Meanwhile, the 17,579 witnesses inside CenturyLink Center on Sunday evening will chatter years into the future over their ticket-buying luck at seeing this Midwest Region final because of all the gasps and palpitations and frenzy and quality it provided. And at last, the heavy majority that yearned for the Jayhawks will know their team surmounted a big heap of difficult stuff because they whistled boldly through the corridor of their goblins and haunts, the Elite Eight, and the 85-81 overtime win signaled Kansas could withstand both that and the constellation of stars at Duke.

“It’s hard to describe, man,” said Kansas senior leader Devonte’ Graham, the consensus all-American whose gut the Jayhawks’ Elite Eight losses in 2016 and 2017 had attempted to mangle. Yet describe, the participants did. Blue Devils Coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose record in this oft-torturous round in the NCAA tournament dipped to a still-celestial 12-3 and caused him an ashen final walk down the hallway afterward, called it “an honor to play in this game.” Kansas Coach Bill Self, whose reddened reaction upon the final horn hinted at apparent demon-banishment, called it “a big-boy game” and “two blue bloods that’ll beat each other’s heads in” and “a heavyweight fight” and “the second-best win that we’ve ever had,” after only the 2008 title game against Memphis.

“I would have been proud to coach in that game even if the outcome was different,” he said.

Indeed, Kansas ventures to the third Final Four of Self’s 15 seasons — and its first in six years — by riding a demanding rodeo of a game that played out with ludicrous evenness. Kansas made 30 of 69 field goal attempts; Duke made 30 of 70. Kansas used rebounding by scrapping committee to beat Duke on the boards 47-32; Duke used beyond-freshman moxie from its freshmen to commit only 11 turnovers to 18 from its opponent. Duke sprang for five players in double figures; Kansas presented four with another guy at nine points. Duke giant Wendell Carter Jr. fouled out in overtime; Kansas giant Udoka Azubuike fouled out two minutes before overtime.

Duke (29-8) never led by more than four.

Kansas (31-7) never led by more than seven, and when it did, with 16:06 left, Duke cleaned up most of that in a jiffy.

The Blue Devils received a fine game from their lead star, Marvin Bagley III, with 16 points and 10 rebounds and two assists; the Jayhawks had a soaring game from one of their two lead stars, Malik Newman, the transfer from Mississippi State who scored 32 points, including the paramount shot from the corner with 1:49 left in overtime. Duke had large splashes from its slightly less famous freshmen, Trevon Duval and Gary Trent Jr., who scored 20 and 17 points and also made confident drives; Kansas had shrewd Lagerald Vick operating from the middle of the Duke zone with 14 points, Graham with six assists and six rebounds, and 6-foot-8 senior Svi Mykhailiuk with 11 points and 10 rebounds and pretty damned good defense on the 6-11 Bagley and . . .

And Kansas’s second-biggest shot.

It came with 26 seconds left in regulation, and Mykhailiuk’s audacity in taking it exemplified Kansas’s audacity all told. He had just missed two open three-point shots as things had begun to creak with a hint of familiarity for the Jayhawks. After Duke senior captain Grayson Allen’s four perfect free throws in the penultimate minute pushed the Blue Devils ahead 72-69, Newman missed with 1:05 left, Bagley rebounded, Carter missed with 36 seconds left, 6-9 freshman Silvio De Sousa rebounded, and March had gone into franticness as only March can.

The ball wound up with Mykhailiuk at the right of the top of the key, and his shot sang its way through, tying the score, leaving the whole heaving occasion with the two shots that might hang on in memory.

With the seconds ticking more furiously than normal, the game distilled to Allen against Newman, one-on-one. Newman’s defense excelled. Allen’s move wasn’t bad. He wound up backing off at the left side of the lane and sending up a promising shot that could not seem to help itself from skittering around in fickleness and tantalizing all the spectators.

It rolled off, the horn sounded, and soon Allen’s fine and checkered four-year college career would conclude with him at his locker in a silent room, dutifully answering questions with a skill he had learned to master. “It’s way different than a [regular] loss,” he said, “because with a loss, you know you’ve got something else. There’s two parts in me, one still fighting” for the closing Final Four dream, “and the other, ‘Sorry, it’s done.’ That’s why it’s really hard to grasp.”

In between the fickle ball and that, the teams had insisted upon remaining tied, this time at 78-78, as the two-minute mark of overtime arrived. In tension, Kansas forged beauty. Graham kicked a pass to Vick amid the zone, and Vick, whom Newman credited rightly with “a great job in the middle,” never touched the ground in redirecting that thing hurriedly to the left corner to Newman. Newman had spent much of the game driving with an unafraid abandon because “Coach just told us to keep attacking the zone,” and by getting “paint touches, then the three-point line would open up.”

Here the three-point line opened up, and now he lofted one to try to put a pinnacle on his hot March and let Kansas lead and let Duke chase, let Duke fizzle on offense until the score became 85-78 and let Kansas’s heart both intensify and then leap, all of which happened after that prettiest of shots smashed down.

The post Kansas beats Duke and its Elite Eight demons with an overtime classic appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.

Dan Shulman, Jay Bilas and Maria Taylor will call all the action from Raleigh, N.C., as No. 21 UNC takes on No. 9 Duke during the Sonic Blockbuster on Thursday, Feb. 8 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN). A special edition of ESPN’s College GameDay Covered by State Farmwill also air ahead of the Rivalry Week matchup, beginning at 7 p.m. Game action continues as UCLA faces No. 13 Arizona at 10 p.m., also on ESPN.

A top-5 matchup between No. 3 Purdue and No. 4 Michigan State (4 p.m., ESPN) on Saturday Feb. 10, is one of several highlights on the day’s slate, preceding an in-state rivalry and ACC matchup between Virginia Tech and No. 2 Virginia (6:15 p.m., ESPN).

GameDay will originate from Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, Feb. 10, ahead of the game featuring the Hokies and Cavaliers. The morning show will be live from John Paul Jones Arena, beginning at 11 a.m. on ESPN, followed by an a 6 p.m. edition leading into the game telecast.

Several games during Rivalry Week will be complemented by Above the Rim coverage, which can be viewed via the ESPN App.

Additional Schedule Highlights

• Tigers on the rise – No. 8 Auburn faces Texas A&M on Wednesday, Feb. 7 (9 p.m., ESPN2)
• Kevin Connors shares his Mid-Major Minute– Davidson visits No. 18 Rhode Island on Friday, Feb 9 (7 p.m., ESPN2); Saturday slate on ESPN2 includes San Diego State taking on No. 23 Nevada (8 p.m.), followed by No. 11 Saint Mary’s facing No. 12 Gonzaga (10 p.m.)
• Freshman phenom Trae Young and No. 17 Oklahoma faces Iowa State on Saturday, Feb. 10 (2 p.m., ESPN)
• Next week’s Big Monday and Super Tuesday combine to showcase seven ranked teams
• Other ranked teams playing on ESPN networks include No. 6 Cincinnati, No. 7 Texas Tech, No. 10 Kansas, No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Clemson, No. 19 West Virginia, No. 22 Wichita State, No. 24 Kentucky and No. 25 Miami (Fla.)

The post Men’s College Basketball: Rivalry Week To Feature Duke-UNC in Tobacco Road Showdown on Thursday; College GameDay Makes Stops at UNC and Virginia appeared first on WE SPEAK MEDIA.