Ahead of a heavyweight Elite Eight matchup between No. 1 seed Duke and No. 2 seed UConn on Sunday — arguably the two preeminent programs in the sport right now — you might be drawn to the battle down low between National Player of the Year candidate Cameron Boozer and Tarris Reed Jr., or whether a thin Blue Devils team will be able to keep up with the Huskies’ constant motion on offense. But I’d like to call your attention to an even juicier matchup: Dan Hurley against whichever referees are unfortunate enough to draw this assignment.
Sure, you could say that about pretty much every UConn game; if there’s one thing we’ve learned about Hurley over the years, it’s that his temper only has one setting, and that setting is “screeching rage”. But Sunday has a chance to be his masterpiece, as he goes up against a Duke team that’s already driven far calmer coaches batty so far in this NCAA Tournament.
Inside Duke’s free throw advantage: Foul play or not?
“Duke bias” is a phenomenon pretty much as old as the program itself. Ask anyone who’s had to go up against the Blue Devils in the last 40 years or so, especially in March, and they’ll spend the next 30-60 minutes telling you all about how the refs were in Duke’s pocket.
Sure enough, the calls have begun anew after Jon Scheyer’s team outlasted St. John’s in a physical Sweet 16 clash on Friday night. It seemed like the Red Storm were in control in the second half, but Duke was able to escape with an 80-75 win, in no small part because of a 24-8 advantage in free-throw attempts — the third consecutive game in which they drastically outshot their opponent from the stripe.
| Opponent | Duke free-throw attempts | Opponent free-throw attempts |
|---|---|---|
| Siena | 21 | 6 |
| TCU | 23 | 10 |
| St. John’s | 24 | 8 |
Even in their new one-and-done era, Duke will never get the benefit of the doubt, and I understand why the numbers above would look pretty damning. But as much as I too love to root against the Blue Devils, I feel the need to pour a little bit of cold water on this particular conspiracy…