Duke Basketball: 3 takeaways from Coach K’s loss to UNC in final game ever

UNC Tar Heels may have been worst possible opponent to play

There’s a lot of talk about how this run put a lot of pressure on the fairly young Duke Basketball roster (more on that later) but I would argue that it also affected the opponents as well. After Virginia Tech defeated Duke in the ACC Tournament, there was an internal bounty of bragging rights available for the next team to beat them and end Coach K’s career.

The path for the Blue Devils to make the Final Four was fairly tough, beating Michigan State and Tom Izzo, Texas Tech and its “no middles” defense, and then Arkansas and its versatility. The only real relief was avoiding No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga in a potential Elite 8 matchup.

It felt as if Duke was going to benefit from the mayhem from the East Region, after top seeds, Baylor, Kentucky, and Purdue all fell early. And they did get an 8 seed in the Final Four but in my opinion, they were better off facing someone like Purdue or UCLA out of that part of the bracket.

Considering the media and social media hype about this particular Duke run, there was also some pressure on the opponents as well. However, the Tar Heels were going to be the exception to that, considering that they played in Coach K’s final home game ever and somehow came out with the victory. So even though there were 70,000 fans in attendance, there wasn’t going to be a lot more pressure that UNC wasn’t already ready for.

It also didn’t help that this was the third matchup between these teams, so from a scouting perspective, Duke didn’t do anything that the Tar Heels weren’t ready for. Although they were an 8 seed, this UNC squad was playing its best basketball at the right time and it was just enough to get past the Blue Devils to make the title game.