Look for Duke-Syracuse to go under

Krzyzewski learned the defense while Boeheim served as his Team U.S.A. assistant for a decade, and he deployed it at Duke in 2015 when a young team, dominated by three freshmen, won his and the Blue Devils’ fifth national championship. With both teams utilizing a 2-3 zone, the game was played at a relatively slow pace. The Blue Devils will certainly need more out of their perimeter players to beat Kansas, but there’s strength in knowing that any of five different players could lead the team in scoring, even on a night when it has its A-game.

At the end of the Syracuse postgame press conference, an unprompted Boeheim took shots at some of the critics who have been critical of the Orange, who have characterized this run as fortunate.

The Orange advanced to this Sweet 16 by winning three games already in this tournament.

“I’ve never been anymore proud of a team for what they have done in these last 10 days”, Boeheim said. Syracuse was charged with 12 turnovers in the opening half, 16 for the game. Syracuse is allowing 63.6 points per game this season and will look to shut down Duke’s potent offense. Or Syracuse sophomore Tyus Battle’s spinning drive, where he drew a foul and sank a floater. We had six of them when this Sweet 16 began.

Blue blood vs. blue blood, chalk vs. chalk, two of the greatest programs in this sport’s history (Kansas ranks second in all-time victories, Duke fourth) battling it out for one slot in the 2018 Final Four. Grayson Allen, Trevon Duval, and Gary Trent Jr. are all talented scorers and facilitators, but for the Orange to have any chance, they must force the ball to the perimeter as much as possible, where the zone thrives.

Wildhack says this team plays so hard every single night, and that they’ve gotten this far on “pure heart and guts”.

Justin Guterding, the senior attackman leading the charge for the Blue Devils, will look to exploit these holes.

The Orange were crushed on the boards, 51-30, and made only one 3-pointer themselves, but still found a way to get the job done. The four should have plenty of time to develop cohesion heading in to their freshmen years at Duke, which will start this summer.

This NCAA Tournament has been full of surprises but Duke ended a Cinderella run tonight. Like his teammates Battle and Frank Howard, the freshman manchild should play almost every second against Duke.

No. 2 seed Duke (28-7) advanced after blowing out Iona and Rhode Island.

Just like Gregg Popovich, Bill Belichick and Pat Summitt, there are just some coaches that you know won’t let you down. But the field for the NCAA Midwest Region semifinals is an anomaly with Duke, Clemson and Syracuse making it along with top seed Kansas. Syracuse rode a seven-man rotation to within a few points of the Elite Eight, and it wasn’t by accident.

Marvin Bagley III (left) of Duke, dunking over Bourama Sidibe of Syracuse, had 22 points. Battle has averaged 13 points in the tournament and Howard checks in at 10.7 in the three NCAA games. Fouled Out-None. Rebounds-Syracuse 33 (Howard 8), Duke 31 (Carter 12).