Who? The Blue Devils of Duke.
What? They're named after a French army unit from World War I.
Where? Durham, North Carolina, one of the vertices of the Research Triangle.
When? March 6th, in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Why? Because they won the Atlantic Coast conference tournament.
How? A six-and-a-half minute scoreless stretch for North Carolina was the key to Duke's 81-66 win- that, and 21 points from tournament MVP Jasmine Thomas.
Surprise? Not really. Duke was only the second seed in the ACC tournament by way of a tie-breaker with Miami; they finished tied with the Hurricanes in the regular season.Who's driving this thing, anyway? Joanne P. McCallie, since 2007. Don't worry, she doesn't bite.
RPI: 3
SOS: 2
Record: 29-3 (12-2)
Best win: Texas A&M (H), Xavier (H)
Worst loss: Maryland (A), but it's hard to pick a bad loss for a 3-loss team.
Notable results: Charlotte (W, A, 61-55), Georgia Tech (W, H, 69-32), Connecticut (L, A, 87-51)
This is a Joanne P. McCallie team, and that means that they're going to play very intense defense. Scoring is almost irrelevant- they'd rather hold their opponents to a low-scoring game than get into a shootout. That doesn't mean they can't score, not with senior guard Jasmine Thomas running the offense. One of the best point guards in the college game right now, she's a threat as both a distributor and a scorer. Duke also has strong inside play from senior Krystal Thomas and sophomore Allison Vernerey, and blossoming freshmen in Chelsea Gray and Haley Peters.