seasons. This year, Krzyzewski has kept his team almost exclusively in man, and the Blue Devils have been able to do that because of Jones. “[Tre] makes it a lot easier for us with the ball pressure he puts on the guards,” junior Marques Bolden said. “It makes them have to force tough passes. He generates a lot of turnovers and gets a lot of steals up at the top. I’m grateful to have a point guard who plays defense like Tre.” For as good as Duke is offensively, it is also sixth in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Blue Devils have held opponents scoreless for long stretches, perhaps most notably a nearly six-minute run at North Carolina as Duke nearly climbed back into a game which it trailed by 15 points. Of course, that isn’t all of Jones’ making. Williamson—paired with the junior tandem of Bolden and Javin DeLaurier—has made the Blue Devils fearsome at the rim with a 16.3 block percentage, good for fourth in the nation. But Duke is also fourth in steal percentage, and Jones averages more than two per game along with Williamson, putting them among the top 40 individuals in Division I. And all the while, Jones has helped to See JONES on Page 15
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PERIMETER
FROM PAGE 14 develop another young defender for the Blue Devils in sophomore Jordan Goldwire. “He can impact the game not only on defense, but on offense, too,” Jones said of Goldwire. “How aggressive he is, how guys are able to feed off his energy that he brings to the team. He’s just a sparkplug for us.” Goldwire, a former three-star recruit, played all of 169 minutes last season and got double-digit minutes just twice once ACC play began in 2017-18. This year, the Norcross, Ga., native seemed to have his shining moment in Duke’s thrilling 23-point comeback against the Cardinals. Goldwire, alongside Jones, rattled Louisville with a 2-2-1 full-court press that gave the Blue Devils a lift they desperately needed. Yet Goldwire found a way to one-up himself, stepping into the limelight once more during Duke’s ACC tournament win against North Carolina. Krzyzewski gave the sophomore the assignment of managing first-team All-ACC swingman Cameron Johnson—and after the Tar Heel senior scored 14 points in the first eight minutes, Goldwire latched on, limiting Johnson to just nine the rest of the night. It’s a credit to working with Jones, not just during games, but during practice every day this season. “We feed off each other’s energy,” Goldwire said. “We both like to play defense, so when he sees me in the game, he gives me confidence, talks to me like, ‘Let’s go, it’s time.’”
sidelined by injury, Duke was forced to rely on perimeter scoring, and with limited ‘I wanted to be in that moment’ FROM PAGE 6 success. Without Williamson, who is often The Blue Devils’ ACC tournament finale a one-man fast break, the Blue Devils were gave college basketball fans a taste of what might be to come from Jones over the season’s But the junior captain’s confidence and forced into more half-court sets, where final month. Duke’s point guard scored a playing time dwindled after his 0-for-10 possessions often stalled into mediocre career-best 18 points and ignited a Duke effort against Syracuse, and White has 3-point looks. Duke combined to shoot 16offense that got into the lane time and time converted on just five 3-pointers in his last of-71 on 3-pointers in its two regular-season again versus a long Florida State defense. 40 attempts, including a streak of 28 misses losses to North Carolina, and the Blue Devils Maybe it’s just a favorite time of year for in a row that started with the game against are just 2-3 this season when they attempt more than 30 triples. the Jones family. the Orange. Duke’s lack of productivity from deep Tyus hit the iconic dagger triple over the That contest was not the only time indicates a recipe to take down the Blue Devils: outstretched arm of Wisconsin’s Bronson inefficiency from outside plagued the Blue force them to chuck up shots beyond the arc, Koenig that put the Blue Devils up eight Devils. In its six games with Williamson and they will crumble. with less than 90 seconds to play in the 2015 While head coach Mike Krzyzewski still has national title game. Tre, along with the rest Alex O’Connell at his disposal, the sophomore of the Jones family, was in Indianapolis to sharpshooter has struggled to establish see it unfold. consistent playing time as a liability on defense This time around, the championship despite leading Duke in 3-point percentage the game would be played in Minneapolis’ U.S. last two seasons among players who attempted Bank Stadium, a mere 20 miles from the at least 10 triples. very gym where he and his brother played O’Connell starred in the Blue Devils’ their high school games. second meeting with the Orange, and his “I was a freshman in high school, and career-high five 3-pointers broke down the I remember almost everything from that,” vaunted 2-3 zone. Yet, like White, O’Connell Tre, who watched all of his brother’s NCAA was mostly relegated to the bench during the tournament games in person, said Saturday National l iona Reg ACCRtournament, logging just 14 minutes Sinemifinals night. “I put out a goal for myself that I nal io eg d Finals the three wanted to be in that moment one day. Now Second Roun A PR IL 6 ifinals Semgames. –3 1 4 M A R C H 30 –2 23 H 9 d C –2 R un A 28 o M H R C st R During the Blue Devils’ ACC tournament that I’m here and I’m in that moment, Firit’s MA 2 M A R C H 21 –2 run—which featured victories against going to be fun to partake in it.” Syracuse, No. 3 North Carolina and No. 10 Tyus would go on to be named Most Florida State—they knocked down just 24.6 Outstanding Player of the Final Four, percent of their 3-point attempts on their way and it’s possible Tre could do the same— to the conference title. even playing with a cast of future NBA Clearly, this is a Duke team that can win big superstars. games without being efficient from deep, but “He came here mature,” Krzyzewski said in January. “We’re lucky to have him. Tre is Charles York | Special Projects Photo Editor the Blue Devils could surely make their path outstanding, just terrific. He’s a gift, and all Alex O’Connell has looked good against to cutting down the net in Minneapolis much 1 these guys will do anything for him.” Syracuse, and will need to stay consistent. easier with more consistency there.
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