Chapter 1: What led to Duke winning their second straight ACC Tournament title?
All right, Blue Devil fans, welcome to a very, very fun episode 808 of the Duke Basketball Roundup. Jason and Donald here for you. Donald, it is just a couple ticks before 10 a.m. on Sunday morning. I'm going to go ahead and admit that I didn't get to sleep until about 2.30 last night. I was too wired. It just wasn't happening. There was no way to fall asleep before then.
How did you do yesterday evening?
Jason, I'm running off an hour of sleep. There we go. I tried to go to bed at 1 because, as some of you know, I cover Formula 1. I also cover soccer, so I was pulling triple duty until about 1 a.m. I went to bed for like an hour and a half, woke up for the race, and then after the race was over around 5 a.m., I could not get back to sleep until about 7.30.
So we're running a little slow, but you know what, Jason? You know what an 808 does? It goes boom. It goes boom in your trunk. And that trunk is holding an ACC championship trophy. So I am happy this morning despite multiple cups of coffee.
There you go, buddy. There you go. Yeah, keep the caffeine coming. And by the way, it's going to be a big day, folks. Obviously, we will have another podcast later this evening after the NCAA tournament seeding comes out, after the full bracket is announced. I am absolutely convinced. I just – I can't come up with any scenario in my head where Duke is not the overall number one seed.
I guess, you know, like there are Arizona and Michigan fans who make arguments and the such. I just – All the metrics say that Duke is going to be the overall number one seed. When you look at what we've accomplished, 17 quad one wins. I believe, I could be wrong, I believe that is the most of all time. No team in history has ever achieved that many quad one wins.
We, of course, lead in all the different metrics and the such. We're number one in Ken Palm. It would take a huge game for Michigan today. Michigan still has a game to play. Take a huge game for Michigan to pass us. But the notion that the seating committee might flip things around a little bit at the last minute.
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Chapter 2: How did injuries impact Duke's performance in the tournament?
There's no way, and even if Michigan did that, don't forget we beat them head-to-head just a few weeks ago.
I was going to say, we beat them head-to-head. Arizona winning last night maybe gives them a discussion, but for this team to enter the conference tournament portion of the schedule as the number one team, as the number one overall seed in their eyes, and for them to achieve what they did not full strength, I think we have an even better case that we're the number one overall seed today.
Yeah, exactly. Our defensive metrics have slipped a little bit over the course of the ACC tournament. I mean, look, we all said that the game against Florida State, hats off to FSU. They torched us on defense. But I think that's to be expected. With no Pat, no Caleb, our D is going to slip a little bit. But it definitely sounds like the word is that Pat is going to be back in
If not for the game against the 16th seed, he's going to be back for the rest of the NCAA tournament in all likelihood. And Duke continues to say that they expect, if they go far enough, that Caleb will be there for this team in the NCAA tournament.
But Donald, I wanted to get to... Before we get to the headlines, before we get to the specifics of the game, I just want to do a few little ACC tournament superlative kind of things to talk about the... Incredible, astounding, ridiculous that John Shire has now won three ACC titles in his first four years. Like no one had ever won two out of three. Now he's three out of four. It's outrageous.
He now has, and Donald, to say that this astounded me, like I couldn't even wrap my head around it really. Think about ACC coaching, guys like Tony Bennett, Jim Boeheim, Gary Williams, Lefty Dreisel, Terry Holland. I mean, like Leonard Hamilton. Like, I could go on and on. Just absolute legends in ACC coaching who don't have as many ACC titles as John Shire has in his first four years.
Here is the list. Ready? I'm going to give you the entire list of guys who have more ACC titles than John Shire does. And John Shire's not even 40 years old yet. Here it is. Right. Coach K, Dean Smith, the great Everett Case, the greatest coach in NC State history, and Vic Bubas. That's it. That's the list, Donald.
And Bobby Cremins also.
No, no, no, no. Bobby Cremins is one of the guys tied with him at three. Oh, yeah, yeah. There are several guys. I'm talking about guys who have four or more. Again, Coach K, Dean Smith, Everett K, Vic Bubas, Hall of Famers, all four of them in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. All four statues, dudes with statues, with bus, you know, with stadiums named after them and stuff like that.
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Chapter 3: What role did Cayden Boozer play in the championship game?
It's outrageous. It's ridiculous. And here's John Shire after just four years on the job. What are we even talking about here?
I'll also give some superlatives, Jason, because last night, of course, obviously it was Duke versus Virginia. That was the first time in the history of the Atlantic Coast Conference that the men's basketball tournament final was the same exact teams as the ACC championship game in football in the same season. It also occurred. A mile and a half away from each other in Charlotte. That's awesome.
And Jason, also, we are the first school to win ACC titles in football, men's basketball and women's basketball in the same school year. We may not be a basketball school anymore, Jason, but we sure are on top of the basketball world because.
For that to happen, you got to shout out obviously our men's team, but you have to shout out the women's team and you have to shout out men's football for getting the job done when it counts. That's not counting the other sports that we've won multiple ACC championships in this year. It's been a fun year to be a Blue Devil. And the great thing is, Jason, as you mentioned, we're not done yet.
