It’s okay. Sit back and accept it. Duke is going to lose in the next few weeks.
The Blue Devils are the overwhelming favorites to win the 2019 NCAA tournament, and with extremely good reason. They have three players who could go in the top 10 of the upcoming NBA Draft, including a man who needs only one name: Zion. They have Coach K. They have momentum, having won the ACC tourney title thanks to the return of Zion (whose last name is Williamson, if you somehow didn’t know). They have the history, which means opponents are automatically knocked off their games long before tip-off because Duke is a four-letter word for dominance.
And they’re going to lose.
You can argue all you want about good reasons why. As USA TODAY Sports noted, they’re terrible at shooting 3-pointers in a tourney where outside shooting is significant. Perhaps the pressure of being the favorites gets to the players in a tight game.
But you don’t need all that. All you need to know is March Madness earned its name for a reason. Things happen in one-game playoffs that are small sample sized blips which turn contests around in a heartbeat. Maybe Zion gets into foul trouble. Perhaps his shoe blows out again. Maybe another team happens to catch fire that night and that night only. Perhaps they face a team who throws something the Blue Devils haven’t seen much of this year and they can’t adjust.
This is the same tournament where it’s a 1 in 9.2 quadrillion shot to predict every game perfectly. It’s the one where no 16 seed ever took down a No. 1 until last year, when UMBC DESTROYED Virginia in a first-round matchup, where a team like UConn seeded seventh can outlast giants, or Villanova can win in two of the past three years. It’s where a desperation half-court heave was inches from Butler — BUTLER! — taking down … Duke.
Even Duke fans would agree that some of their titles came from teams who weren’t as good as this one, with Williamson, RJ Barrett and Cam Reddish forming a formidable three-headed monster. The 2015 tourney winners featured Jahlil Okafor, Quinn Cook, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones, and I remember how people thought they were a weak No. 1. On the flip side, there were teams as stacked as this one on paper that lost.
But that’s not the point here. We’ve spent all week hammering into your heads that chaos and unpredictability fuels the tournament.
When Duke loses, you shouldn’t be shocked.
