Tag: UNC Tar Heels

Paolo Banchero makes trip to deliver Gatorade NPOY award to Duke signee and projected No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg

Cooper Flagg joins prestigious club as he was named Gatorade National Player of the Year, and Duke great Paolo Banchero was there to give him the trophy.

The Brotherhood is genuine. People may not believe it, but Duke’s basketball brotherhood is authentic, and at this point, Duke has infiltrated basketball at all levels.

Former Blue Devil Paolo Banchero is in the midst of his second NBA season, and it’s been an exceptional year. He was named an All-Star for the first time and he’s led his Orlando Magic team into the playoff picture with a 42-29 record.

Before his days as the face of the Magic franchise, he spent a tremendous year in Durham as the face of Duke’s program during Coach K’s last season as head coach of the Blue Devils. While Duke came up short, losing to UNC in the Final Four, Banchero brought Duke to the national semifinals for the first time since 2015.

The mesmerizing, do-it-all power forward averaged 17.2 points and 7.8 rebounds as the focal point of their offensive attack. So it only makes sense that Banchero would pass that torch to the next do-it-all forward with a chance to be a No. 1 NBA draft pick.

Duke signee, the Class of 2024’s top overall recruit, and projected No. 1 draft pick in the 2025 NBA draft Cooper Flagg was named Gatorade Player of the Year on Wednesday, and Banchero was there to deliver the good news and the trophy to him.

It’s a full circle moment for Flagg, who grew up a Duke fan and is now months away from heading to Durham to write his chapter in the same way Banchero did.

Flagg, who was also named the Naismith High School Boys’ Player of the Year, led the No.1-ranked Montverde Academy to a 30-0 regular season record.

Like Banchero, Flagg is a dynamic forward capable of doing anything on the floor. The two differ mainly in the scoring department, where Banchero probably had a little more diversity in his ability to score the ball. Still, Flagg can pass, shoot, and dribble, and he is a better defender than Banchero was at this stage of his career.

Either way, Duke’s 2025 season will center on the newly minted Gatorade National Player of the Year’s ability to dominate on the basketball court. A Final Four trip like Banchero’s would be an incredible accomplishment for his likely one-year college career.

Duke and their Tobacco Road counterparts lead the way as ACC lands five teams in the tournament

Duke and the rest of the ACC ready to roll in NCAA Tournament.

Duke was never in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament, but in the last two weeks, they had the chance to solidify themselves as a No. 2 seed.

That didn’t come to fruition, however, as Duke lost to their rivals, UNC, on senior night and then to NC State in the quarterfinals of the 2024 ACC Tournament.

Those two teams met Saturday night in the ACC Championship game, and NC State pulled off an improbable win to cap off one of the most incredible ACC Tournament runs in the league’s illustrious history. They won five games in five days to punch an automatic ticket to the Big Dance.

All of the Tobacco Road schools are going dancing. UNC is the fourth No. 1 seed in the West region, while Duke is the fourth seed in the South region. NC State is an 11-seed in the South region with Duke.

Clemson and UVA made five teams for the ACC in this year’s tournament.

The ACC was unusually weak this year, with Louisville and Syracuse unable to live up to their usual standards. For stretches of the season, it looked like Duke and UNC were the only locks to make the tournament. Yet, when the dust settled, the ACC still found a way to produce five teams.

The ACC has had at least one team reach the Elite Eight in 34 of 38 tournaments and at least one Final Four team in 26 of 38 tournaments.

We will see which of this year’s ACC participants makes the most significant run.

How to buy UNC Tar Heels 2024 NCAA Tournament tickets

Get your hands on UNC Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets when they take on the winner of Howard vs Wagner in Charlotte, NC.

The best time of the year is finally here. With the release of the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket, March Madness has officially begun.

The North Carolina Tar Heels earned a No. 1 seed in the West region and with it a first-round matchup against the winner of Tuesday’s First Four matchup between Howard and Wagner.

UNC gets to stay close to home as the game will be played in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, March 21.

SHOP: North Carolina Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets

Tickets to this Round of 64 contest are still available, as a part of an all-weekend pass for as little as $312.

Weekend passes include all the Round of 64 and Round of 32 games in Charlotte.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop UNC Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets” link=”https://stubhub.prf.hn/l/NdyQJQq”]

BRACKET GAME: Join the free USA TODAY bracket challenge for your chance at $1,000,000

How to buy UNC Tar Heels 2024 NCAA Tournament tickets

Get your hands on UNC Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets when they take on the winner of Howard vs Wagner in Charlotte, NC.

