{"id":1413353,"date":"2022-03-31T15:14:52","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1413353"},"modified":"2022-03-31T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-31T19:15:00","slug":"theyre-locked-in-duke-great-says-blue-devils-are-playing-best-basketball-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/theyre-locked-in-duke-great-says-blue-devils-are-playing-best-basketball-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They\u2019re Locked In\u2019: Duke Great Says Blue Devils Are Playing Best Basketball Of The Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftheyre-locked-in-duke-great-says-blue-devils-are-playing-best-basketball-of-the-season%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1413353&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-614122.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>When Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski addressed the fans at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the last time in March, he let the Cameron Crazies know that the loss to North Carolina was not the end of the road for his coaching career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cToday was unacceptable, but the season has been very acceptable,\u201d Krzyzewski <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/espn\/status\/1500286645488144386?s=20&#038;t=gyZSf5IuZU41xw8qyLO0_A\">said<\/a>. \u201cAnd I\u2019ll tell you, the season isn\u2019t over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Coach K wasn\u2019t lying.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Duke has gone on a tear in the NCAA tournament, beating Cal State Fullerton, Michigan State, Texas Tech, and Arkansas to reach the Final Four in New Orleans. It\u2019s the 13th and final Final Four for Krzyzewski, as the all-time great will finally call it quits after the season ends. So, while the season isn\u2019t over, it\u2019s certainly drawing to a close, as is the career of the all-time winningest coach in college basketball history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>All the greats of years past will descend upon New Orleans in order to witness Coach K attempt to win his sixth national championship, in his 42nd year as head coach of Duke basketball.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI\u2019m just excited for Coach,\u201d Duke great Carlos Boozer told The Daily Wire. \u201cHe\u2019s been through a lot in his 42 years, very successful of course. But for this team to come together at the right time, playing their best basketball, at the end of the season with Coach K\u2019s last two games, last Final Four. A lot of us are here of course to witness it. I\u2019m just proud of these guys for taking on the pressure. We never had that pressure of Coach K\u2019s last season. We don\u2019t know what that feels like, only those guys in that uniform do. But we\u2019re here to support him, cheer him on, and hopefully celebrate with him on Monday.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The pressure will never be greater, as Duke and North Carolina will face off for the third time this season on Saturday, and for the first time ever in the NCAA tournament. The matchup will be the 258th in the history of the rivalry, and there\u2019s never been more on the line.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI really think each of us was a different team,\u201d Krzyzewski <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/college\/2022\/03\/31\/north-carolina-declared-as-center-of-the-college-basketball-universe\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> at his Tuesday press conference. \u201cWe were different when we played them there (Feb. 5), and so were they. Then we played them here (March 5), they had developed into an outstanding team, and we weren\u2019t at that time. We\u2019re going to have two really good teams play against one another (on Saturday). Whereas, the last two games, we were better than them at that point, and they were better than us at the other point. And, now, we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>They most certainly are different teams.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In their first game, an early February matchup in Chapel Hill, Duke outrebounded North Carolina 40-24, at one point holding a 28-point lead in a 87-67 Blue Devils victory. Junior forward Armando Bacot was held to just 12 points and five rebounds for North Carolina. In their March matchup in Durham, the script was flipped, with Bacot scoring 23 points on 10-11 shooting in a 94-81 North Carolina victory to ruin Coach K\u2019s farewell. Since then, Bacot has been spectacular, grabbing double-digit rebounds in all four of the Tar Heels\u2019 NCAA tournament games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Duke is rolling, boasting a roster with four potential first round draft picks, and a top-five pick in Paolo Banchero.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Boozer thinks his Blue Devils are ready, playing their best basketball of the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThey\u2019re locked in. They\u2019re focused, they\u2019re ready,\u201d Boozer told The Daily Wire. \u201cThey\u2019ve been having great practices, they\u2019re finally completely healthy. Everybody from top to bottom is healthy. So, they\u2019re going into the Final Four the best they\u2019ve played all season.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s college basketball at its finest, with the end of an era potentially one game away. The first two games are a long forgotten memory, but for fans of college basketball, the memories of Saturday\u2019s matchup at the Superdome in New Orleans will last a lifetime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Enter for the chance to hang out with Gina Carano at the premiere of her new Daily Wire movie, Terror on the Prairie! Two lucky Daily Wire members will be given the complete red carpet treatment \u2013 free airfare, hotel, premiere car service, and exclusive merch. Daily Wire members can click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/redcarpet\">here<\/a>\u00a0to enter for a chance to win. If you\u2019re not a Daily Wire member yet, click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dailywire.com\/subscribe\">here<\/a>\u00a0to join us so you can win this once-in-a-lifetime experience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski addressed the fans at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the last time in March, he let the Cameron Crazies know that the loss to North<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1413353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1413353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1413353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1413353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1413353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1413353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}