The NCAA tournament is about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The East Regional is taking place in Washington, DC this weekend and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD is all over it and covering all of the angles so you can look forward to a cascade of coverage in the days ahead. Jon Teitel continues our coverage with a photo essay recap of the Sweet 16 ACC rematch featuring the Hokies vs. the Blue Devils (all of the photos below were taken by HoopsHD, but since the NCAA was kind enough to award us a credential…and to cover our butts, we will extend the courtesy for everything to both the NCAA and CBS Sports just in case).
There was plenty of star power in the audience with the majority of it named David: CNN political analyst David Gregory sat about 5 rows up from center court while billionaire Duke alum David Rubenstein was located right behind the Duke bench (the grey-haired gentleman in the center of this photo):
There was plenty of star power on the court as well with 2 notable absences: no Justin Robinson in the starting lineup for Virginia Tech and no Cam Reddish in the starting lineup for Duke (due to an undisclosed knee injury). Let’s go:
SR SG Ahmed Hill had a birthday the previous week and appeared to keep the celebration going throughout the 1st half: he kept making threes and then turning to the crowd to let them know about it. It did not end well for him…but we will get to that later on:
When Robinson finally checked into the game he received a huge ovation from the anti-Duke crowd. He made an instant impact off the bench with an alleyoop to Hill for a big dunk before making a pair of threes:
Reddish remained on the sideline all night but his 3 fellow super-frosh all made notable 1st half contributions. RJ Barrett only made 1 basket in the 1st half but instead of forcing the issue he focused on the distributing the ball and had 7 AST by halftime:
In contrast, Tre Jones (the regular PG) turned into the 2nd coming of JJ Redick by knocking down 3 after 3 and even mixing in an and-1. I should have had a better idea of his strategy after seeing him warm up outside the 3-PT line:
This was my 1st chance to see Zion Williamson in person and he did not disappoint. He shared a moment early on with uncle Buzz, although it looks like neither of them will be involved when these 2 ACC foes play again next season:
Zion had a tough layup inside, a huge 2-handed follow-dunk of an RJ miss, a 3, and an impossibly-high BLK on a Kerry Blackshear Jr. shot that was somehow NOT called goaltending. The lowlight was when he air-balled a 3 that drove the Hokie crowd wild, but the highlight was when he caught an alleyoop with his back to the basket/rotated 180 degrees in mid-air/laid it in. He can simply do things that most human being cannot do so it is no wonder that he was recently named national POY:
Virginia Tech was up 38-34 at the half and Tom Izzo decided to sit down right in front of me to talk to the Spartan radio crew and do a little scouting since he would be playing the winner of tonight’s game on Sunday:
In contrast, LSU JR SG Skylar Mays came out of the locker room to be consoled by his family/friends (he is the 1 holding his head in his hand in the center of this photo) while wondering how Izzo’s defense was able to hold him to just 7 PTS earlier that evening:
I do not know if Duke alum Grant Hill had to expel some nervous energy but he did feel the need to stand up and stretch his long legs during a Virginia Tech trip to the FT line:
SR SG/SF Ty Outlaw was under a “haze” of suspicion after being cited for marijuana possession the week earlier but after being cleared to play he scored 5 PTS in the 2nd half on a 3 and a layup:
Blackshear kept the Hokies in it until the very end despite playing in obvious pain: after having foot surgery a couple of years ago he is forced to run around the court with his left heel up in the air all game long. He was only 5-14 from the field but made 8 FT and owned Duke inside with an insane 11 offensive REB. Not only did he finish with has 2nd straight double-double against the Blue Devils, he became only the 2nd player since 1995 to have at least 18 PTS/16 REB/5 AST in an NCAA tourney game (Angel Delgado had 24 PTS/23 REB/5 AST in a loss to Kansas last March). Coach K looked very concerned after seeing RJ bent over at the waist in pain but both of them turned out to be just fine:
Barrett overcame his injury by scoring at will in the 2nd half: a layup on the very 1st possession, a bunch of layups including an and-1, and a pull-up jumper off the glass. He also kept finding open teammates and set a new career-high with 11 AST:
Somehow Jones was even better: despite making only 4-25 shots from behind the arc in his previous 5 ACC/NCAA tourney games combined, he finished with a career-high 22 PTS on 5-7 3PM and even out-jumped the 6’10” Blackshear to tip a REB over to Alex O’Connell. The only downside was when he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 30 seconds left and his team up 75-73. Zion continued to dazzle by spinning to the hoops for a series of dunks/layups/finger rolls and slamming home an alley-oop from Jones that caused the crowd to explode:
The Hokies set up an inbounds play for the final second in the hopes of sending it to OT, but Hill could not drop the ball into the hoop despite making a perfect curl to the basket and receiving a great pass. Duke escaped with a 75-73 win as their fans let out a huge sigh of relief:
JR C Marques Bolden only played 20 minutes off the bench but got to do the postgame radio spot due to his all-around play (4 PTS/6 REB/2 BLK):
The line to get into the Duke locker room rivaled that of the halftime restroom line:
I tried to chat with a few of the role players while the superstars and their coach were on the podium:
However, even the law firm of O’Connell/Bolden/DeLaurier was busy consulting with a bunch of potential clients:
Props to Zion for keeping his locker room neat…and props to me for not stealing his jacket (unlike the reporter who stole Tom Brady’s jersey after the Super Bowl!):
Marty Smith had enough juice to schedule a stand-up with the podium players:
I wanted to interview Tre when he was standing by himself after returning to the locker room, but he was spending some face time on his phone with 1 of his loved ones so I just gave him some room to enjoy a semi-private moment:
I also wanted to interview Zion and RJ but the crowd for each was about 5 reporters deep:
That’s all for now, check back later for continuing coverage.