The best time of the year is finally here. With the release of the 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket, March Madness has officially begun.

The North Carolina Tar Heels earned a No. 1 seed in the West region and with it a first-round matchup against the winner of Tuesday’s First Four matchup between Howard and Wagner.

UNC gets to stay close to home as the game will be played in Charlotte, NC on Thursday, March 21.

SHOP: North Carolina Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets

Tickets to this Round of 64 contest are still available, as a part of an all-weekend pass for as little as $312.

Weekend passes include all the Round of 64 and Round of 32 games in Charlotte.

[afflinkbutton text=”Shop UNC Tar Heels NCAA Tournament tickets” link=”https://stubhub.prf.hn/l/NdyQJQq”]

BRACKET GAME: Join the free USA TODAY bracket challenge for your chance at $1,000,000

Duke’s loss to NC State emblematic of this season’s core issues with NCAA Tournament on horizon

Duke’s loss to NC State is more of the same from Duke this year. Is there enough time to fix the issues that have plagued the Blue Devils?

Thursday night was a rough pill for the Duke basketball program fans to swallow.

The Blue Devils were a trendy pick to make the ACC Tournament final at the very least and potentially set up a third matchup with their rivals, the UNC Tar Heels. What happened was a bit more shocking as NC State, a team playing its third game in as many days, was able to oust Duke from the tournament in the quarterfinals with a 74-69 win.

Losing hurts, but this most recent loss had a familiar stench. The Blue Devils started slow, played lackadaisical defense, and didn’t get the 50/50 balls to win the game. Duke’s trio of starting guards went a combined 7/28, which will not cut it in March.

If Duke’s loss felt familiar, it’s because it was. In their losses this year, they’ve showcased the same things that ailed them last night. Physically, the defensive effort and energy seemed to be lacking.

Last night was no different. State played physical defense, and Duke often had many drives to the basket that ended in missed opportunities because the Blue Devils anticipated fouls or hoped to be fouled.

On defense, Duke was slow to cut off drives, and in transition, there was a considerable lack of effort as guys half-heartedly got back and barely attempted to stop the ball. Duke was beaten to the ball for rebounds despite having multiple players in the area.

In the previous game against UNC, Duke came out flat and could never recover as UNC raced out to a 15-4 lead on Senior Night. Effort, energy, and defensive pride plagued Jon Scheyer’s team then.

That brings us to this question: Is it a player or coaching issue?

The truth is it lies somewhere in the middle. Jon Scheyer is a competitive guy, but he’s not the fiery coach that his predecessor was. At least, not yet. However, this year, his team has lacked the edge to fight back in a game like last night’s ACC quarterfinal loss. Against a desperate team fighting for its season, Duke needed to come out and bury them early. They came out slow, and then NC State gained confidence. Duke weathered the storm and took a late first-half lead, but it was short-lived.

Even though Duke went into the half down three, NC State came right back out and went on an 8-0 run before the under-16 media timeout. This Blue Devils team never finds that extra gear in games when they need it. There is no outright vocal leader on the court for Duke, and it shows. As far as we can see, there’s no one to galvanize the troops amongst the players.

How does Duke prepare for this year’s NCAA Tournament? They need to figure some things out, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s from the player-led meeting that was supposed to occur when Duke returned to Durham after the ACC Tournament to help clear the air. However, having meetings like that on March 15th, a week before the season’s biggest games, is eyebrow-raising. Where was the urgency for the meeting following their second straight loss to their biggest rival?

Scheyer is not without faults, either. He and his staff don’t have the most complete roster. Losing Dereck Lively and never finding a better option to play center via the portal is something he and his staff have to live with now. The lack of another functional big man to spell Kyle Filipowski and take pressure off of him defensively has impacted Duke’s defense and rebounding, too.

However, with the right draw and more effort from the guys in the locker room, Duke can beat many teams in the country in this upcoming NCAA Tournament. Will they? We’ll find out starting sometime next week.

Duke now top ACC team at No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll, the highest rank in school history

Duke ascends to No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll after a series victory over top-ranked Wake Forest, the highest ranking in program history.

Duke’s series win over the then-No. 1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons sent some pretty sizable ripples through the rest of the collegiate baseball landscape.

The series win vindicated Duke as a team that everyone should be cognizant of going forward, and it also sent a message to the rest of the ACC that things will not be a breeze for Wake Forest to just coast to a regular-season title.

