Duke makes Brooklyn feel just like home
TOBACCO Road met Flatbush Avenue with about nine minutes left in Friday night’s ACC Tournament semifinal game between blood rivals Duke and North Carolina.
Frank Jackson had just drained a 3-pointer to give Duke a 66-65 lead after the Blue Devils trailed 61-48 about six minutes earlier. Once Jackson’s 3-pointer went through the net, Barclays Center in Brooklyn might as well have been Greensboro, N.C.
Most of the near sell-out crowd was standing, half of them wearing Carolina Blue and the other half wearing Duke blue. Between chants of “Let’s Go Duke” and “TarrrHeeels,” the noise was deafening.
“It was almost a third-round KO,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of North Carolina’s double-digit lead. “But our guys kept fighting.”
Duke, seeded fifth in the tournament, went on to a 93-83 victory over the top-seeded Tar Heels. Call it an upset if you want, though when these two teams play, seedings and rankings don’t really matter much.
Duke vs. North Carolina in Brooklyn still doesn’t sound quite right. The last time the two teams played in New York was in the 1971 NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden. But it’s clear 46 years later location really doesn’t matter when the Blue Devils and Tar Heels are playing basketball with a spot in the ACC Tournament final on the line.
“It was a big-time game for a while,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams lamented. “And then it got so it was not a big-time game.”
Barclays Center has done its best to make the ACC Tournament feel at home, even if most of the crowd had to put up with a little snow during the day before taking a subway to the game. Call it poetic justice. There’s no sense in hosting a tournament in the East and not give the Southerners a taste of our extended winter.
Anything new is going to take of period of adjustment. Perhaps the ACC followers will bring their coats and gloves with them next year when the tournament returns to Barclays Center. By then, having the ACC in Brooklyn won’t feel so out of place.
Friday night was a huge step in that direction with Duke and North Carolina proving it’s not all about location, location, location. Until Duke pulled away late, it was a terrific game played in a terrific college atmosphere; two powerhouses slugging it out with pride and passion at stake.
You knew it was personal when Duke’s Grayson Allen was booed every time he touched the ball. But Allen kept playing and the Blue Devils kept battling, and soon, it was Allen having the last laugh after scoring 18 points, including 5-of-6 from 3-point range.
“He kept us in it,” Krzyzewski said.
The loss was bitter for Williams, who now is 0-2 against Duke in the ACC Tournament.
“Our whole offense got stagnant and our defense got bad,” Williams said.
The ACC Tournament will never be to this city what the Big East Tournament has been. One feels like a familiar friend you can’t wait to see every year; the other feels like a brief pit stop used to encourage tourism more than tradition.
“I think it’s good for the conference,” former Tar Heel Antawn Jamison, who played at North Carolina from 1995-1998, said before the game. “You had so many people stuck with the idea of it being played in North Carolina. But now you have Miami, Syracuse and Florida State, playing in North Carolina is a big home court advantage for the Carolina teams. I like it moving around; here and maybe Florida just to balance it out.”
The reunions, the routines and the rituals of going to the Big East Tournament have been ingrained during the course of its three-decade history. Playing the ACC Tournament in Brooklyn in like an unexpected treat, especially with Duke playing North Carolina.