We're still playing basketball and we have a lot of basketball left to be played. But let's celebrate last night.
Hey, seeing as you brought up both of those ACC title games, I would just like to point out that both the men's basketball and the football ACC title championship games ended with a Virginia player throwing a desperation pass.
Throw an interception.
And having it intercepted by a Duke player. I love it.
There's no number 34 on Duke's basketball roster. Sorry, Luke Murgat. But I'm sure he leapt with pride at that one from Caden.
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Chapter 4: What areas does Duke need to improve before the NCAA Tournament?
Cam and Caden carried Duke over Virginia in title game.
Speaking of that, William Parks gave us Booze Cruise. Caden and Cam creamed the Hoos. Booze Cruise. I needed a drink when that game was over.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. We had some celebratory ones after that one was done. Nicholas Jackson. There was a bunch of people who had the block party one, so I want to list his first, but I also want to list the one I thought was the best. So Nicholas Jackson wrote, Duke crashes UVA block party to go back to back.
But Ross Payless wrote, seven devils bring punch to the who's block party and leave with a chip.
Speaking of blocks, Scott Matthews gave us Blocked But Not Beaten. Boozer Brothers delivered double title to Determine Devils. And then the last one I had, Donald, Molly Reed, a first timer.
You know, folks, if you want to get in the headlines, if you write to us and say, here's my first ever submission, if it's any good, it's probably going to get read by me because I really love it when we get first time listeners or I should say first time listeners.
emailers Molly has she says she's listens all the time but Molly gave us this Boozer Brothers brilliant basketball halts whose hopes B's and H's there on the alliteration nice job Molly I have two more Jason and they're very simple ones one is Mark Slavik
who wrote T-K-O, and the K is spelled C-A-Y.
Oh, that is awesome. That's a really good one.
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Chapter 5: Who received the Player of the Week honors and why?
And I, You know, it would have been super easy for this Duke team to just kind of pack it in and not really care about this game or not really care about the ACC title. There were absolutely people out there, Donald, who said, punt it. You got two guys who are hurt. You don't need three games in three days of every one of your top players playing 35, 37, 39, 40 minutes, Caden Boozer.
You don't need that, Duke. You don't need to prove anything. You're still going to be a number one seed. You could have gotten blown out in the first game. You still would have been a number one seed. That's not what happened here. These guys don't know how to do less than give their all. The winningest high school basketball players of all time don't know how to lose.
It's not in their DNA to give anything less than 100%. This team is just so damn tough. They've embraced Donald doing the difficult things, the things that require extra work, the things that require extra communications, the things where you have to trust the guy next to you. You have to have his back, and he has to know that you have his back as well.
the five-man floor slap, Donald, with two minutes left. Absolutely epic. A callback to Duke teams from the past. Like, I'm not sure how these guys really, really knew that kind of stuff. I mean, I think they probably knew it because a couple of these guys have a father who understood what the floor slap means because Duke doesn't do it as much as they did in the 80s and 90s.
I love, by the way, that when we did the floor slap, what's his name, Odom, the Virginia coach is like, timeout. He's like, we're not.
that was also a play of sorts because on the bench, we were shooting free throws and on the bench, they zoomed in on John Shire and John Shire. You could see him yelling at Caden and Dame and kind of said, this is the time. And he's like, Dame, Dame, this is the one right here. And you could see, I was like, Oh, something's coming like either a fast break or something.
And when he slapped the floor,
all obviously we saw later on it wasn't from the camera angle on tv but we saw that all five players slapped the floor but we did see john shire slapped the floor too he got the crowd going he slapped the floor along with his players and that's when david said nope not even not even close time i want none of this smoke i want none of this smoke he was like we're called a time out we are we are gonna quiet down that energy that he was coming from duke but again i just thought that
toughness toughness toughness toughness came through again and again from this team and you know what else clutch it it is it is really easy to have this absurd narrative that oh you know duke folds when when winning time is here and all that other kind of stuff we've heard it before it's I hate that we even have to address it because it's so absurd. Donald, here's how clutch this game was.
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Chapter 6: What were the standout plays in the ACC Championship game?
Every single possession was a one-possession game. No team led by more than three points. 14.08 mark until the two-minute mark in the game. And you know what? I mean, yeah, Duke got up four with Tunis left, but for the final entire 1840 of this game, it was never more than a four-point game. This is the definition of clutch. This is the definition of tense.
This is the definition of we can't let up for even a heartbeat because the other guys are coming at us and can take over this game. For Duke to perform the way they did in that kind of a circumstance, It's all about heart. It's all about toughness. It's all about determination. And I don't know how you can do anything but love it.
Again, for the final 18 minutes, almost 19 minutes of this game, it was never more than a four-point game. My God, I can't believe that I'm still here.
I mean, Jason, I'll even break it down simply. It's not just Selection Sunday. You're in the movies. This is Oscar Sunday, right? The Oscars are this evening. And one movie that is an Oscar-worthy film is Rocky II. This was Rocky II. Both teams throwing haymakers. And to do that, you have to have a worthy opponent. And hats off to Virginia for how they played because they took us to the brink.