Duke made the trip from Durham, NC, to Winston-Salem this past weekend and took two of three from the previously top-ranked Demon Deacons. That win had a massive effect on the latest D1Baseball poll.

Duke is now the highest-ranked ACC team in the country, having leaped from 12th to 6th, which marks the highest ranking in program history by D1Baseball.

Duke had a 3-1 week in total, which started with a 28-2 dismantling of the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the middle of the week before they made their trip to take on Wake Forest to open ACC play.

Arkansas is now the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Wake Forest dropped six spots to seventh.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Clemson remains steady at 10th after another undefeated week of action. NC State moved up one spot to No. 13 in the newest poll. UNC also moved up one place, going from 16th to 15th. Virginia suffered two losses to the Miami Hurricanes last week and fell four spots from 13th to 17th.

In their latest rankings, Baseball America ranked Duke No. 3, and Perfect Game ranked the Blue Devils No. 5.

The Blue Devils will continue its journey to ascend into the top five with two midweek games against Rider starting Tuesday. They follow that up with another top-10 matchup as Clemson gets set to come to town to start a three-game set on Friday.

The best photos from Saturday’s game against North Carolina

The best photos from Duke’s final night at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the 2023-24 season.

Duke and the Cameron Crazies got one last game at the beloved stadium on Saturday night.

Duke may have lost to hated rival North Carolina, an 84-79 game doomed by a nightmarish opening five minutes. However, the Blue Devils fans got to fill the bleachers one last time with their face paint and the best outfits of the year.

The game also served as senior night, since it was the last home game of the season. Four-year starter Jeremy Roach was honored for his exceptional Duke career, and Ryan Young and Spencer Hubbard shared the moment as they stood with their teammates and framed jerseys.

Here are the best photos from Duke’s last home game of the 2023-24 season.

The man in the mirror is the final hurdle Duke must clear as they prepare for rematch with UNC

The Duke Blue Devils have to win against themselves in order to win against UNC.

Sir Edmund Hillary said it best: “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

It feels like the perfect quote to summarise the Duke basketball experience this year and focus on what’s ahead of the team as they prepare to try and get revenge for an early February loss to their rivals, UNC. The Blue Devils have been fighting the team in the mirror all season. It’s time they conquer that.

If they can, the Blue Devils will head to Washington, D.C., for the ACC Tournament, with their share of the 2023-2024 ACC regular season title; if the Tar Heels win, they are the outright title winners. Losing that also likely eliminates Duke from having any shot at a 2-seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

For Duke, it’s simple: UNC is the best opponent (not named Arizona or Baylor) on their schedule. They beat Baylor in Madison Square Garden, which stands out as a great Quad 1 win, but the Blue Devils know they need more. Hubert Davis’ team is undoubtedly in the Final Four-capable tier of teams, so a win against North Carolina would be the perfect confirmation that this Duke team has grown and evolved and is playing its best basketball.

It’s easier said than done, as UNC will have everything to play for on top of the sheer fact that this is a rivalry, and it could be Armando Bacot and RJ Davis’ last game against Duke ever. They’ve ruined big nights in Cameron Indoor Stadium before.

Duke played a rough basketball game against UNC in the first round in Chapel Hill. They were not strong on the court, and their defensive plan wasn’t strong. Ultimately, the Heels just played better.

Duke shot 26.3% from three, compared to almost 38% from UNC. Harrison Ingram was the thorn in Duke’s side from the outside, going 5/9 from deep. Duke also had 11 turnovers, which led to 19 UNC points. Eight of those turnovers were live-ball, which makes it even harder to get back on defense against a transition offense-focused team like UNC.

Kyle Filipowski struggled with foul trouble, and when his team needed him to contain Armando Bacot without a double team, he couldn’t. Tyrese Proctor had one of his worst games, registering just two points and one assist on 1/6 shooting in 26 minutes.

So, what has to change this time around? Duke has to put together a complete performance as they have in games on the road at Miami, NC State, Virginia Tech, or as they did recently at home versus Virginia. This team has shown that it can play a full 40 minutes on both ends of the court, and when they can, they will blow teams away, as eight of their conference wins have been by 15 points or more.

Duke is a deeper team now. The bench has lengthened a much-needed development due to limitations with guys like Jaylen Blakes and Ryan Young. They are decent role players but certainly guys with deficiencies. The answers were the 6-foot-9 five-star freshman Sean Stewart and the 6-foot-8 four-star small forward TJ Power.

