However, Duke suffered a key injury in the first half: starting guard Tyrese Proctor hurt his left knee and did not return.
The Blue Devils are already without backup forward Maliq Brown, who has a separated left shoulder, but is expected to return for next month’s ACC Tournament.
Tuesday’s game featured an interesting twist, as Duke’s associate head coach, Jai Lucas, 36, has emerged as the frontrunner to become Miami’s next head coach.
Former Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga retired in December.
Seen in the stands on Tuesday were the Boozer twins, Miami prep basketball stars Cameron Boozer and Cayden Boozer, sons of former Duke star Carlos Boozer.
The Boozers have committed to play for Duke next season; stay tuned.
Three ACC bubble teams suffer devastating defeats
The ACC Basketball view has been bleak for most of the season. Saturday, it got worse.
Wake Forest, Pitt and SMU all suffered potentially fatal bubble losses.
Wake lost to an NC State team that entered Saturday 3-12 in ACC play and several games below .500 overall.
That’s precisely the type of loss that any bubble team can afford this late in the season.
Unless the Demon Deacons win next month’s ACC Tournament, they won’t get an invite to the Big Dance.
And Pitt?
Pitiful.
Pitt was facing a Notre Dame team that was without multiple key players.
The Irish entered the game just 5-10 in the ACC and 11-15 overall. Yes, a roster with that record found itself shorthanded.
This should have been a game in which the Panthers coasted.
Instead, Pitt suffered an embarrassing 76-72 loss, which puts them in the same predicament as Wake Forest: win the ACC Tourney or else.
SMU, which was blitzed by Duke and Louisville at home earlier this season, was beaten by Clemson again at home on Saturday, completing the trifecta of losses by the league’s bubble teams.
Something hasn’t felt right to me about this SMU team all season.
Despite an 11-5 ACC record and 20-7 overall.
With help from my Google friend, I found this: the Mustangs have been whipped, not just beaten, by the three good teams in the ACC.
And all in Dallas.
SMU has also lost to Wake at home and was hammered at North Carolina.
Essentially, SMU has feasted on a steady diet of the rotten teams in the conference.
The ACC is in full crisis mode
I’ve been writing about this, and now it’s close to becoming a reality.
The ACC could get only three teams into the NCAA Tournament.
That small amount is grabbing full attention at the league headquarters in Charlotte. Next month, Charlotte will host what was once the conference’s crown jewel, the ACC Tournament.
It is fitting that the suits will get a firsthand view of what they have done to a league that once prided itself on being the best basketball conference in the country.
How bad is it for the ACC?
The SEC could potentially send 13 teams to the NCAA Tournament, with the ACC, laughably, sending three.
That’s a gap of 10 teams.
How does it get fixed?
A former coach told me there’s no short answer to how the ACC can restore itself to its former glory, but it starts with hiring the right coaches.
The ACC schools looking for coaches in just a few weeks have to get serious about hiring proven coaches, not simply taking a chance on an up-and-coming coach.
This is the real crisis in the ACC, not the money difference between the leagues.
The coaching is terrible.
The SEC realized this and is seeing the results.
Money cannot be ignored, but it’s time for the conference and its member schools to address this need and invest in their programs.
The quick grab of Stanford and Cal hasn’t moved the needle; it just created an almost unidentifiable league.
The ACC is in a crisis; it’s time for the member schools to step up.
Share
