The Duke Blue Devils won revenge, bragging rights and a Number One seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament with a 75-58 battering of blood rival North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship early Sunday afternoon.
The Devils (30-4 going into the NCAA tournament) found today's victory particularly sweet after the UNC Tar Heels (26-7) won the ACC Regular Season Championship at their behest last week in a 81-67 pounding. Led by senior Nolan Smith's 20 points, Duke captured a no-doubt-about-it victory against a team that had led them by 10+ at halftime in both of their meetings this season.
"It was the ultimate team effort," Smith said. "Everybody made big plays. When you do that, there's something inside you that you just have to feel good and we felt that."
The team effort grabbed them their record-19th ACC Tournament title overall, third in a row and fifth in the last seven years. It also snagged Mike Kryzewski (more affectionally known, of course, as "Coach K") his 13th title, tying him with North Carolina great Dean Smith for the most all-time.
The Devils jumped out of the gate, running away with early margins of 8-0 and 22-8, playing the tall, athletic Tar Heels tough in the paint and on the boards. The team effort Smith spoke of saw forward Kyle Singler and guard Seth Curry each notch 11 points, and forwards Miles Plumlee and Ryan Kelly and guard Andre Dawkins each added 9, continuing a conference tournament trend that saw the Blue Devils move a little more into team-wide offensive territory, rather than focusing mostly on the trio of Smith, Singler and Curry.
Duke played fast, furious defense, snagging breakaways and hounding UNC's tall men, like seven-footer Tyler Zeller, and doing their best to suffocate their opponent's big scorers, like forward Harrison Barnes (16, after scoring 40 the previous night), Zeller (14), and John Henson (10). The Tar Heels never gave up and fought hard in the second half, often making highlight-reel dunks and layups, but they were never closer than 9 points down after the 22-8 deficit early. Their attempts to make catch-up runs late were cut short by key three-pointers from Curry, Kelly and Dawkins. They were also penalized at the free-throw line by Smith, who was a perfect 7-for-7 and was named tournament MVP after the game.
"What they did was fantastic," North Carolina Coach Roy Williams said of Duke.
After becoming the ACC's clearly-outlined top dogs by the end of the regular season, they both ripped through the tournament, North Carolina overcoming double-digit defeats each night, including last night's semifinal against Clemson, while Duke spread the wealth around in another double-digit revenge victory, this one against notable NCAA tourney snub Virginia Tech.
"I love the ACC," Coach K said afterward. "The ACC has made me a better coach. I just feel that when you are a part of something bigger than you and you're in a tournament representing that conference you should try to be at your best...We don't talk about the NCAA tournament or anything like that. We just say we want to win this tournament. You could see how happy we are."
As much as they relish the ACC tournament victory, they are made all the happier by this victory's grand prize, a Number One seed in the 68-team NCAA tournament (of which they are the defending champions). The other Number One seeds are Ohio State (number one overall, who won the Big Ten Championship with a 71-60 defeat of Penn State today), Kansas and Pittsburgh. North Carolina, which started the season slowly but rolled down the stretch, leads the pack of Number Twos that also includes San Diego State (Mountain West Conference Champions), Notre Dame and Florida. The Number Threes are Syracuse, Connecticut (UCONN, the Big East Champs), Purdue and Brigham Young University. The Fours are: Kentucky (SEC Champs), Texas, Louisville and Wisconsin.
The NCAA tournament starts on Friday.
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