This was supposed to be when the pressure would mount so high for the Duke Blue Devils. Well, this time, Duke answered any questions with a crazy balanced attack.

Duke really only played 6 players (Theo John got onto the court for 5 minutes as their 7th player). But all 6 of those players scored at least 9 points in a really balanced attack.

AJ Griffin led scoring with 18 points , going 7-9 from the field. Paolo Banchero added 16 and Wendell Moore added 14. Mark Williams went a perfect 6-6 for 12 points. Jeremy Roach had 9 points and Trevor Keels came off the bench to add 9 points. All-in-all, they went 29-53 (54.7%) from the field.

This is made more impressive by the fact that this is the same Arkansas team that shut down Gonzaga with their defense 2 nights ago. We talk about how defenses are dominating this tournament, but I don’t know what you do when you have a team where all 5 players can step up and score. You can’t just decide to stop Banchero – then someone else will beat you.

Arkansas did try to close the gap in the second half, even cutting the lead to 5. But nothing was going to stop the Blue Devils today. They quickly built the lead back to double digits and never looked back.

I am starting to wonder if this story has already been written by the college basketball fates, and we are simply watching the script unfold. This final run broke a tie with legendary coach John Wooden. Coach K now has led the most teams (13) to a Final 4. Let that number just sink in for a moment. Over 30 percent of the seasons that Coach K has coached at Duke have ended in the Final Four.

So amazing. And while I know that Cinderella St. Peter’s will have something to say about it, we are one win away from seeing Coach K get one more chance against North Carolina – with this time, the prize would be playing in the national championship. No offense to the Peacocks, since lets face it, who wouldn’t want to see a 15 seed make it to the Final Four – but think about how much it would mean to college basketball fans if Duke and UNC played in Coach K’s last Final Four.

Congratulations to the ACC champion Duke Blue Devils!!!