Power’s shooting ability is among the best on a team of great shooters this season, but the lack of opportunities hasn’t allowed him to showcase that. Stewart is hyper-athletic and an incredible shot disruptor combined with pure energy and hustle, allowing him to provide the energy on 50/50 plays Duke needs.

Each player has played at least 10 minutes in the last three games. Stewart had a season-high 26 minutes of game action at NC State, where he had his proverbial breakout game, scoring 12 points, five rebounds, three blocks, two steals, and two assists. He was a menace on defense, and four rebounds came on the offensive glass, giving Duke extra possessions.

They must be factors in this rematch, and the rest of the team needs to be more assertive with the ball. If Duke hadn’t been forced into so many live-ball turnovers, they could’ve shaved off at least six points they allowed. Tyrese Proctor must play better, especially considering Caleb Foster will still be out. He’s had some encouraging performances since being inserted back into the starting lineup with Foster out, and Monday night in Raleigh showcased that.

Kyle Filipowski needs to be a factor for the entire 40 minutes. Jon Scheyer must find a better way to defend Bacot while not allowing RJ Davis to explode. Do not respect Elliot Cadeau’s shot. Make him shoot more jumpers than layups, and respect Ingram as a solid spot-up shooter.

It won’t be easy, but Duke can beat UNC. Aside from the implications mentioned above about the ACC title, this win is about Duke playing well enough to beat an elite opponent as it pursues a sixth NCAA title in two weeks.

They missed the mark early against Arizona and in Chapel Hill. In both games, Duke was the loser, but there was a clear sense that Duke didn’t play well enough to beat that caliber of team. Can they conquer themselves and raise their level of play to conquer their goals? We’ll find out on Saturday.

Duke slides up one spot to 9th in latest AP Poll ahead of final week of regular season

Duke moves up to ninth in penultimate regular season Associated Press poll.

It is officially March, and we are less than two weeks away from Selection Sunday. Jon Scheyer’s team is playing some of their best basketball of the season, and they look like a team starting to find itself at the perfect time. They enter Monday in second place in the ACC with a week ahead of them that features two games against two of their fiercest ACC rivals, NC State and UNC.

Duke will enter their Monday night matchup on the road against NC State as the 9th-ranked team in the country after they moved up one spot in the latest and penultimate AP poll of the 2023-2024 regular season.

Houston survived a valiant upset bid from Oklahoma on Saturday in head coach Kelvin Sampson’s return to Norman thanks to the late-game heroics of soon-to-be All-American guard Jamal Shead. The Cougars won 87-85. UCONN moved to number two as they secured the Big East regular season title, while Purdue slid one spot to third in the latest poll. Tennessee remained in contention for a number-one seed after they dispatched an electric Alabama team on Saturday in Alabama.

With Marquette’s loss to Creighton, the Golden Eagles fell to 8th, allowing Arizona, Iowa State, and the Tar Heels to take over the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots, respectively. With Duke at nine, Creighton rounds out the top ten after they moved up 12 spots.

Duke and UNC remain the lone ACC teams in the top 25, while none of the other ACC teams are even receiving votes. If Duke takes down NC State and beats North Carolina at home, the Blue Devils will earn at least a share of the ACC regular season title and should put themselves firmly in contention for a two-seed with a great showing in the ACC Tournament.

After series win over Akron, Duke remains steady at No.12 in D1Baseball Top 25

Duke remains at No. 12 in D1Baseball ahead of week that features five games. Three of those games are against top ranked Wake Forest.

Despite losing its first game this past weekend, Chris Pollard’s baseball team is a crisp 10-1 and remains the no. 12 team in the latest D1Baseball poll released Monday morning.

D1Baseball released its top 25 this week, with no movement at the top as every team in the top 14 remained the same from last week’s poll. There are still six ACC schools in. the top 25, with Wake Forest pacing the country at number one. Clemson is still the 10th-ranked team in the country after they went 3-0 last week with two big wins over their biggest rivals, the South Carolina Gamecocks. Much like Duke, Virginia suffered its first loss last week, yet they remain at 13. NC State went an impressive 5-0 and remains steady at 14. The Tarheels of North Carolina were the only ACC team to slide as they fell one spot to 17th despite going 5-0 last week themselves.

Duke has two mid-week games this week against Appalachian State and Georgetown before the Blue Devils make their first proper road trip this upcoming weekend to Winston-Salem to take on the top-ranked Demon Deacons to kickstart off conference play.

Duke was 1-2 in their home series versus Wake Forest last year, with both losses to Wake Forest being by two runs apiece, sandwiched between an 8-1 win.