By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contributor

Back in my radio days, I interviewed Dick Vitale when he was the coach at the University of Detroit.

Vitale spoke for 9 ½ minutes answering my first question. I tried to squeeze in one more quick question for my 10-minute segment. Alas, Coach Vitale went another 90 seconds.

Ultimately, in the late 70’s, Vitale left coaching. I was not at all surprised when he became “the voice” of college basketball.

After serving 45 years as one of ESPN’s top analysts, Vitale missed two seasons while battling vocal cord cancer, the fourth different kind of cancer he has endured. But Saturday night in Littlejohn Coliseum Dickie V was back sitting courtside with Dave O’Brien and Cory Alexander.

Clemson upset the 12-0 Duke Blue Devils. Clemson players said Vitale’s return inspired them a great deal.

Indeed.

Clemson achieved in ways no other Duke opponent has all season. The Tiger bigs Viktor Lakhin and Ian Schieffelin dominated inside, while Clemson’s guards found driving lanes against one of the best interior defenses in America. Clemson scored a whopping 40 points in the paint while Duke scored just 22.

The Tigers whipped Duke on the boards as well, 36-23. Duke normally outrebounds ACC opponents by 8 per game, and that’s #1 in the league.

Finally, Clemson’s tenacious defense contained star Cooper Flagg and interrupted Duke’s ball movement. Duke was credited with just 9 assists, barely half the Devils’ average of 17.

Duke built a 9-point lead in the first half and stayed in front for the first 7 ½ minutes of the second half. The Blue Devils forced 12 Tiger turnovers and scored a whopping 18 points off those miscues.

Clemson suffered more self-inflicted wounds at the free throw line, making just 13-22. That’s 59% for a team that normally hits 79%.

Also, Duke connected on 12 of 24 threes. How often do you see a team that takes a bunch of shots from beyond the arc and makes half of them, lose the game? Unreal.

But the might of Clemson’s defense was felt inside where Duke normally scores bundles of buckets set up by great passes. On this night, Duke made just 12-31 two-point shots, less than 40% while Clemson made 26-41 from inside the arc for an amazing 64%.

National Player of the Year candidate Cooper Flagg did not have his usual game, in large part due to the defensive work of Schieffelin. Flagg was limited to one assist, and passing is one of the most important things he does to help his team. He scored just four points in the game’s first 34 minutes. But with just six minutes to go, Flagg went to work.

He made two free throws and then buried a three-ball to erase Clemson’s five-point lead. After a three by Tyrese Proctor, who led all Duke scorers with 23 points, Flagg scored on a jump hook. As Lakhin and Chase Hunter traded baskets with Duke, Flagg’s two-pointer put the Blue Devils ahead 64-63. Clemson kept scoring—a runner off the glass by Jaeden Zackery and free throws by Lakhin made it 67-64 Tigers. But Flagg, with Schieffelin draped all over him, hit another three for the equalizer.  Dillon Hunter put Clemson up three with 1:46 to go, but Flagg soared to get an offensive rebound when Proctor suffered a rare miss and was fouled. Flagg, who by now was starting to cramp, used a massage gun on himself briefly and went to the line, making one of two, giving Duke a 71-70 lead with 58 seconds left.

Chase Hunter found yet one more open lane to the basket and hit a layup to put Clemson back up by one. Duke never scored again. Sion James attacked the basket but Lakhin blocked his shot. Flagg got the ball in his hands with less than 20 seconds left and his team trailing by two, but he slipped on a wet spot and was called for traveling.

Clemson coach Brad Brownell handed out doughnuts Saturday morning to students camped out to see the game. The sugar rush perhaps helped lead to a court rush, Duke’s first court storming this season.

Just because Clemson beat Duke doesn’t mean any other ACC team will. Clemson starts four seniors and one junior. Duke starts three freshmen, a junior, and one senior, so the Tigers were the far more experienced team.

And again, Clemson has the size and strength inside to keep 7’2 Khamen Maluach from dominating the paint. Maluach did not score a field goal against the Tigers and blocked only one shot. Normally, Maluach scores 8 points per game and blocks/alters multiple shots.

For the second straight game, Duke did not have the services of Purdue transfer Mason Gillis, due to illness. Gillis’ savvy-he played in last year’s Final Four for the Boilermakers-might have made a difference against the veteran Tiger team.

Still, there’s every reason to believe Duke will bounce back with two wins at home this week.

The 5-8 Cal Bears visit Cameron on Wednesday night. Cal is the worst shooting team in the league, hitting just 39% from the field in conference games. The Bears shoot just 27% from three. The Blue Devils must box out, which they did not do well at Clemson, because Cal really attacks the glass. But Duke should win easily.

Saturday brings the return of former Duke point guard Jaylen Blakes, who of course hit the game-winning shot a couple of weeks ago at Carolina. Blakes has missed the last three games for the Cardinal, due to a head injury. Without Blakes, Stanford narrowly slipped past NC State Saturday 74-73.

If Blakes is cleared to play this game becomes more interesting because Stanford will have more ways to get the ball to superstar big man Maxime Raynaud. Raynaud is a threat to score inside and out and he will challenge Duke defensively.

This game will be televised nationally on ABC. Wouldn’t it be great if Dickie V helped call the game? Vitale’s long love affair with the Cameron Crazies is a matter of record. At this point, however, I have seen no news about where or when Vitale will be commentating again.

Duke’s loss at Clemson means the 1999 Duke team remains the only ACC team to go 16-0 in conference play. That team was the most dominant in league history, winning those 16 games by an average of 24.3 points per game. Yet Duke’99 is not remembered in the same way the school’s five NCAA Championship teams are. I once asked Shane Battier, who starred on that ’99 team, if that group was unfairly overlooked. “Nope,” he said. “Because we didn’t win the big one.”

Duke 2025 can still make ACC history as a one-loss team. Virginia went 17-1 in 2018 when the league had an 18-game season. But the gold standard for the 20-game season is last year’s North Carolina club, which went 17-3.

The Blue Devils should beat that mark. And if everyone stays healthy, this Duke team still has a solid chance to win “the big one.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com