A few hundred yards from where NC State was busy cutting down the nets, Duke sat in stunned silence. They faced the end of their season, and, for many, the end of their tenure at Duke.
It’s a scene that 67 of the 68 teams that receive bids to March Madness will live through. Eventually, the NCAA representative doesn’t bring the giant bracket into your locker room, so cameras can capture your team representative advancing your school to the next round. Eventually, there won’t be another opponent to get ready for in a ridiculously short time frame. The only last-minute travel plans left to make are the ones that take you back to campus. The odds are overwhelmingly in favor of that happening for every team, meaning the goal of March is really to put off the all-but-inevitable for as long as possible.
The catch is, the closer a team gets to being the one that beats those odds, the harder it is to face the end. For Duke, as well as ACC rivals UNC and Clemson, that moment came last weekend, as the tournament field was cut from 16 to four. The names of the rounds emphasize the feelings surrounding each new elimination cut. The field went from Sweet to Elite to Final.
For Duke, that finality was on full display. Tyrese Proctor sat in the corner of the locker room, his legs up on the bench in front of him, a towel covering his head. Freshman TJ Power sat next to him, realized that no words could help ease the pain of Proctor’s 0-for-9 night in the loss, so he just sat next to his teammate, staring off into the middle distance.
Jeremy Roach returned from the postgame press conference and seemed to crumple into a chair in front of his locker. He put a towel over his own head and sat in a tiny ball.
Eyes gleaming with tears, Jared McCain quietly answered questions from a gaggle of reporters. Eventually, Roach removed the towel and did the same.
“We just weren’t us, today,” he said.
That’s all it takes—one off day, 40 minutes where things don’t quite click, and a team gets sent home to be broken up by the transfer portal, NBA Draft and graduation. Roach’s fourth year at Duke had just ended, one game short of his second Final Four, a second season ended by a Triangle rival.
“I just put my heart and soul in this program,” he said. “Duke gave me everything.”
A few days earlier, UNC faced a similar scene after being eliminated by Alabama in the Sweet 16. Armando Bacot saw the end of his five-year UNC career.
“I’m definitely hurt,” he said. “I think we all are, a little shocked.”
That leaves the two programs that so often had been the last ACC teams dancing, looking at their futures, while NC State is the team going on to the Final Four.
Here’s a look at the changes on the horizon for each of the in-state teams that fell over the weekend.
UNC:
Definitely gone are Bacot, the school’s all-time leading rebounder, as well as one-year grad transfers Cormac Ryan and Paxton Wojcik.
RJ Davis, who won ACC Player of the Year, could return for his fifth COVID year. Our best guess is that he goes out on the ACC POY award season and tries his hand at the next level.
Just about everyone else on the roster faces similar choices, as Hubert Davis will have to re-recruit just about the entire team. Harrison Ingram was a key contributor and could return, but he has options as well. Elliot Cadeau seems a likely candidate to stay, but far from a 100% sure thing.
Seth Trimble, Jae’Lyn Withers and Jalen Washington were all key reserve players but may want to find a spot that offers more playing time.
If a large portion of those players leave, Davis could be back working the transfer portal like last season. He has a strong recruiting class entering in Drake Powell and Ian Jackson. Best case for the Heels would be for Cadeau, Withers, Ingram, Trimble and the freshmen to form the core of an ACC contender.
Duke:
Reserve big man Ryan Young is the only player whose eligibility expired. Roach certainly seemed to be contemplating the end of his Duke career immediately after the game. Center Kyle Filipowski will likely try his chances at the next level, and there’s a good chance that with two 30-point games in March Madness, Jared McCain might as well.
Mark Mitchell and Tyrese Proctor are the two remaining starters. Both could return, but a case could be made that both will be departing as well. There was a minor controversy around Mitchell earlier this season when family members posted messages on social media that some interpreted as being critical of the coaching staff. Proctor may be ready to try his hand at the pros, either in the NBA or overseas, or he may be tempted to transfer to find an offense he feels better showcases his skills.
Regardless, Duke is well positioned to handle a large number of defections, with a six-man signing class that is the top-ranked recruiting haul in the nation.
