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Duke forward Zion Williamson added another monster dunk to his overflowing highlight reel when he put back a missed shot against Virginia Tech in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament on Friday.
Williamson has averaged 28.5 points per game in his first two tournament matchups.
The Duke Blue Devils had to tweak their starting lineup for Friday's Sweet 16 game against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Shortly before tipoff, Duke announced Alex O'Connell was replacing Cam Reddish in the starting lineup. According to Stephen Wiseman of the Herald-Sun, Reddish is battling a knee injury. Stadium's Jeff Goodman noted it's his left knee.
Reddish did not enter the game at all.
When Duke and Virginia Tech played earlier this year, the Blue Devils were short-handed. Zion Williamson was out with a knee sprain, and his team fell 77-72 to the Hokies in his absence.
Williamson's knee injury exposed Duke's lack of depth across the entire roster. The Blue Devils are one of the most talented teams in the country when head coach Mike Krzyzewski has all of his stars available. Remove one of Williamson, Reddish or RJ Barrett, and the team becomes much more vulnerable.
That was the case again Friday night, as Virginia Tech pushed Duke to the brink.
Reddish entered Friday averaging 13.6 points while shooting 35.8 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from beyond the arc.
Although the 6'8" swingman hasn't met expectations in his freshman season, he has stepped up at opportune times. He shot 5-of-8 for 13 points in Duke's one-point win over the UCF Knights in the second round.
Losing Reddish's secondary scoring put even more pressure on Williamson and Barrett, which was less than ideal against the No. 19 team in adjusted defense, per KenPom.com.
Williamson led all scorers with 23 points in addition to six rebounds, three blocks and an assist on Friday night. Barrett chipped in 18 points, while freshman guard Tre Jones stepped up with 22 points and eight assists.
The Blue Devils eked out a 75-73 win, and Reddish's status will be of even more importance as Duke heads to the Elite Eight to face No. 2 Michigan State.
Grant Hill talks to a younger version of himself and tells him about the career that he's about to have.
UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins is a big fan of Duke's Zion Williamson.
"The things he did in that game as a freshman [against UCF] ... to do the things he did on that stage, you automatically know he has special written all over him at our level, on the next level, it's not going to matter," Dawkins said during an interview on ESPN's Get Up. "That young man is going to be great. ... I think he's going to be a Hall of Famer when it's all said and done."
Williamson led Duke to a 77-76 win over UCF in the second round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament over the weekend, scoring 32 points to go along with 11 rebounds, four assists and a steal in 40 minutes of play. It was a virtuoso performance, and Duke needed every bit of it in the Blue Devils' narrow escape.
Williamson is also the prohibitive favorite to be the No. 1 pick in the 2019 NBA draft, so expectations are already sky high for the talented freshman. Dawkins upped the ante with his Hall of Fame prediction, but thus far, Williamson has done little to cast any doubt about the impact he could have at the next level.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — It's still bizarre that Duke's biggest concern is three-point shooting.
When college basketball introduced the three-point shot for the 1986-87 season, the Blue Devils shot 40.2 percent from behind it. En route to the 1992 national championship, Duke shot 43.4 percent that season. When the team won it all again in 2001, it set the since-broken-several-times NCAA record of 407 threes in a single season.
In 31 out of 32 years from 1986-87 to 2017-18, Duke connected on at least 36.3 percent of its three-point attempts. Even the off year's 34.9 percent (2008-09) was still better than the national average (34.2).
Hundreds of thousands of college basketball fans spent some portion of their childhood out in the driveway, shooting from three-point range, dreaming of becoming the next Bobby Hurley, Jeff Capel, Trajan Langdon, Jay Williams, JJ Redick, etc.
Can anyone remember a time before this year that Duke lacked a three-point assassin? Even during the disastrous 13-18 campaign in 1994-95, Capel and Langdon each hit better than 40 percent.
Yet, here we are with the Blue Devils shooting 30.7 percent—it's an even more unsightly 29.8 percent if you take out the 27-of-62 performance in the first two regular-season games—and with that perimeter game looking like it could be their downfall.
