Duke is the unquestioned No. 1 team in college basketball as the NCAA Tournament approaches. The Blue Devils are 28-2 and just clinched the outright ACC Championship with a complete beatdown of NC State on Monday night in Raleigh.
This is, per KenPom, one of the best college basketball teams of all time, led by one of the best freshmen of all time.
And the scariest part is how close Duke came to being even better.
It's a conversation that is making the rounds on social media again because people have forgotten amid Duke's dominance. During the Transfer Portal window, the Blue Devils landed one of the biggest prizes on the market: Washington State wing Cedric Coward, who chose Duke over Alabama.
Coward dealt with injuries a year ago in Pullman that limited him to just six games, but he had proven to be one of the better wings in the country. Unfortunately for Duke, the NBA took notice when Coward went through the draft process. He parlayed a big-time performance at the NBA Combine into staying in the draft and being selected with the No. 11 overall pick by the Memphis Grizzlies.
Coward has put together a good rookie season in Memphis, averaging 13.3 points per game on 47% shooting from the floor on a rebuilding Grizzlies squad.
Now let yourself imagine for a moment Coward playing next to Cameron Boozer.
Duke would have been totally unstoppable if Cedric Coward didn't remain in the NBA Draft
A recent uptick in shooting by Isaiah Evans and Dame Sarr has masked one of Duke's only real weaknesses. The Blue Devils are now 95th in the country in 3-point shooting at 35.5% on the season, a number that is plenty good enough for them to win the National Championship.
Coward would have just erased any real doubt.
Those concerns never would have presented themselves with him in Durham. Across his college career, Coward shot 38.6% from three-point range at both Eastern Washington and Washington State. And just imagine how many more open looks he'd have gotten on kick-out passes from Boozer.
I suppose it was only fair for Coward to bypass Durham for the NBA. He clearly made the right decision. And it has led to at least a little bit of intrigue heading into an NCAA Tournament that would have been a foregone conclusion otherwise.