It was more of the same this time around.
Advertisement
The Bulldogs’ cohesive, savvy, talented bunch not only scored the first NCAA tournament win in the institution’s 120 years of basketball and not only treated a home-like crowd at Dunkin’ Donuts Center to a riveting howl at Duke’s heels after a 27-point deficit in a second-round match, but it seemed to have itself set for decades of reminiscences. The future National Basketball Association star – coach Mike Krzyzewski said this weekend he’d be gone after this season – is talented enough to erase most of Duke’s flaws. Three is a trend and the Internet was eager to jump on Allen after Yale’s Makai Mason hit the deck in the second half.
The No. 4-seeded Blue Devils move on to face the victor of Saint Joseph’s and OR in the West regional.
The Duke Blue Devils (24-10) are coming from a 93-85 win over UNC Wilmington on Thursday.
In the second, Yale looked competent.
“We had a lot of huddles in the second half”, Allen said.
Yale will take on Duke today in the second round.
The Bulldogs accomplished the second of those easily, outrebounding the Blue Devils 40-28 – including a 20-5 margin on the offensive glass. The Blue Devils made nine of their first 11 three-pointers. Everybody knows, they lack depth, they are poor defensively, and can’t rebound.
Duke’s 27-point lead was down to just seven, 54-47, at the under-12 media timeout of the second half.
The Bulldogs earned their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory Thursday, upsetting fifth-seeded Baylor 79-75 in their first trip to the Big Dance since 1962. And if they don’t put up 80-90 points most likely they will lose, that’s the bottom line.
“We’ve had everyone and their mother come out to say kind words to us, from the governor of Rhode Island to people from the team in ’62 to speak to us”, senior forward Justin Sears said. Even with talent like Mason and Sears, who claimed back-to-back Ivy League player of the year honors after averaging 15.8 points and 7.5 rebounds during the regular season, Jones said the Ivy League still isn’t getting the respect it deserves. The Bulldogs missed their final three shots, though, and Duke hit four free throws down the stretch to close the game.
Selden had 22 points and seven rebounds, Ellis scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds and the No. 1 overall seed Jayhawks (32-4) advanced to the South Region semifinals.
“And all of a sudden, that combination produces something – this ‘I can do a miracle, I can hit a shot, we can win.’ And it’s magnificent”, Krzyzewski said.
The Blue Devils entered the NCAA tournament warding off comparisons to Duke teams that faltered in the opening round of the Big Dance in years past-namely the 2013-14 squad that fell to 14th-seeded Mercer and the 2011-12 team that lost to 15th-seeded Lehigh.
Advertisement
Allen almost outscored Yale in the first half. “(James has) all the strengths that you need to be a very good coach… and he cares about his kids”, Joe Jones said….
