NEWARK, N.J. — The thousands of Duke fans in attendance rose to their feet. Cooper Flagg walked toward the sideline and embraced coach Jon Scheyer. Players on the bench waited eagerly to rush the court. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Tyrese Proctor tossed the ball high into the air and let out a triumphant roar.
Was there ever a doubt?
On Saturday night, top-seeded Duke achieved what felt like the inevitable, punching its ticket to the Final Four with a dominant 85-65 victory over No. 2 seed Alabama. The Blue Devils will carry a 15-game winning streak to San Antonio, where they will face either Houston or Tennessee on Saturday, April 5. It is the program’s first trip to the Final Four since Scheyer took over for Mike Krzyzewski in 2022. “Couldn’t be more proud of the team as a whole,” Scheyer said afterward. “From day one, I think this group has been different.”
Back in the Duke locker room, the celebration continued. “Fried” by Future and Metro Boomin — a squad favorite — blared through the speakers as the players rejoiced. Scheyer gave a quick speech in which he thanked the team for all it has done to reach this point and pointed out that the job is not finished. The blue Nike T-shirts given to all within the program read, “Ready 4 More.”
Duke may have its sights set on more, but it deserves a proper celebration after the performance it put on against Alabama. Two days ago, the Crimson Tide hit an NCAA Tournament-record 25 three-pointers and scored 113 points in their Sweet Sixteen victory over BYU. Duke held that juggernaut offense, which led the country in points per game this season, to just 35.4 percent shooting from the field and 25.0 percent from three. It was a brilliant defensive display from one of the nation’s premier defensive teams. “They did a good job of taking away our three ball,” Alabama senior Mark Sears, a 6-foot-1 guard, said. “And that’s something that we do really well at a high level.” Sears, who buried 10 triples against BYU, was held to only 6 points on 2-of-12 shooting and committed five turnovers.
“It was by committee,” Duke senior Sion James, a 6-foot-6 guard, said of the job on Sears. “We were switching a lot especially in the second half, so Khaman [Maluach] was on Sears just as much as me or Tyrese [Proctor] was. The big thing was showing him bodies, making sure whoever was guarding the ball knew they weren’t on an island by themselves and making sure Sears knew that he wasn’t on an island with our big or whoever else.”
It was a collective effort on both ends for the Blue Devils. The sensational Flagg, a 6-foot-9 freshman forward and the frontrunner for National Player of the Year, didn’t have his best offensive game (16 points on 6-of-16 shooting), but his fingerprints were all over the win (9 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block). Kon Knueppel, a 6-foot-7 freshman wing, scored a team-high 21 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Proctor, a 6-foot-6 junior guard, kept up his hot shooting, going 7 of 10 from the field and finishing with 17 points. The aforementioned Maluach, a 7-foot-2 freshman center, had 14 points and 9 boards and was incredible on defense, showcasing his versatility and elite rim protection.
Duke shot 53.6 percent from the field, dominated the boards and controlled the pace. “Something that I’ve said a lot through this whole year is we just have such a talented team,” Flagg said. “Each night could be somebody else’s night.” While much of the world is just discovering that, the Duke players have known it since the very beginning. “I think we knew from day one that we had a special team,” Proctor said.
In the modern era of college basketball, as roster turnover continues to spike due to NIL and the transfer portal, Duke’s 2024 offseason was a masterclass in how to build a Final Four team. It helps, of course, when you sign the No. 1 high school recruiting class, led by a generational superstar in Flagg and two other projected lottery picks in Maluach and Knueppel. But there have been plenty of teams with remarkable talent that have failed to reach the Final Four or fallen drastically short of expectations.
So, how did Duke get here? Well, the staff utilized the portal perfectly, bringing in veterans who fit very specific needs. Both James, a transfer from Tulane, and Mason Gillis, a 6-foot-6 forward from Purdue, are fifth-year seniors who provide crucial experience and leadership. “Having six freshmen, it’s great to see Mason and Sion every day,” Scheyer said. “They have a routine that they do. They’re pros. So to see how they operate, how they go about their business, I think it’s important for the young guys.”
Maliq Brown, a 6-foot-10 junior forward who transferred from Syracuse, is “the ultimate team guy,” as Scheyer said. He gladly does all the dirty work and ensures the defense doesn’t miss a beat when Maluach checks out. “We really tried to identify guys in the transfer portal that understood it wasn’t going to be about them scoring all the points or shooting all the shots, but it was about the fit,” Scheyer added. “And with the fit, they could be really successful as well.”
That is precisely what has happened. The pieces have fit, each player has bought into his respective role and Duke has been basically unbeatable. It is a team with tremendous size (first nationally in average height, per KenPom) and no glaring holes, ranking in the top five in both offensive and defensive efficiency. And perhaps most notably, it is a team that plays together. Through its four NCAA Tournament games, Duke has averaged a staggering 19.5 assists.
The longest-tenured member of the program, fifth-year guard Spencer Hubbard, told Hoops HQ that the locker room this season has been particularly strong. “I think it starts with Coop,” Hubbard said. “When your best player doesn’t have an ego and eliminates all that from the jump, I think it makes everybody else do the same and just warm up. You see that on the court — guys just having fun, celebrating each other no matter what and just wanting to see each other succeed. The team has been special in that sense, for sure.”
The word frequently used by players and coaches to describe the team is “connected” — on and off the court. At a time when programs have struggled to build chemistry due to a lack of roster continuity, Duke is a shining example of what’s still possible in the current landscape. “I love these dudes. I love getting to play with them every day,” James told Hoops HQ. “Of course that’s what you’re supposed to say — they’re your teammates. But it’s a really cool thing when you get to play with your friends. Like, you get to go to work every day with your friends. We spend time off the court hanging out, just the really unscripted time, just going to each other’s places and playing 2K, stuff like that. It forms a bond. It makes you want to play for each other.”
“We just all play for each other,” added freshman Isaiah Evans, a 6-foot-6 guard. “There’s never really a moment where we’re thinking about the individual. We’re just all trying to complete our main goal.”
That “main goal” hasn’t been completed just yet. Duke may have cut down the nets in Newark, but this team is ready for — and capable of — much more.