Even stranger than the fact that they can't consistently hit 21-foot jump shots is that we're most concerned about it right after their best two-game stretch in more than four months.
From November 20 through March 16, the Blue Devils played 30 contests and shot better than 38.5 percent just three times. They hadn't hit 36 percent of their three-point attempts in consecutive games since the season's first two outings. And in the final 11 games before the tournament, they made 26.4 percent and didn't have one performance better than 35.3.
But Duke shot it well in its first two tournament games. It was 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) in the first round against North Dakota State and 10-of-25 (40.0 percent) in the close call against UCF. RJ Barrett (4-of-7), Zion Williamson (4-of-9) and Cam Reddish (5-of-10) were a combined 50 percent from distance in Columbia.
It didn't feel like it, though, did it?
Rather than the "Zion vs. Tacko" amazement with which we all entered that second-round showdown, the postgame narrative surrounded Tacko Fall's "guarding" Tre Jones and Jordan Goldwire by repeatedly leaving them wide open to dig their own graves.
"It's definitely something different we haven't seen before," said Duke forward Jack White. "In that respect, it obviously threw us off a little bit."
"[It surprised me] a little bit just because they were playing off so far," said Goldwire. "I knew they were going to play me [that way] because we have two guys that attack the rim really hard. They tried to take that away. And I haven't really shot the ball well this season, so not really surprised by how open I was."
Goldwire was 1-of-20 from three-point range before the tournament and hasn't been much of a shot-taker during his limited time on the court. If White (hamstring) had been available, Goldwire likely wouldn't have played much last weekend. And White said he's confident he'll be ready for the Sweet 16, so we probably shouldn't fret too much about how Duke can hide Goldwire in its offense.
Jones is a different story, though, as he plays 34 minutes per game and didn't come out for a moment against UCF. He is an elite defender, a solid offensive traffic director and a capable driver.
He is not a good in-game three-point shooter.
Jones looks pure in pregame warm-ups, but it's another story once the ball is tipped. He entered the tournament shooting 24.7 percent from three-point range, and he was 1-of-10 in the first two rounds. (He's down to 23.2 percent.) The last time he made multiple three-pointers in a single game was November 19.
To put it lightly, opposing teams have noticed.
If memory serves correctly, Duke's first game against North Carolina this season—"The Shoe Game," if you will—was the first time an opponent showed no respect for Jones' perimeter play. There were moments that night when Jones was by himself on one side of the court, free to hit a three if he could.
He finished 1-of-6 from distance and missed all five of his two-point attempts.
That same late-February week, Syracuse and Virginia Tech followed a similar script against the Blue Devils. Those zone defenses already dare teams to shoot threes, but they took that to the extreme with Jones, barely even bothering to rotate over to contest his looks.
He went 2-of-11 in those games.
Granted, during that stretch with Williamson sidelined and with White mired in his 0-of-infinity stretch—it was 28 straight misses, but it felt like he would never hit a shot again—it made sense for Jones to try to snap out of his funk. Aside from Barrett and Reddish, Duke didn't have much in the way of scoring options.
Now that Williamson is back, why is Jones still shooting threes?
He did hit a huge one midway through the second half against UCF, but that was his only make in eight attempts. Jones' air-ball of a wide-open corner three with two minutes left set up the UCF fast break that would have sealed the game for the Knights if Aubrey Dawkins hadn't fumbled the alley-oop.
"They were sagging off me and trying to stop the other guys from attacking the hoop so much, but my teammates trusted in me to take those shots," said Jones. "I just wasn't able to knock 'em down tonight. If the opportunity is there again, I'll definitely be taking those shots again. My teammates and coaches continue to trust me."
Jones doubled down on that statement moments later.
"That's what my team needs to be able to win. They're going to need me to step up that side of my game, and I'll continue to take those shots."
Good on him for believing in himself, but hearing that has to be giving Duke fans terrifying flashbacks to Trevon Duval's 16 shots in last year's Elite Eight loss to Kansas while Marvin Bagley III had one field-goal attempt in the final 14 minutes. The Jayhawks made it their mission to stop Bagley and decided if Duval was going to beat them, so be it.
