No. 1 Duke kept its national championship hopes alive on Thursday, but make no mistake, No. 16 Siena had the ACC champions on the rope.
Siena jumped out to a 43-32 lead over Duke thanks to Brendan Coyle and Gavin Doty's 3-point shooting. Luckily for Duke head coach Jon Scheyer, his players managed to turn things around in the second half. Cameron and Cayden Boozer combined for 41 points to power the Blue Devils to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Despite nearly suffering a historic upset, Duke's staff didn't sound too worried about this lackluster performance.
"It's the nature of the tournament," Scheyer told reporters. "I wish it could just be smooth sailing. ... We made some mistakes early that they made us pay for. All of a sudden, you want to win very badly. So, you can start making plays to try to get back in the game that are probably uncharacteristic of who we've been. These guys, the character they showed. ... The toughness down the stretch, I just think that's what this tournament is all about."
© Bob Donnan-Imagn Images.
For what it's worth, Cameron Boozer admit that Duke didn't enter Thursday's game with the right mindset.
"We came out here with the mentality that it was going to be handed to us, and obviously that’s not what happened," Boozer said. "We got punched in the mouth."
Bad look for Jon Scheyer?
What makes that remark from Boozer so alarming is the fact that he's not the only Duke player who exposed the team's coaching staff.
Duke forward Maliq Brown told CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson that he thought Siena would be a "cakewalk" heading into tipoff. Clearly, Scheyer didn't have his players ready to go.
"The fact two players have said this already looks really bad for the coaching staff," one fan said.
"Tells me everything I need to know about Jon Scheyer," another fan commented.
Next up for Duke is a showdown with No. 9 TCU. That game is set to tip off at 5:15 p.m. ET on Saturday.
We'd have to imagine the Blue Devils will be locked in from the very start of Saturday's game.
