Duke blew UNC out of the water Saturday.
The 2001 season was going very well for Duke until Carlos Boozer got hurt late in the season, breaking his foot in the home finale against Maryland.
Things looked grim for sure, but Mike Krzyzewski was nothing if not resourceful. He rejiggered his team around the perimeter and speed and Duke beat UNC 95-81 to close out the regular season.
Then Duke beat NC State in its ACC Tournament opener, had a classic ACC tourney game against Maryland before seeing the Tar Heels again in the finals.
And in that game, the Blue Devils mopped the floor with the Heels. Duke ran UNC until they were exhausted.
Freshman Chris Duhon said this: “They got exhausted. We could see it in their eyes. We kept pushing and pushing and they finally reached the breaking point. We saw them getting tired and instead of letting them back in the game, we went for the jugular.”
And UNC’s Joe Forte concurred: “This is harder than a two-point loss. We basically got blown out of the building.”
Absolutely did. Duke had a 19-1 run in the first half and was up 50-30 at the half. Interestingly, it was also Coach K’s 600th career win.
