Stock Down: Duke embarrasses itself in blowout loss to NC State
The Duke basketball team put on a lack-luster performance across the board on Wednesday night in a blowout loss against North Carolina State.
No. 6 Duke pulled off the no-show of all no-shows on Wednesday night against North Carolina State.
Actually, the Blue Devils did show up for about five minutes in the second half to get a 23-point deficit down to 11 but then saw the NC State lead balloon back up to 27-points in the closing minutes when then resulted in an 88-66 loss.
More from Ball Durham
- Duke basketball: The architect behind digital dominance
- Duke basketball prioritizing frontcourt prospects in 2025
- Duke basketball: Unmasking the hate for the Blue Devils
- Duke basketball: Countdown to Craziness lands another huge visitor
- Duke basketball fills final open scholarship
The 22-point loss was the worst loss in the Mike Krzyzewski era that Duke suffered against a non-ranked team and you have to go all the way back to 1980 and 1990 to get to the other to 20+ point defeats.
While Duke is still a good team, they are no where near as good as last season where five good minutes and 35 average to below average minutes would win them a game.
This team must try and play a full 40-minutes, something they have not been able to do that often, especially on the road against less than stellar conference teams.
A 22-4 record and 12-3 conference mark is nothing to sneeze about, but when securing the No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament is so important this year so the Blue Devils wouldn’t have to see Louisville or Florida State, the two other powers in the ACC, until the potential championship game.
Duke had the opportunity to control its own destiny to that No. 1 seed in the ACC Tournament and potential the NCAA Tournament but those hopes have been tossed out the window after Wednesday’s embarrassing loss.
The chance is still there for Duke to be atop the ACC in the regular season, with the easiest way coming by the Blue Devils winning out and Louisville falling to Florida State next Monday when the two teams meet for the second time this season.
Duke also can achieve its goals going into the NCAA Tournament by running the table which would most likely result in a No. 2 seed in the East Region with games in Greensboro and Madison Square Garden.
Nonetheless, we divulge in to Duke’s latest loss in which many things did not go right for the team ini navy blue.