The Duke Blue Devils took on the Tennessee Volunteers in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament Saturday and put together the worst offensive performance in school history in tournament play.
Tennessee’s defense absolutely stifled Duke all game long, largely dominating the game and cruising to a 65-52 victory. Much of their struggles came due to 15 turnovers in the game.
Their 52 points put up ties the lowest number of points that Duke has ever put up in an NCAA Tournament game. The last time they put up 52 points in a tournament game came in a win over Pennsylvania in 1980. For reference, Duke has made the NCAA Tournament 44 times.
Duke scored only 52 points vs. Tennessee which tied its fewest points scored EVER in an NCAA Tournament game pic.twitter.com/yxClYB46Q6
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 18, 2023
Many around the college basketball world took to social media to offer their opinion on Duke’s extreme offensive struggles.
You, glass half-empty: the banking system is under pressure, the crime rate is rising, inflation is up, the national debt is over $31 trillion, U.S.-China relations are tense, political polarization is sharp.
Me, glass half-full: at least Duke lost in @MarchMadnessMBB. https://t.co/gAxcvHW8zc
— Ajit Pai (@AjitPai) March 18, 2023
Under is now 27-9 (75%) in the tournament.
— Mike Daddino (@mike_daddino) March 18, 2023
Duke had a historic NCAA Tournament loss vs. Tennessee 😳 pic.twitter.com/mqpIqEqR6h
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 18, 2023
Duke played an A- game against Oral Roberts and a D+ against Tennessee. The beauty of this tournament. Gotta bring it every game.
— Sammy P (@spshoot) March 18, 2023
Duke appeared to be affected in a huge way by a massive pre-game injury diagnosis. Starting forward Mark Mitchell was surprisingly taken out of the starting lineup before the game with a knee injury and did not play.
Updated starters:
Roach
Proctor
Whitehead
Filipowski
Lively II(Mitchell is questionable to play- knee)
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) March 18, 2023
It was overall a rocky first season for first-year head coach Jon Scheyer. They came into the tournament with a nine-game winning streak. However, they certainly underperformed against a Tennessee team missing their second-leading scorer Zakai Zeigler, who tore his ACL in February.
They will now look to try and rebuild for the 2023-24 season and likely lose a few players to the NBA next season. Fortunately for them, they have another very talented high-school class already committed to joining the program next year.
