Duke overtakes No. 1 seed Houston to make Elite Eight after Cougars’ star Jamal Shead leaves with ankle harm

DALLAS — On one facet of the ground contained in the American Airways Heart late Friday evening, there was jubilation. Duke gamers high-fived one another with grins ear to ear after the No. 4 seed Blue Devils defeated No. 1 seed Houston in a 54-51 stunner to advance to their twenty fourth Elite Eight in program historical past. One Duke workers member dished out a hearty chest bump to overpower Jared McCain in celebration.

On the opposite facet of the ground, there was heartache. Houston guard Emanuel Sharp crouched to his knees at midcourt as the sport — and his season — got here to an abrupt and surprising finish. Cougars guard LJ Cryer’s fingers drooped previous his knees together with his head hung. Then there was fellow teammate Jamal Shead, who injured his ankle with 6:38 remaining within the first half and was unable to return, sitting despondent on the bench together with his head stuffed between his arms and powerless to observe because the clocked hit zeroes after Duke’s game-clinching inbounds. 

One workforce has to win each recreation. One workforce has to lose. That’s how basketball works. However in Duke’s first Candy 16 win of the Jon Scheyer period, profitable with Shead on the sideline was a merciless coincidence that served as a depressing subplot to an in any other case sensible back-and-forth between two elite groups.

“Clearly he is an awesome participant,” mentioned Duke guard Jeremy Roach, who scored all 14 of his factors with Shead sidelined. “He is the guts and soul of the workforce.”

Shead’s injury-prompted sidelining spurred a 13-6 run for Duke to shut the primary half and Houston, simply minutes after the harm and surrendering the lead, by no means led thereafter. He was seen on a stabilization scooter at halftime and underwent testing, which revealed a Grade 4 sprain. 

“I doubt any workforce in America has — possibly (Zach) Edey from Purdue — meaning as a lot to their workforce as Jamal means to this workforce,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson mentioned. “There’s simply not one other Jamal. He was the most effective participant on the ground tonight. He is been the most effective participant on the ground each recreation we have performed this 12 months besides a number of.”

How issues began instructed Houston would possibly effectively be those partying after 40 minutes of basketball. It opened the sport by instantly tossing Duke on the ropes to deflate the world right here in Dallas. And after an 8-0 run to start out the sport, Duke seemed dazed as if it simply took an uppercut straight to the jaw. 

Duke punched again with the stability and poise of a championship workforce, although, overcoming that early deficit and outlasting a dinged-up Cougars workforce that each one season seemed like one of many high three groups within the sport when wholesome.

“You need to present nice poise in these moments,” Scheyer mentioned. “You already know your workforce needs it actually badly, however I am past lucky to have realized from [Mike Krzyzewski] as a participant and as a coach simply the quantity of conditions you are in collectively. I may go on and on. Being down in a recreation, being up, simply studying the way to win, that is the largest factor I’ve realized from him.”

A lot of this Duke workforce was part of Duke’s workforce final 12 months when its season ended vs. Tennessee within the second spherical of the 2023 NCAA Match. That was an eye-opening second for that Duke workforce, and a motivational one for this Duke workforce; Roach mentioned after the sport that Scheyer reminded the Blue devils of that outcome often this season. 

After getting beat up bodily by a troublesome Vols workforce to finish final 12 months, there’s maybe no larger validation than a Candy 16 win one 12 months later towards a Houston workforce that, fingers down, qualifies because the hardest and most bodily in school basketball.

“To start out out that means and simply claw our means again,” Scheyer mentioned, “I believe any questions on their psychological toughness or any questions on their coronary heart, I believe they answered that tonight.”

There are extra questions that must be answered for Duke, which turns round rapidly to play ACC foe NC State at 5:05 p.m. ET Sunday within the South Regional closing. You would possibly keep in mind the final time these two groups performed, NC State eradicated the Blue Devils from ACC Match play — the third of an eight-game (and counting) profitable streak. However this Duke workforce is totally different from that Duke workforce we noticed even two weeks in the past in D.C. It is definitely totally different from the one which fell in need of an NCAA championship final 12 months. 

Now, with a second Remaining 4 berth in three years on the road, it should as soon as once more show it’s title-worthy by confronting head-on a Wolfpack workforce that has proven — this final week and this final month — it’s greater than able to ending Duke’s hopes for a championship.