Duke Basketball: 3 reasons why Blue Devils will miss 2021 NCAA Tournament

It has been a miserable season for some of NCAA Basketball’s biggest and most prestigious programs. Kentucky is 5-13 overall after losing yet another close game, this time last night to Arkansas. And Michigan State staved off Penn State to keep any hopes of an at-large campaign alive. Then there’s Duke Basketball, coming off a disastrous past week that is looking to get back on track.

After big wins over Clemson and Georgia Tech, the Blue Devils lost a brutal road matchup against Miami, before falling at home last weekend to rival North Carolina. That brought their record to 7-7 (5-5) and without signature resume wins. And now, the ACC juggernaut is starting to build up more bad losses to make things worse.

In a Tuesday afternoon matchup, Duke looked to be in control in the first half against Notre Dame, a team near the bottom of the ACC standings. However, guard Cormack Ryan went off in the second half, allowing the Fighting Irish to come back and prevail, 93-89.

Wendell Moore had 24 points and 10 rebounds to lead the way for the Blue Devils. But it was the 55% shooting from the field and 11 made three-pointers allowed on the defensive end that doomed Duke.

Now, they’re 7-8 overall with a NET ranking approaching 80. And making matters worse, the remaining schedule is without many opportunities to improve the resume in a big way, excluding the home game against Virginia, which is a must-win if they have any hopes of getting an at-large bid.

But let’s face it, folks. Duke Basketball will not be going to the 2021 NCAA Tournament unless they win the ACC Tournament, which seems highly unlikely based on its play of late. There will be a lot of talk concerning what went wrong with this team to get them to this point. Here are three reasons why I think things have gone awry.