BC Pulls the Upset, Beats Duke 89-84

The Eagles played to their strengths and pulled off a wonderful upset.

We thought about mentioning it in our preview but didn’t. Mention what?

Why Dean Smith’s old observation that you could overcome the loss of a key player for a game or two and might even pull some surprises.

BC sure did.

Despite not having Deontae Hawkins, who is out for the season, the Eagles came right at Duke all day. Ky Bowman finished with 30 points, nine assist and 10 rebounds, just missing a huge triple-double.

Jerome Robinson shot 8-11 and finished with 24. And Jordan Chatman had 22.

BC shot 57.7% from three point range including 73.3% in the first half.

Still, there were three points in the game where we thought Duke had them but the Devils couldn’t deliver a crushing blow.

The first was early. Duke was up 20-15 and we thought that the Blue Devils were in a position to really smite BC early.

Didn’t happen.

Instead of pushing ahead and dominating, Duke let the Eagles stay close. And then they got incredibly hot from outside and started hitting everything.

The second point was early in the second half. The threes weren’t falling as much and BC had foul trouble building and no bench. We thought Duke would push them aside at that point.

Didn’t happen.

And finally, when Duke forged ahead late and was up 79-75, Trevon Duval made a mistake and shot a three.

He’s not a three point shooter and not the guy who should shoot one at that point in a tight game.

BC came back down and hit a three and instead of a six or seven point lead it was a one point game.

From there on, BC really had the advantage and for the first time this season, Duke’s freshmen, so far unflappable, were, well...flapped.

There were a number of mistakes in the closing minutes but the most glaring was when Trevon Duval grabbed Jordan Chatman by his jersey and was called for a flagrant 1.

Duke wanted to foul at that point but certainly didn’t want to give the ball back. They did, and with a pair of free throws to boot.

Game pressure by this point was squarely on Duke and actually it had been for a good while - and for the first time this season, the young Devils didn’t respond well.

We can’t say we were hoping for terminal game pressure, but it’s been looming for several games and frankly, in the long run, it’s going to be good for Duke.

No team is good enough to win on talent alone. That lesson has been relearned many times by programs like UNLV (1991), Michigan (1992 and 1993 in multiple situations) and most recently, Kentucky in 2015.

Talent is essential and no team can do without it. But it’s not everything.

Duke should thank BC for being such excellent teachers. The Eagles played smarter, harder and more together and they didn’t buckle when Duke threatened.

The more talented team rushed and the more talented team made key mistakes.

As we’ve seen over the years, Mike Kryzyzewski isn’t afraid of failure and applies the lessons from losses brilliantly. He’ll have their full attention after this. Let’s see where things go.

Meanwhile, as we’ve said before, we think Jim Christian is a good coach in a tough spot. He nearly did this to UNC two years ago with less talent.

After BC, Duke deserves a cold appraisal of strengths and weaknesses. It is a supremely talented group, but you only get what you earn and there’s no question who earned this win.

BC was better. BC was great.