Duke Basketball: Blue Devil pals proving positive personalities prevail

Two Duke basketball freshmen share a special bond that wins over fans and may possess the power to dictate the team’s remaining number of wins.

The life of another Duke basketball season was flashing before my eyes.

The top two freshmen scorers in program history, who have worked in tandem to raise the bar for how future Duke players should act on and off the court, were in serious danger of finishing their days as Blue Devils 15 days too soon.

Zion Williamson was standing at the foul line with 14.4 seconds remaining and No. 1-seed Duke trailing No. 9-seed UCF, 76-75, in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 in Columbia, S.C., on Sunday evening.

In his typical fashion, the 6-foot-7, 280-pounder — a gift the future delivered to delight Duke fans — had just attacked the basket with the formidable authority of a ruthless dictator yet the soft finishing touch of a Bob Ross brushstroke. His clutch drive had earned an and-one opportunity while also forcing UCF’s 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall to foul out of the game.

However, knowing that Williamson is a 65-percent foul shooter, I had my doubts that he would tie the score. So, preparing myself for the worst, I thought about how I would feel if a season with so much promise suddenly crashed and burned before the end of the Big Dance’s first weekend.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel at all similar to when each of the previous four freshmen-laden Duke squads came up short of reaching a Final Four. I wasn’t disgusted. Nor despondent. Not even disappointed.

Instead, because of the abundance of positive vibes from the Blue Devils’ feature duo all season, my thoughts were purely sentimental.

I thought about a seed of friendship that Williamson and R.J. Barrett had planted in fertile soil before ever unpacking their bags as new roommates last summer.

My mind flashed back to the friendship taking root before fans’ eyes during the Canada Tour in August (when fellow freshmen Tre Jones and Cam Reddish were out nursing injuries). And I appreciated how the friendship had sprouted ever since.

I thought about all the alley-oops from one to the other — one even off the backboard, requiring the perfect-match pair to act in perfect harmony.

I thought about all the deflections of attention from one to the other during interviews.

All the still-frames of one celebrating a dunk by the other.

All the still-frames of both celebrating a win together, including the one that won the ACC Championship.

All the times they picked each other up off the ground.

All the times they picked up the slack if one was out of the game or having an off night — the latter being few and far between for both (Barrett, the USA Today National Player of the Year, is averaging 22.8 points and is the only major-conference player in the country to have scored at least 13 points in every game this season; Williamson, the ACC Player of the Year and soon-to-be winner of a slew of national awards, is averaging 22.5 points while sporting the nation’s second-best field goal percentage at 68.4).

All the times their bond could have withered but didn’t.

All the times they could have pouted or frowned but chose to smile and forge ahead instead.

Then, as Williamson’s free throw clanged off the front of the rim, momentarily leaving Duke one point shy of forcing overtime, I was thinking about how I simply wasn’t yet ready to say goodbye to the buddies’ budding bond as Blue Devils.

Fortunately, in typical Maple Mamba fashion, Barrett was there to ensure his best-bud-for-life would not have to forever endure what would have been a nightmare what-if resulting from the miss.

The 6-foot-7, 205-pound Canadian hauled in the rebound from Williamson’s missed freebie and — calm as a Canadian driving on snow — delivered the go-ahead, game-winning putback (his first game-winning bucket of the season), finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

Then the basketball gods took over, somehow nudging two attempts from UCF just enough for them to roll off the rim, giving the Blue Devils a 77-76 win.

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Once again, as a pair and not caring at all who received the bulk of the credit, Barrett and Williamson rose to a challenge in the final minutes of a close contest.

By doing so, they kept intact Duke’s 22-game unbeaten streak — in games where all four freshmen have been healthy enough to be in the lineup for both halves — dating back to the loss to Gonzaga in Maui the day before Thanksgiving (when Barrett, whom many accused of playing “hero ball” after he missed four shots in the final minute without once passing, could have displayed a bitter attitude but refused to, hinting at his maturity).

Following the win over UCF, after Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski first emotionally praised the effort of the Knights — coached by former Blue Devil great and assistant Johnny Dawkins and led by his son, Aubrey, who tied Williamson’s game-high 32 points — he summarized one substantial reason the Blue Devils remain in the title hunt:

"“The will to win of Zion and R.J., you can’t measure it.”"

As for the buddies’ shared joy from winning and their level of humility, both are also immeasurable — yet both are clearly visible from their interview with one another in the locker room following the game:

https://twitter.com/DukeMBB/status/1109985750458789889

Duke, now 31-5 overall and four wins away from the program’s sixth title, must now quickly catch its breath and prepare for the next game, hopefully not the last game, on Friday at 9:39 p.m. The Blue Devils must show No. 4-seed Virginia Tech (the third ACC opponent Duke has ever faced in the NCAA Tournament; the previous two, both Duke wins, came against Maryland in 2001 and Syracuse last year) why the regular-season meeting between ACC foes would have ended differently (the Hokies won, 77-72, in Blacksburg on Feb. 26) had Zion not been out of action due to his recovery from the infamous knee sprain he had suffered one week earlier.

Working in the favor of the Blue Devils is that ever-growing friendship between Zion and R.J. — or R.J. and Zion, though neither would care one iota about the listing order — that is now bearing fruits of the Sweet Sixteen variety and seems destined (fingers crossed) to reach its full, magnificent bloom on April 8 in Minneapolis.

Next. Top 10 game-winners of the Coach K era. dark

Whatever the date when this season ends, though, this Duke basketball fan will be forever grateful for having witnessed what has all the makings to always remain the most memorable friendship — due to its bursting with positivity — between two Dukies in program history.

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