By: Brandon Ford
The Story of Heartbreak, Tragedy, and Duke Basketball
As the final buzzer sounded during Lehigh’s 75-70 victory over Duke on March 16th, a Greek tragedy unfolded before our eyes. Duke players, who once had a confident and collected expression on their faces before tip-off, had that look replaced by despair and depression as they realized that their “Jig was Up.” Nobody could defend Duke’s latest tournament disappointment as they did their best Missouri impression. Missouri had lost to Norfolk State earlier in the day.
This, my friends, was the greatest upset in the history of mankind next to the biblical battle of David and Goliath. Much like how Goliath’s “Jig was Up” after David sling shot a rock into his eye, Duke met its David in CJ Mccollum, who torched the Blue Devils for thirty points and led the Mountain Hawks to the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history. Lehigh, a team which had lost to teams like Holy Cross, Bucknell, and American University, defeated the national power house known as Duke.
Look, I know I’m being harsh on Duke and their legions of UNC-hating fans, but something had to be said. They were exposed on national television as a team who did not deserve a #2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. A team that is led by five and four star recruits should not be torched by someone who wasn’t even rated coming out of high school, much less a team that couldn’t even win the Patriot League in the regular season. The loss was so devastating and embarrassing that it drove Austin Rivers to the NBA, even though he isn’t ready. Although to be fair to Duke, when your go-to guy is Mason Plumlee, you really don’t deserve to be a #2 seed. They were over seeded by the selection committee but as a national power, you should never, under any circumstance, lose to Lehigh.
While we are on the topic of “Jigs being up,” I’d like to give a shout out to Perry Jones III of Baylor and Harrison Barnes of North Carolina. Jones has been a massive underachiever in his two years at Baylor and quite frankly, is softer than baby thighs in the post. If Jones played up to his potential, Baylor would have been close to a #1 seed and would probably be in the Final Four right now. Yes, Jones has flashes of greatness, but then again, so did Kwame Brown and Rex Grossman in the NFL. As for Harrison Barnes, he is much more consistent than Jones is, but he didn’t show up in North Carolina’s 80-67 defeat to Kansas on Sunday. His inability to create his own shot limits what he can do on the offensive end of the court and any team who drafts him or Perry Jones will be drafting these guys on potential and not what they’ve done on the court so far in their college career. It would be smart for Harrison Barnes to stay in school another year and learn to create his own shot but then again, since he can’t create his own shot, he might as well create himself as nice bank account by declaring for the NBA Draft and cursing whatever poor team drafts him.
