Duke basketball hoping players-only meeting can save sinking season

Thursday night in Washington D.C. was just the latest realization that the Duke basketball team is not tough enough at the moment to win in the postseason.

The Blue Devils were soft and showed no hustle against a North Carolina State team that was playing its third game in three days, losing 74-69 and being eliminated from the ACC Tournament.

It was the second straight loss by Duke after being outclassed by North Carolina in the regular season finale in Durham on Saturday night and its season is sinking very quickly. Jon Scheyer's team looked poised to make another first weekend exit in the NCAA Tournament after getting bounced in the Round of 32 last season.

Jeremy Roach, who could be playing his final games in a Blue Devil uniform, is trying to make a last-ditch effort to save the season.

The Duke captain told Kate Rogerson of ABC11 in North Carolina, that he will conduct a players-only meeting when the team arrives back in Durham.

There were also reports that the Blue Devils held a players-only meeting after it lost consecutive games early in the season against Arkansas and Georgia Tech, which immediately sprung an eight game winning streak following the meeting.

Duke can only hope history repeats itself.

Roach has really struggled over the last two games, averaging 9.0 points against the Tar Heels and Wolfpack on a combined 4-for-18 shooting.

In the ACC Tournament loss, he was 1-for-6 with five points and three turnovers.

Duke will likely drop to a 4-seed on Selection Sunday when the NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed and has given itself a much more difficult path to making a deep run in March, although the way this team has played over the last week, a first weekend exit is much more likely than a second weekend berth.