We'll talk about how they did. But in the end, as you mentioned, the heart of a champion is undeniable. Fall down seven times, get up eight. This last two minutes was both teams at the end of Rocky II. We're not spoiling anything here. It's a 40-year-old movie. They both hit each other. They both go to the canvas, and the referee's counting to ten, and Rocky gets up at nine, right? That was us.
We were Rocky getting up at the count of nine and leaving UVA down there at ten. Worthy, worthy opponent, worthy, deserving of this game if they had won it. But this team with seven guys, the heart of a champion was present in every single one of them. And again, they all contributed positively in different ways. But I think honestly, the overcoming major theme was the hustle.
There were so many hustle plays that we won that UVA didn't, and those all were plays that affected the game and its momentum and the trajectory of what ended up to be Duke hoisting the trophy.
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Chapter 7: How does Duke's performance shape their NCAA Tournament prospects?
And that hustle, that toughness, that grit and determination showed up in rebounding. Correct. One of the first things I want to talk about. It's why Duke won. Look, we talked about it in the previous game. Duke won because they won the boards. Duke won because they won the boards.
And Virginia, as we've talked about repeatedly this season, one of the best rebounding teams in the country, a dominant offensive rebounding team, top 10 in the nation in offensive rebounding. The Virginia Cavaliers get just 10 offensive rebounds. against the Duke Blue Devils. We again won the rebounding battle by double digits, won it 41-31.
We had an outrageous, a ridiculous 20 offensive rebounds in this game. Duke literally rebounded 49% of our missed shots. It was Duke had 20 offensive rebounds. Virginia had 21. I mean, that's the reason the Blue Devils won. And we turned it into, Donald, I'm going to go back to Jason's favorite stat that he doesn't talk about very much anymore. Field goal attempts, baby.
Duke had 65 field goal attempts. Virginia had 54. We had 11 more field goal attempts than they did. It's a combination of not turning the ball over and getting those offensive rebounds. And man, we needed it because it was tough, tough, tough to score against this Virginia team.
Yeah, I mean, everything that you said was exactly right on. But I want to get into some of the players because I feel like... this is going to be unfair for player of the week. There is probably one clear player of the week as far as stats go. But Caden Boozer won this game last night.
And he won it in so many different ways, but the biggest way is not his 16 points, 14 of them coming in the first half. It wasn't in his five rebounds. It wasn't in his four assists and the one interception steal at the end. It was the fact that he figured out during this week
What we kind of learned last year when two of our best players went down, we learned that these guys were just ready to break out and have their opportunity to be a leader on this team. Caden Boozer replaced our floor general this entire week and did a tremendous job doing the play in his best basketball while doing it. And the fact that.
Caleb going down allows, not necessarily allows, but the opportunity created itself for Caden Boozer to step up and play better than he had been playing this entire season. It's not like he was terrible this season. He was very good this season. But to be elite like he was in this tournament, I think everyone in the selection committee probably last night was like,
Do we do we need a second bracket?
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of this victory for Duke's future games?
Do we need a what happens if Duke wins this game? They seem to be just fine with this guy at the floor general playing in those roles. Everyone picking up the responsibilities of both Pat and Caleb. We'll talk about how Cameron did both at times during the game. But man, I'm so proud of how Caden emerged. And it's hard to be a twin that is in the shadow of your other twin. Right. Like, yeah.
He's been that way all year. But for him to break out and say, hi, I'm Caden Boozer. Hello, world. I exist, too. And you better watch out for me as well. Boozer on the back of the jersey is going to be a problem no matter if it's two or 12. I just I can't say enough about how he played this week.
So Caden was the Ken Palm MVP of this game. We've talked about statistical efficiency, all those other kind of things. Caden was the Ken Palm MVP of this game. He played all 40 minutes. Never seemed anywhere close to tired, by the way. Correct. He's the first Dookie to play all 40 minutes, play every minute of a game since Jared McCain did it in an NCAA tournament game in late March of 2024.
And look... Caden was dominant in the first half and then was deferring to other guys, and other guys were doing stuff in the second half. Caden's only points in the second half come with 255 left when Isaiah misses a three-pointer and Caden snags the offensive rebound and puts it back to give Duke a lead that they would never relinquish. Dude knows when to be timely. Let's just put it that way.
Done that a couple of times.
Yeah. He quite literally won two games in the ACC tournament with offensive rebound baskets. And the biggest thing to me in the first half, I sort of started writing some stuff and I was like, I can't even describe how confident Caden is right now. And I remember Donald in the preseason saying,
There were a lot of folks out there, and I'm going to say you and I were probably among them at least thinking this.
We sort of thought, okay, Caleb Foster's the starter right now, but over the course of the year, the highly touted top 20 McDonald's All-American, supposed to be one of the best point guards in the country coming out of high school, Caden Boozer's going to grab away this starting point guard job, this role from Caleb Foster. We all thought that's what was going to happen, and it didn't happen.
It didn't happen for two reasons. One was CFOS really played great and really delivered what this team needed at times. And the other was, frankly, I don't want to say that Caden was disappointing this season. That would be wrong, and I'm not saying that at all.
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