Duke, Virginia Tech a Sweet 16 rematch that will feature return of key players on both teams
Posted March 29, 2019 12:48 p.m. EDT
Duke went decades without playing an ACC team in the NCAA Tournament, and it will now be doing so for the second straight year, and in the Sweet 16 yet again.
This time it's not Syracuse but Virginia Tech, and this time, Duke will be looking for revenge.
The last time Duke and Virginia Tech faced off was in Blacksburg, and it was Duke's second full game without Zion Williamson. The Hokies prevailed, 77-72.
Of course, it was Virginia Tech's eighth game without point guard Justin Robinson, who finally returned in the first game of the NCAA Tournament for the Hokies.
Both teams have gotten a lift with the return of their stars; both have been undefeated since their respective returns.
But even Virginia Tech players understand a lot of the attention will be focused on Duke getting to play the Hokies again with Williamson in the lineup.
"Our game plan stays the same. Yeah, he's a tremendous player, but it is what it is," Virginia Tech senior Ahmed Hill said.
"We're going to not let the ball get in the paint, make them shoot long, contested 3s, and force turnovers. We're going to limit our turnovers and get great shots."
That is the Hokies' game plan, and it has been all year. One reason they were able to beat Duke is that they turned it over just six times, a season-low (against Duke) 9.5% of their possessions.
The Hokies now have coupled that with their best defensive team under Buzz Williams, one that makes you work for good looks and forces a high turnover percentage (Duke turned it over 12 times, but 19% of its possessions, in the first meeting.)
Duke's defense has been predicated upon forcing turnovers, but Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski says they may not put on quite as much pressure as they would on other teams out of respect for Virginia Tech's backcourt.
"It won't happen as much tomorrow night because you can't do that to them because they can handle it so well, but for a lot of teams, we're able to push their offense a little bit further out and that makes passes longer, passing lanes longer," Krzyzewski said.
"And then one of our strengths is our lateral quickness and length. And it has all the makings of a good defensive team, which overall we've been a really good one."
Duke has, and was at times even without Williamson, who has been a game-changer for Duke on that end of the court.
But against Virginia Tech, they allowed the Hokies to shoot 46% from the field and 62.5% from 2-point range.
It was one of Virginia Tech's worst 3-point shooting games on the year; the Hokies shoot 39.5% from beyond the arc, which is 9th-best nationally.
Still, Williamson - who watched his team lose two of the full games without him and three total - is eager to return for Round 2.
"I'm going to enjoy playing the rematch because it was very unfortunate to see my brothers lose, even though they battled really hard," Williamson said. "I'm just glad to be able to go to war with them. I think I bring a lot to the table obviously. And Virginia Tech is a great team, so they won that game. That's not taking nothing away from them. I think it's going to be a battle."
The Hokies have just one player taller than 6-foot-6 in their regular rotation, and that's Kerry Blackshear, who carried the Hokies in Robinson's absence. He also played very well in the first meeting with Duke, scoring a game-high 23 points on 7 of 16 shooting to go with 10 rebounds.
Williamson will obviously make his life more difficult, but opponents have known all year that Blackshear is Virginia Tech's only post option and it has not mattered.
R.J. Barrett had 21 points to lead Duke in the loss in Blacksburg on 8 of 15 shooting, and he did that in spite of going back and forth to the locker room to deal with a stomach bug in the first half. He played 36 minutes but picked up four fouls and just four rebounds, a low total for him.
Marques Bolden played a great scoring game in Williamson's absence, finishing with 14 points, but he had just two rebounds. Duke had just seven offensive boards against the shorter Hokies.
In spite of getting the win in the first meeting - and having won two in a row against Duke - Williams knows that his Virginia Tech team will be the underdog, both in terms of the on-paper matchups and pure pedigree.
Duke is in its 27th Sweet 16. Virginia Tech is in its second, and first since 1967. The program has just one Elite 8, no Final Fours and obviously no national titles. Duke is going for its sixth.
This is as talented a Duke team as Krzyzewski has had in his recent switch to embracing the 1-and-done player, and Williamson is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of player.
Duke certainly isn't going to overlook anyone after the scare it suffered at the hands of Central Florida. Blackshear is no Tacko Fall - there are no more 7-foot-6 players remaining in the NCAA Tournament - but it was a reminder for Duke that anything can happen on any given night.
But Duke saw how quickly it could all end last Sunday. How quickly an experienced, well-coached team with a player or two knocking down shots and a good defensive scheme can be enough to ruin all their title ambitions.
"They're veterans. They're together. They don't beat themselves. They do not beat themselves," Krzyzewski said of Virginia Tech. "And I really thought, at the end of the season, that there are five teams from our conference that could win the whole thing and the five that I thought are here, are in the Sweet 16."
Just four of those remain after Florida State fell to Gonzaga on Thursday night.
Williams has done a great job in his time in Blacksburg, transforming the basketball program into one that is expected to make the NCAA Tournament now as opposed to one that was often on the fringe or missing it badly.
While Virginia Tech doesn't have a lot of previous NCAA Tournament experience, Williams does - his Marquette teams made the NCAA Tournament in five of six seasons and made the Sweet 16 or better three years in a row from 2011-13.
He knows what he has to do to beat a team like Duke.
"One statistic that's really important in the last three years that we've played Duke, however you can, to have a chance to win, you have to have more field goal attempts, because if you have more field goal attempts that means you're not turning it over for a pick-six on the other end," Williams said.
"A blocked shot in our program is a turnover. So you can't have blocked shots. You can't ave live-ball turnovers. And then the next thing is, which I think is our biggest concern anytime we play a team as talented as they are, we can't give them extra possessions on the offensive glass.
And so one of the things that we monitor every time we play a really good team is how many shots do they have versus how many shots do we have."
Each team had exactly 50 shots in the first meeting, but Virginia Tech got to the foul line 29 times to just 19 for Duke.
In addition to Robinson and Blackshear, Virginia Tech has a likely high NBA Draft pick on its roster in Nickeil Alexander-Walker, an athletic and rangy guard who draws fouls, gets to the basket and shoots 3-pointers well.
Hill had 17 points the first time these two teams met and is one of seven Hokie players who shoot at least 34% from the 3-point line. He ranks second in made 3-pointers on the season with 72, behind Ty Outlaw's 78 (outlaw shoots 45.6% from 3, highest on the team). Outlaw had 17 against Duke in the first meeting and made what would be the game-winning 3-pointer.
And another potential wildcard for Duke will be Cam Reddish. He had 17 points on 6 of 13 shooting to go with six rebounds, tied for a team-high, in the first game against Virginia Tech. He did have four fouls and five turnovers, which has been an issue for him this season.
But Reddish has two turnovers in Duke's last three games and has shot 5 of 10 from beyond the arc, something Duke could desperately use.
This time of year, though, everyone is important. And so is every moment.
"In the last few games, actually, Cam has shot very well. And he stays confident because he is confident and we're confident in him. And we have confidence in him," Krzyzewski said. "But that's why, I know you all get involved with so many stats and whatever, but you have to be who you are in the moment you're in, not the moment you were in.
"And that's what we try to get across to our kids: just play this moment and don't worry about what's happened."
