Duke Blue Devils Return to the Final Four
The Duke Blue Devils are moving on to the Final Four. They played another low scoring affair against the Gonzaga Bulldogs to advance 66-52. This made the Blue Devils the East Region Champion and the only ACC team to make the Final Four. Duke will be facing off with an underappreciated Michigan State team next week in Indianapolis.
It seems teams are gleaning onto the Utah plan of defending Okafor. Gonzaga managed to hold the superfreshman to 4-10 shooting and nine points. That might have been enough to sink the Blue Devil model this year if not for bench player Matt Jones.
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Jones played twenty-eight minutes in this game and collected sixteen points. He was particularly effective from three point range, going 4-7 from deep. Those points made up for the production that Okafor has been providing all season.
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The other two freshmen Tyus Jones and Justise Winslow played extensive minutes and offered good production. Jones had fifteen points and Winslow added sixteen more. Jones played the entire game and Winslow logged thirty-two minutes. Winslow completed his productive homecoming trip to Houston with two wins and a Final Four.
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There the Blue Devils will run into the Michigan State Spartans. The Spartans had to fight their way back to defeat the Louisville Cardinals, but Tom Izzo should always have a plan for dealing with his opponents. Well, except Roy Williams, but that’s another story.
The biggest goal for Duke will be to unleash Okafor in a slightly different way. Quinn Cook has probably had his down game for the Tournament, but Matt Jones is unlikely to be this productive again. Duke’s best is better than Michigan State’s best, and the objective will be to make sure that talent gap does tell the final story next week.