Originally Posted by
jimsumner
I asked Bubas about this once and he said Duke was too slow to come out and chase State for 40 minutes. Duke had defeated State 82-76 and 71-61 earlier in the season, so it wasn't like Duke was blowing them out. But Sloan evidently thought he couldn't beat Duke straight up.
Other teams had started to hold the ball against Duke late that season, although not to that extent. But Duke beat Wake Forest 50-41, lost to South Carolina 56-50, beat Clemson 43-40 in the opening round of the ACC Tournament.
Bubas rolled the dice that his team would make the plays it needed to make in the final couple of minutes. He lost the gamble.
State played Carolina in the title game the next night and got absolutely mauled.