Substitute Williamson for Bagley and Jones for Duval, and that's exactly what Duke should expect to see out of defenses for the rest of the tournament.
But if the 7'6" Fall and UCF's entire defensive focus couldn't keep Williamson from finishing with 32 points and 11 rebounds, how will Virginia Tech's Kerry Blackshear Jr., Michigan State's Nick Ward or Gonzaga's Brandon Clarke do any better?
Many of you are probably sick of the national media's tendency to worship at the foot of Mount Zion every day for the past few months, but he is the most unstoppable force in college basketball since Glenn Robinson and Shaquille O'Neal in the early 1990s.
After the first-round game, North Dakota State's players kept saying they had never seen anything close to Zion, and they played multiple contests against the NCAA's seventh all-time leading scorer (Mike Daum).
Bagley was great, but he's not the tour de force that Williamson is. Even if he is double-teamed on every possession, Williamson's two-point attempts against two defenders are worth more than Jones' three-point attempts against no defenders—especially if you factor in the inevitable trips to the free-throw line.
Unless Williamson gets into foul trouble, the Blue Devils need to ride the horse that brought them there. He didn't come back from that knee sprain to sit idly by while Duke's guards brick their way out of the tournament.
Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball and college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.
Give Mike Krzyzewski credit for saying the three most honest words of his coaching career.
"We were lucky."
You could almost feel millions of heads nodding in agreement from coast to coast as Coach K made that confession on CBS moments after Duke escaped the clutches of Central Florida on Sunday. The sighs of relief from Duke fans must have created gusts back in Durham.
The legion of believers who have Duke occupying the sweetest spot in their brackets may need a day or two before their pulses return to normal.
This was the best dang upset that never happened. A one-point loss, 77-76, in which UCF repeatedly resurrected its slim hopes against the NCAA tournament's No. 1 overall seed.
Duke won the game and also the wildly anticipated showdown between budding superstar Zion Williamson and 7'6" Tacko Fall. But UCF won more hearts, even if its own broke as the Knights missed two desperate but makeable shots in the final eight seconds that could have reversed the outcome.
Should this give hope to the other 15 teams that are headed to the Sweet 16?
Sure. To emulate UCF, all they'll need is to find one of the world's 40 tallest people by next weekend.
After that, they'll also need a coach like UCF's Johnny Dawkins, who not only played for Krzyzewski's first Final Four team, but also sat by his side as an assistant for a decade. Dawkins probably can't read Coach K's mind, but after Sunday's game I wouldn't bet against it.
The last element would be a deadeye gunner like Dawkins' son Aubrey, who scored 32 points and hit five threes against one of the nation's best defensive teams.
And isn't it logical to believe that all those days the younger Dawkins spent in Duke's gym, just hanging out and being a kid, made him the rare opponent who's totally comfortable going up against the winningest coach in college basketball history? Even when Krzyzewski might be leading his best team ever?
So yeah, that's all it will take to keep Duke from winning a sixth national championship under Krzyzewski.
The crowning irony is that UCF would have been better off if Fall hadn't kept his promise to not allow Williamson to posterize with him with a dunk.
With Duke down 76-73 and under 20 seconds left, Fall could have swallowed his pride and stepped away on Williamson's drive to the rim and given up an easy bucket without sacrificing UCF's lead. Instead, Fall stepped up to defend and fouled out while Williamson hit a two-footer anyway. That sent Williamson to the line, where his miss took a lucky hop off the rim and into the hands of RJ Barrett for a putback that was as easy as it was decisive.
But Duke was exposed, to a certain extent. This was the Blue Devils' second sluggish start of the tournament, and they were fortunate to go from a tie to an eight-point lead at the half when UCF imploded with unforced errors in the final three minutes.
The Knights also gave up a 7-0 run in the second half and bungled a chance to go up by six when they missed an alley-oop dunk with 1:55 left.
Fall's 96-inch wingspan also gave Williamson enough trouble in the lane to force him outside. Unfortunately for UCF, the college game's best player got very comfortable out there, hitting three times from beyond the arc for nine of his 32 points.
