Duke forward Paolo Banchero calls a timeout against Michigan State during the second half of MSU’s 85-76 loss in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, March 20, 2022, in Greenville, South Carolina.
By Sean Keeley on

Sunday, the Duke Blue Devils kept Coach K’s final season alive by holding off the Michigan State Spartans to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Afterward, star Duke forward Paolo Banchero, who scored 19 points in the victory, made a claim that few college basketball fans could agree with.

Following the 85-76 win, Banchero took to Twitter to play the “nobody believed in us” card that doesn’t work when you were considered one of the best teams in the nation all season long. That’s also probably why he deleted the tweet a short time later.

“they said we weren’t making it out the first weekend…see y’all on the best coast,” he tweeted about his team, who is the 2-seed in their region.

In trying to figure out who “they” were, it’s hard to tell. While Duke may not have been a runaway favorite to make it to the Final Four or send Coach K out with one more national title, they certainly weren’t considered a team likely to lose before making it to the Sweet Sixteen.

Also, it’s Duke. While there were likely some people thinking that Michigan State might be able to pull off the upset given Tom Izzo’s track record in March, it was little surprise to anyone to see the 30-6 Blue Devils advancing to the Sweet 16 in San Francisco, CA.

Naturally, college basketball folks had a good time knocking the star freshman for trying to play the “no one believed in us” card while playing for Duke.

We’ll see if scrappy underdog Duke can survive a little longer when they take on Texas Tech in the Sweet Sixteen next week.

[SI.com]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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