Duke basketball: Blue Devils barely survive widespread venom

One win and a mountain of haters now stand between the all-decade Duke basketball stars and an imaginary trip to the Team of the Decade Final Four.

Survive the hate and advance — a mantra only Duke basketball fans can fully comprehend.

The first two rounds of the ongoing “March Madness” to decide the Team of the Decade all-star squad saw top-seed Duke fight past the haters to edge out No. 16 Murray State and No. 8 Xavier — with a ridiculously low 62 percent of fans’ votes for each matchup.

But the true nailbiter came next. With 52 percent of the votes when the NCAA March Madness Twitter account’s poll closed Sunday morning, the chosen all-decade starting five for the Blue Devils — Nolan Smith, Grayson Allen, Kyle Singler, Zion Williamson, and Jahlil Okafor — held off No. 13 Marquette to advance to the “Elite Eight.”

Sure, the Golden Eagles featured four-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler and reigning Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard. Plus, bracket-creator Andy Katz picked an unfavorable Duke fivesome for this type of competition.

ALSO READ: The 2010-19 all-decade Duke starters plus reserves

All that being said, in real life, Zion and Co. would have undoubtedly used their firepower and strength to wipe the floor with Marquette’s bunch.

Up next for the Blue Devils is a shot to reach the “Final Four” by topping No. 7 Purdue, who advanced to the “Elite Eight” by ousting No. 3 Butler — the scoring prowess of All-American Carsen Edwards surely helped.

However, Singler and Smith already proved to be better than E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson with their 70-57 Sweet Sixteen win over Purdue on the way to Duke’s fourth national championship in 2010. Furthermore, Robbie Hummel proved unable to contain Singler — 20 points, 12 rebounds — at the Big Ten/ACC Challenge in 2008 and would wet his pants at the sight of Zion.

Again, though, the primary obstacles for the Blue Devils are the thousands upon thousands of folks who resent everything about Mike Krzyzewski and all those to have ever played for the all-time winningest college basketball coach.

The Duke-Purdue voting will likely begin on Tuesday with the winner to face the winner of No. 1 UConn and No. 3 Kansas — assuming voters don’t have both squads choke during the final hours of their ongoing matchups against No. 4 Gonzaga and No. 2 Virginia, respectively.

On the other side of the bracket — imaginary games to punch the first two tickets to the “Final Four” should begin Monday — No. 1 Kentucky will face No. 2 North Carolina as No. 2 Michigan State squares off against No. 9 Tennessee.

The Team of the Decade will “cut down nets” on Sept. 6.

Stay tuned to Ball Durham for more updates, analyses, opinions, and predictions concerning all things Duke basketball.