That helped reduce UCF's glass slipper to shards, but give the Knights credit for one other seldom-seen accomplishment: They visibly rattled Coach K.
After the Blue Devils allowed a 7-0 run to start the second half, Krzyzewski seized an opportunity during a timeout to rip into a young team whose four key freshmen ultimately accounted for 72 of Duke's 77 points.
The CBS broadcast crew reported that Krzyzewski slammed the floor during the break and yelled, "How bad do you want this?"
The accurate answer would have been, "A whole lot, but maybe not as much as Central Florida."
Bill Raftery, who's 75 and has been courtside for about a gazillion NCAA games, volunteered that he hadn't seen Krzyzewski that upset in a long, long time.
So instead of getting to their first-ever Sweet 16, the Knights have to settle for putting their school squarely on the college basketball map while watching Duke trek off to the tournament's second weekend for the 27th time.
"They played great. ... They were deserving of winning," Krzyzewski said to CBS with a sincere voice that sounded ready to crack at any instant. "... I feel bad for Johnny. I'm emotional about it because I love him, and his son was magnificent."
Duke was darned good, too, but will have to go forward with the knowledge that it might not be so lucky next time.
Duke forward Zion Williamson offered high praise for Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski after their team beat UCF 77-76 in the second round of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament on Sunday:
The answer was in response to a question regarding Williamson's gutsy drive on 7'6" UCF center Tacko Fall with the Blue Devils down 76-73 and 14 seconds on the clock. More specifically, Williamson was asked about his mindset of going up for a must-have bucket against a player nearly a foot taller.
The freshman hit the shot, fouling out Fall in the process. Williamson missed the ensuing free throw, but teammate RJ Barrett then grabbed a board and put home a game-winning layup. UCF could not score in its last-ditch effort for the win.
Williamson, who had 32 points and 11 rebounds, also said that he "knew [the shot] was going in" when he went into the lane. He's one of the greatest college basketball players in history, but it helps to have the confidence and belief of a five-time NCAA champion coach as well.
Duke is now into the Sweet 16, where it will face No. 4 Virginia Tech on Friday.
No. 1 Duke barely escaped Round 2 of the NCAA men's basketball tournament with a 77-76 win over No. 9 UCF, and head coach Mike Krzyzewski was emotional talking about the win after the game:
"They were deserving of winning," the coach said of the Knights. "We hung in there, we made a couple of big plays here, and RJ [Barrett] and Zion [Williamson], they willed us. And we were lucky."
Williamson finished with 32 points, including a layup to cut the team's deficit to one with 14 seconds remaining. While he missed the free throw that came after Tacko Fall fouled him on the layup, Barrett got the rebound and scored the go-ahead basket with 11 seconds remaining.
Meanwhile, there was even more at stake in this matchup, as UCF head coach Johnny Dawkins once played and starred for Duke. His son, Aubrey, was a big reason this game was close; he scored 32 points of his own.
Krzyzewski also discussed that connection after the game.
"I feel bad for Johnny," he said. "I'm emotional about it because I love him, and his son was magnificent."
Duke was fortunate to survive, but the two teams combined for arguably the best game in the tournament so far.
The top-seeded Duke Blue Devils were inches away from elimination in the second round of the 2019 NCAA men's basketball tournament.
Trailing 77-76, the UCF Knights inbounded the ball with 8.1 seconds remaining.
B.J. Taylor drove to the basket, but his layup missed the mark. Aubrey Dawkins was there for the follow, and he watched helplessly as the ball rolled around the rim and out.
No. 1 Duke survived a major scare Sunday against No. 9 UCF thanks to a rebound and putback by RJ Barrett.
Down three points in the final minute, Zion Williamson earned an and-1 after making a basket while fouled by UCF center Tacko Fall. He missed the potential game-tying free throw, but Barrett was there to get the ball and score the go-ahead layup.
A missed shot by UCF at the buzzer allowed Duke to hold on for the 77-76 victory.
While the underdogs seemingly did everything possible to pull the massive upset over the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Williamson and Barrett helped the Blue Devils escape with a win.
