What a battle that was, too!
Duke and Baylor, who play Wednesday night in Madison Square Garden, are not exactly historic rivals. We could easily be wrong, but to the best of our recollection, the teams have only played once, in the 2010 NCAA tournament, in the South Region Finals.
Baylor was a tougher out than we expected. It was a big, physical team and they meant business.
But Duke had perhaps Coach K’s most unique team. The backcourt of Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer was rock solid and racked up 49 of Duke’s 78 points. Brian Zoubek was a big, strong center who basically defended, rebounded and then passed the ball out to a three point shooter. Kyle Singler and Lance Thomas were good but not great forwards.
That team had excellent chemistry though and it played together beautifully. And it had to do it to beat Baylor.
This was a tight game that Duke only pulled away from in the last 3 1⁄2 minutes or so. With 3:36 left, the score was tied 61-61. The Blue Devils outscored Baylor from there, building a 10 point lead and winning 78-71 to get back to the Final Four where they would have an epic meeting with Butler to win the 2010 national championship.
