For the first 7.8 games of the 2021-’22 season Duke was the nation’s best college basketball team.
But that most recent seven minutes? A horror show. Up 62-51 over Ohio State with that amount of time left, Duke was outscored 20-4 down the stretch, one miserly field goal and a pair of foul shots over that span.
Lots of things have to go wrong to have that kind of meltdown.
Duke assistant coach Nolan Smith met with the media—virtually—Wednesday afternoon and didn’t hide from any of those shortcomings.
But he also didn’t ignore the obvious fact that this was a young team, losing a tough road game in November.